darktable doesn't open GUI if splash screen disabled

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I checked and did not find my issue in the already reported ones

Describe the bug

I run multiple environments for development and testing. I disable the splash screen by default. I start darktable in a terminal the first time and I get no splash screen and a GUI. I import a film roll, then exit darktable. I start darktable again in a terminal and it "hangs" with no GUI. I've tried doing a -d all to see if anything shows up, but I can't see any difference in the log between a startup with the GUI appearing and a startup without.

If darktable hangs at opening the GUI I kill it with kill -9. I then edit the darktablerc and set splash screen to TRUE. I start darktable from the terminal, get a splash screen, then get a GUI. I go to preferences and turn off splash screen and exit darktable. The next time I start I get no GUI, just a hang.

I keep using the word hang, but I don't think darktable is hung. It just hasn't opened the GUI, therefore there is no way to communicate with it.

The other problem is that I don't have a 100% reproducer. I'd seen this back a couple of months ago, but it seemed random and I didn't have a definite reproducer.

I've been doing a lot of work in the last week trying to get the Lua stuff updated for the release and now I'm hitting the problem a lot. I will list the steps for the most frequent reproducer below.

The workaround is enable the splash screen, even though I strongly dislike it.

Steps to reproduce

1. Create a fresh install of darktable.
2. In the config directory, create a darktablerc file with the line show_splash_screen=FALSE
3. Start darktable from the command line
4. Import a folder of images
5. Close darktable
6. Start darktable again from the command line (it may take a couple of times)
7. If you can get it to hang, kill with kill -9 <processid>
8. Edit the darktablerc file and set splash screen to TRUE
9. Start darktable from the command line

Expected behavior

Always start with splash screen disabled

Logfile | Screenshot | Screencast

No response

Commit

No response

Where did you obtain darktable from?

self compiled

darktable version

5.3.0+957

What OS are you using?

Linux

What is the version of your OS?

ubuntu 22.04

Describe your system

i7 12900
32GB
NV 3060

Are you using OpenCL GPU in darktable?

Yes

If yes, what is the GPU card and driver?

3060, Nvidia latest

Please provide additional context if applicable. You can attach files too, but might need to rename to .txt or .zip

No response

Start by reproducing the second launch with show_splash_screen=FALSE in darktablerc on Ubuntu, using the terminal and -d all logging mentioned in the report. Compare startup behavior with the setting enabled and disabled, and use the import-and-restart sequence as the test case. Done means darktable reliably opens its GUI with the splash screen disabled.