Comment 10 for bug 336435

I've found a workaround: SSH. I can't imagine why that should make it work, but it does. Using "su - user" also makes it work.

Normally it crashes like this:

christian@omicron ~ $ ~/software/inkscape/bin/inkscape /tmp/sinplot.svg
The program 'inkscape' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadWindow (invalid Window parameter)'.
  (Details: serial 4566 error_code 3 request_code 3 minor_code 0)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
   option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)
christian@omicron ~ $ ssh -Y christian@localhost ~/software/inkscape/bin/inkscape /tmp/sinplot.svg
Password:

After authentication, inkscape opens a window with the sinplot.svg. Everything seems to work.

You can also work around the crash with "su - username", but just "su username" does not work.
christian@omicron ~ $ su christian
Password:
christian@omicron ~ $ ~/software/inkscape/bin/inkscape /tmp/sinplot.svg
The program 'inkscape' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadWindow (invalid Window parameter)'.
  (Details: serial 4566 error_code 3 request_code 3 minor_code 0)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
   option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)
christian@omicron ~ $ exit
christian@omicron ~ $ su - christian
Password:
christian@omicron ~ $ ~/software/inkscape/bin/inkscape /tmp/sinplot.svg

Now inkscape opens a window with the sinplot.svg.