[SRU] logwatch reports false kernel error warning
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
logwatch (Ubuntu) |
Fix Released
|
Low
|
Unassigned | ||
Bionic |
Fix Released
|
Low
|
Bryce Harrington | ||
Cosmic |
Won't Fix
|
Low
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
[Impact]
Logwatch's purpose is to flag important issues for admins to address, so
false positive errors like this one risk obfuscating real errors.
[Test Case]
In an lxd container:
$ now=$(date +"%b %d %T")
$ uptime=$(cat /proc/uptime | cut -d' ' -f1)
$ fake_message=
$ echo "${fake_message}" >> /var/log/kern.log
### Broken behavior:
$ logwatch --service kernel --range Today
(...)
------
WARNING: Kernel Errors Present
RAS: Correctable Errors collector initi ...: 1 Time(s)
------
(...)
### Install fix
$ sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:bryce/
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install logwatch
$ apt-cache policy logwatch | grep Installed:
Installed: 7.4.3+git201612
### Fixed behavior
$ logwatch --service kernel --range Today
$
[Regression Potential]
Since logwatch filters logs for errors pertinent to administrators,
standard things to watch out for are undesired changes in this filtering
behavior, such as flagging or failing to flag issues differently than
before, other than the specific messages being filtered with this
change.
[Fix]
A simple one-line fix to logwatch's kernel script will filter out the
specific error message causing the false positive. This is a backport
of a patch included in upstream's 7.5.0. Disco and eoan already have
this, so it only needs backported to bionic.
[Discussion]
[Original Report]
Since upgrade to 18.04 I get logwatch kernel error warnings about a RAS correctable Errors collector.
WARNING: Kernel Errors Present
RAS: Correctable Errors collector initi ...: 2 Time(s)
I guess logwatch is triggered from the word "Error" which in this case is not an error but the name of the service.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: logwatch 7.4.3+git201612
ProcVersionSign
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-36-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.4
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Oct 15 07:57:21 2018
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-09-06 (2229 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 12.04.1 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120817.3)
PackageArchitec
SourcePackage: logwatch
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to bionic on 2018-10-11 (3 days ago)
Related branches
- Christian Ehrhardt (community): Approve
- Canonical Server packageset reviewers: Pending requested
- Canonical Server: Pending requested
-
Diff: 63 lines (+41/-0)3 files modifieddebian/changelog (+8/-0)
debian/patches/ignore-ras-correctable-errors.patch (+31/-0)
debian/patches/series (+2/-0)
tags: | added: patch |
tags: | added: server-next |
Changed in logwatch (Ubuntu Bionic): | |
status: | New → Triaged |
Changed in logwatch (Ubuntu Cosmic): | |
status: | New → Triaged |
importance: | Undecided → Low |
Changed in logwatch (Ubuntu Bionic): | |
importance: | Undecided → Low |
description: | updated |
description: | updated |
tags: | added: verification-done-bionic |
tags: |
added: verification-done removed: verification-done-bionic |
tags: | removed: verification-needed-bionic |
tags: |
added: verification-done-bionic removed: verification-done |
Thanks for filing this bug in Ubuntu.
I've seen this warning too.