What the subject line says. This prevents the application from actually appearing on the desktop, although a system monitor shows the app's process running. The 20 second period is 100% repeatable. It makes no difference if the app is compiled with debugging support or without.
Launching the application from the command line has no delay and it functions normally. Other than the delay waiting for GDB to subside, it also functions normally running under the IDE. Actual GDB debugging also appears normal.
The issue only occurs with the application compiled for QT. It does not occur if the application is compiled for GTK2. It makes no difference if the IDE itself is compiled for GTK2 or QT.
Laz 1.2.4 from sourceforge yesterday. Same for FPC 2.6.4. Recent i386 Linux Mint Debian Edition w/XFCE4, fully updated this morning. When that didn't help, pulled in Debian Unstable and further updated. GDB now at 7.7.1-2 (Debian). No change.
I am assuming this is just another GDB problem, but if anyone has an idea or two, I'm all ears.