crash QUbuntu: Could not create application instance

[Bill Filler]

This crash is occuring when launching the dialer-app during the nightly smoke tests:
http://ci.ubuntu.com/smokeng/trusty/touch/mako/261:20140325.3:20140304/7375/dialer_app/

See the dialer-app.crash file from the above link.

#0 0xb63938e6 in ?? () from /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libc.so.6
#1 0xb63a20fe in raise () from /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libc.so.6
#2 0xb63a4956 in abort () from /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libc.so.6
#3 0xb6c9daea in qt_message_fatal (context=..., message=...) at global/qlogging.cpp:979
#4 QMessageLogger::fatal (this=this@entry=0xbea2041c, msg=0xb4320168 "QUbuntu: Could not create application instance") at global/qlogging.cpp:384
#5 0xb431094c in QUbuntuIntegration::QUbuntuIntegration (this=0xb4707000, input_factory=0x1) at ../../../../../src/platforms/ubuntu/ubuntucommon/integration.cc:75
#6 0xb4311da2 in QUbuntuMirIntegration::QUbuntuMirIntegration (this=0x1d14eb8) at ../../../../../../src/platforms/ubuntu/ubuntumir/ubuntumircommon/integration.cc:39
#7 0xb430c086 in QUbuntuMirClientIntegrationPlugin::create (this=<optimized out>, system=..., paramList=...)
    at ../../../../../../src/platforms/ubuntu/ubuntumir/ubuntumirclient/main.cc:41
#8 0xb6a49910 in loadIntegration (argv=0xbea20774, argc=@0xbea205f4: 1, parameters=..., key=..., loader=0xb6c36b18 <_ZZN12_GLOBAL__N_112Q_QGS_loader13innerFunctionEvE6holder>)
    at kernel/qplatformintegrationfactory.cpp:64
#9 QPlatformIntegrationFactory::create (platform=..., paramList=..., argc=@0xbea205f4: 1, argv=argv@entry=0xbea20774, platformPluginPath=...)
    at kernel/qplatformintegrationfactory.cpp:81
#10 0xb6a501dc in init_platform (argv=0xbea20774, argc=@0xbea205f4: 1, platformThemeName=..., platformPluginPath=..., pluginArgument=...) at kernel/qguiapplication.cpp:897
#11 QGuiApplicationPrivate::createPlatformIntegration (this=<optimized out>) at kernel/qguiapplication.cpp:1039
#12 0xb6a5080a in QGuiApplicationPrivate::createEventDispatcher (this=<optimized out>) at kernel/qguiapplication.cpp:1054
#13 0xb6dcdeec in QCoreApplication::init (this=this@entry=0xbea205fc) at kernel/qcoreapplication.cpp:711
#14 0xb6dcdf6e in QCoreApplication::QCoreApplication (this=0xbea205fc, p=...) at kernel/qcoreapplication.cpp:638
#15 0xb6a51046 in QGuiApplication::QGuiApplication (this=0xbea205fc, argc=@0xbea205f4: 1, argv=0xbea20774, flags=328193) at kernel/qguiapplication.cpp:481
#16 0x0000ae46 in DialerApplication::DialerApplication (this=0xbea205fc, argc=<optimized out>, argv=<optimized out>)
    at /build/buildd/dialer-app-0.1+14.04.20140325/src/dialerapplication.cpp:60
#17 0x0000ac4a in main (argc=1, argv=0xbea20774) at /build/buildd/dialer-app-0.1+14.04.20140325/src/main.cpp:42

[Gerry Boland (gerboland)]

From the unity8.log:

ApplicationManager REJECTED connection from app with pid 4983 as no desktop_file_hint specified

which is the primary cause for this crash. Why unity8/unity-mir is rejecting the connection would need to be determined - it may be a unity-mir bug, else the desktop_file_hint isn't being used correctly

[Gerry Boland (gerboland)]

or upstart-app-launch isn't notifying shell about the app launch in time

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Michael Zanetti (mzanetti)]

Ok, its caused by dialer_app.tests.test_calls.TestCalls.test_incoming

What happens:
* autopilot starts the dialer-app (by system call "/usr/bin/dialer-app --desktop_file_hint=/usr/share/applications/dialer-app.desktop")
* autopilot triggers the incoming call notification and accepts the call
* this causes telephony-service to upstart-app-launch the following url: application:///dialer-app.desktop
* upstart-app-launch doesn't really know about the "manually" launched instance and tries to launch it a second time
* unity8 in turn does reject it because there is already one session for this app

this is not an issue if all instances are launched via upstart-app-launch (hence doesn't happen in real-world scenario)

So I guess the solution is to use upstart-app-launch in dialer-app's autopilot tests.

[Bill Filler (bfiller)]

Makes sense. In fact shouldn't *all* autopilot tests launch apps through upstart-app-launch? It's not specific to dialer-app.

[Thomi Richards (thomir-deactivatedaccount)]

Hi,

Michael's analysis makes sense to me, *but*:

It's the test case that launches dialer-app, not autopilot itself.

The solutionn here is for test authors to call 'self.launch_upstart_application' to launch the apps - this uses upstart app launch, so should solve the problem.

I'm marking the autopilot-qt bug task as invalid, since this really doesn't have anything to do with this project.

Upstart-app-launch support is now in autopilot trunk. If the test cases use the 'launch_upstart_application' (http://unity.ubuntu.com/autopilot/api/testcase.html#autopilot.testcase.AutopilotTestCase.launch_upstart_application) and you still have problems, please open a bug against autopilot itself.

Cheers,

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package dialer-app - 0.1+14.10.20140522-0ubuntu1

---------------
dialer-app (0.1+14.10.20140522-0ubuntu1) utopic; urgency=low

  [ Gustavo Pichorim Boiko ]
  * Use upstart to launch the application to run the tests. (LP:
    #1297900)
 -- Ubuntu daily release <email address hidden> Thu, 22 May 2014 15:45:00 +0000