apport-cli crashed with IOError in mark_report_seen()

[Brian Murray]

Binary package hint: apport

I was trying to submit a crash report about gparted and used what I think is the incorrect command:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ apport-cli _usr_bin_gparted.0.crash

then I received a crash notification about apport-cli.

ProblemType: Crash
Architecture: amd64
CrashReports:
 600:999:999:14922:2007-09-28 20:30:18.358694230 +0000:2007-09-28 20:34:09.575870546 +0000:/var/crash/_usr_bin_apport-cli.999.crash
 600:0:0:1330382:2007-09-28 13:15:48.761822519 +0000:2007-09-28 20:31:30.298793862 +0000:/var/crash/_usr_bin_gparted.0.crash
Date: Fri Sep 28 20:30:18 2007
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 7.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/apport-cli
InterpreterPath: /usr/bin/python2.5
Package: apport 0.97
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcCmdline: /usr/bin/python /usr/bin/apport-cli --crash-file=/var/crash/_usr_bin_gparted.0.crash
ProcCwd: /home/ubuntu
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
PythonArgs: ['/usr/bin/apport-cli', '--crash-file=/var/crash/_usr_bin_gparted.0.crash']
SourcePackage: apport
Title: apport-cli crashed with IOError in mark_report_seen()
Uname: Linux ubuntu 2.6.22-12-generic #1 SMP Sun Sep 23 20:03:18 GMT 2007 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

This is a simple permission error. You need to run it through sudo to process crashes from root process. This is a measure to not leak potentially sensitive data from root processes to users.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

OK, still a cosmetical error, reopening.

[Stéphane Loeuillet (leroutier)]

Got the very same, trying to send a report owned by root as I was a normal user.
It should check for perms, not crash.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Fixed in bzr head.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

apport (0.99) hardy; urgency=low

  * cli/apport-cli, qt4/apport-qt: Fix typo 'send' -> 'sent'.
    (LP: #139288)
  * apport_python_hook.py: Add user info, too. Also add check for this to the
    test suite. (LP: #145109)
  * apport/ui.py, run_crash(): Show a proper UI error message instead of just
    crashing with an exception if the crash report is inaccessible for the
    invoking user. (LP: #146464)
  * apport/crashdb_impl/memory.py: Implement mark_retraced(),
    get_unretraced(), and get_dup_unchecked() for completeness, and define
    _MemoryCrashDBTest also when not running file as __main__. This makes the
    class useful for higher-level test suites. Add test cases for the new
    functions.
  * apport/crashdb_impl/memory.py: Support 'dummy_data' option which adds a
    few dummy crashes by default. This is useful for external test suites
    which cannot otherwise pre-fill the in-memory db. Add checks that this
    works properly.
  * bin/crash-digger: Use self.log() more consistently, and flush stdout in
    log(), so that we do not lose logs on output redirection.
  * Add test-crash-digger: Initial test suite for bin/crash-digger.
  * apport/ui.py, run_crash(): Intercept CRC errors from the info collection
    thread, which happens on broken core dumps. (LP: #132212)
  * cli/apport-cli, ui_present_package_error(): Fix running of dialog, so that
    reporting package problems with apport-cli actually works. (LP: #136369)
  * apport/ui.py, run_crash(): Intercept ENOSPC and present a proper error
    message. (LP: #145100)
  * gtk/apport-gtk.glade: Fix title of upload progress window to comply to
    HIG. Thanks, Bruce Cowan. (LP: #144782)
  * qt4/apport-qt: Fix Unicode <-> UTF-8 conversion. Thanks, Daniel Hahler!
    (LP: #148177)
  * apport/ui.py: Only import xdg.DesktopEntry when a .desktop file has been
    found in the affected package. This avoids the dependency on servers with
    just apport-cli. Thanks, Matthias Gug! (LP: #130013)
  * apport/fileutils.py: Do not fail if there are no packages installed which
    have one or several .desktop files. Thanks, Matthias Gug!

 -- Martin Pitt <email address hidden> Sun, 28 Oct 2007 18:32:07 -0400

[Oumar Aziz OUATTARA (wattazoum)]

Please backport this fix to Gutsy ( see Bug #129146)

Best regards

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Apport notifications are not enabled by default in Gutsy final, and this is neither a serious regression, nor a data loss bug, so this is not appropriate for an SRU.

[Till Ulen (tillulen)]

> apport (0.99) hardy; urgency=low
>
> [...]
>
> * apport/ui.py, run_crash(): Show a proper UI error message instead of just
> crashing with an exception if the crash report is inaccessible for the
> invoking user. (LP: #146464)

The UI error message in apport version 0.103 (ui.py, line 231) does not explain how to report the crash in a process that ran as root. That is a common use case, and novice users don't know they can open a terminal and run something like gksudo gnome-open /var/crash/foobar.0.crash.

Should I open a separate bug report about this UI issue?

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Yes, Alexander opening a separate bug report would be best.

[Till Ulen (tillulen)]

OK, I filed it as bug #198694.