Apport works poorly when there is no internet access

[Jeff Lane ]

I attemted to use apport to file a bug against the kernel today like so:

apport-bug --save=filename linux

and got the following error:

*** Problem in linux
The problem cannot be reported

This is not an official Ubuntu package. Please remove any third party package and try again.

This was seen on a fresh, STOCK install of 12.04.4 amd64 server, with NO 3rd party packages installed.

This same error occurred for the following package names:

linux
linux-image-generic
linux-image-3.11.0-15-generic

This makes it rather impossible to file kernel bugs against 12.04.4.

[Jeff Lane  (bladernr)]

tagging this to app or as well because I'm not sure if this is an apport issue or a packaging issue with 12.04.4

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. From a terminal window please run:

apport-collect 1291662

and then change the status of the bug to 'Confirmed'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Can you please give me the output of

   apt-cache policy linux-image-`uname -r`

? Thanks!

[Jeff Lane  (bladernr)]

pitti:
Installed: 3.11.0-15.25~precise1
Candidate: 3.11.0-15.25~precise1

I know what causes this now. I can recreate this on a virtualbox VM using hte following steps:

Disable all network ports on VM
Install 12.04.4 via ISO image to VM
After install, log in
run apport-bug --save filename linux

and you'll get the errors noted in the original.

I'm doing some test work at a customer site where internet access is forbidden. So while my test servers DO have active network cards, they have no access to the internet.

At a guess, I'm thinking perhaps apport can't check the package vs the repo at archive.ubuntu.com and thus claims that the linux packages are not "Real Ubuntu Packages"

If I do the same steps above, but with an active network connection to the internet, apport works fine.

Given that we in cert do a LOT of work inside labs where you're not allowed to connect to the internet, this can be a real problem. (same goes for OEM engineers who work every day inside those same types of labs)

[Jeff Lane  (bladernr)]

Now I'm thinking this is more an apport problem than a kernel problem. Sound reasonable?

[Tim Gardner (timg-tpi)]

This does not appear to be a kernel problem.

[Jeff Lane  (bladernr)]

I have now changed the title of this to be more clear. It now seems that apport just does not work when there's no Internet.

Today I'm back in the customer lab attempting to collect data for a bug using apport-collect. As I have no internet connection, apport fails at this as well. With NO option to save the collected data for future upload.

Apport says:

ERROR: connecting to Launchpad failed: Unable to find the server at launchpad.net

The only options for apport-collect are --tag and --package.

[Marcus Tomlinson (marcustomlinson)]

This release of Ubuntu is no longer receiving maintenance updates. If this is still an issue on a maintained version of Ubuntu please let us know.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for apport (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]