It looks like this error message is logged whenever a text with zero length is about to be rendered and drawn. I.e. text containing "\n\n".

The error is logged in get_image_surface() which is called through these functions (call stack):

jive_surface.c - get_image_surface()
jive_surface.c - _resolve_SDL_surface()
jive_surface.c - jive_surface_blit()
jive_textarea.c - jiveL_textarea_draw()

Since everything seems to work despite this error being logged I could see three possible solutions:

1. Remove the error log or at least reduce it to a warning

2. Have jive_font_draw_text() return NULL for surface if text length is 0 and then do not call jive_surface_blit() since there is nothing to draw.

3. Check for text length and if the length is 0 do not call jive_font_draw_text() etc. at all as there is nothing to draw.

The attached patch does the third variant, but I am not sure that is the correct solution.