[mapserver-users] "mapscript.imageObj(): is severely broken and should not be used" after upgrade from 6.0.1 to 6.2.1/6.4.0

[Tim Banchi]

Hello,

with the upate from ubuntu 13.04 to 13.10 the package python-mapscript 
moved from 6.0.1 to 6.2.1. Since then I get the the following runtime error:

img = mapscript.imageObj(fname)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/mapscript.py", line 1324, in __init__
this = _mapscript.new_imageObj(*args)
MapServerError: imageObj(): Image handling error. imageObj() is severely broken and should not be used


The mapscript API suggests that mapscript.imageObj could be used 
normally. So I added the ubuntugis-unstable repository and updated 
python-mapscript to 6.4.0, but the error stays.

I didn't find anything usefull searching the internet for this error 
message, so I wonder whether imageObj is really broken or whether the 
error is caused by something else?
I'm not busy with mapscript, I have to maintain the program where 
mapscript is part of. Can I use another function instead 
mapscript.imageObj which gives me back an image object?

The function where mapscript.imageObj(fname) is invocated is as follows:

def load_custom_symbols(self):
         lst_symbols = [ os.path.splitext(x) for x in
                         os.listdir(os.path.join(os.getcwd(), "_symbols")) ]

         for symbol, ext in lst_symbols:
             if ext == ".png":
                 fname = os.path.join(os.getcwd(), "_symbols", 
"".join([symbol, ext]))
                 symbol = mapscript.symbolObj(symbol)
                 img = mapscript.imageObj(fname)
                 symbol.type = mapscript.MS_SYMBOL_PIXMAP
                 symbol.setImage(img)
                 self.map.symbolset.appendSymbol(symbol)

Thanks!
Tim