traceoute6 gives error sendto: Invalid argument

[Rami Lehti]

* Impact
Using IPv6 the routing command returns Invalid argument errors

* Test case
When running the following command all get is an error. (traceroute6.db works)
# traceroute6.iputils 2001:4860:4860::8888
traceroute to 2001:4860:4860::8888 (2001:4860:4860::8888) from 2a00:8780:3:42:b92a:b222:8bed:4a9b, 30 hops max, 24 byte packets
sendto: Invalid argument

* Regression potential
Check that the command behave correclty on IPv4 and IP6 Ips

----------------------------------------------

This seems like a regression of Debian bug https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=843264

Package version installed:
iputils-tracepath 3:20161105-1ubuntu2 amd64

# lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS
Release: 18.04
Codename: bionic

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Ken Sharp (kennybobs)]

This is fixed in Debian and upstream. As this binary is 100% useless, it really needs to be updated.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

The Debian bug referenced is fixed in the version your are using/bionic,
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/iputils/3:20161105-1ubuntu1

Some other change might be required though?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

While reviewing the nominated bugs we decided it would be good to fix but not important enough to rls track it, so tagging rls-bb-notfixing

[Jure Sah (dustwolfy)]

Is there a workaround to get this working in Ubuntu 18.04, until the bug is deemed important enough to actually fix?

[Rami Lehti (rammer)]

You can use the traceroute6 or traceroute from the package traceroute.

On 9.12.2018 12.42, Jure Sah wrote:
> Is there a workaround to get this working in Ubuntu 18.04, until the bug
> is deemed important enough to actually fix?
>

[A. Karl Kornel (akkornel)]

Hello!

I just wanted to chime in: My co-worker and I ran into this exact problem. The `traceroute6` command was giving us "sendto: Invalid argument", and we did not have the `traceroute` package installed. It was only by finding this Launchpad bug that we became aware of the problem, after about half an hour of confusion and web-searching.

One other note: In addition to installing the `traceroute` package, we also had to use `update-alternatives`, so that running traceroute (or traceroute6) would go to the executable provided by the traceroute package.

This was really confusing, so I would like to suggest that some sort of action be taken upstream: Maybe a Release Notes item, or some other way to let sysadmins know that the `traceroute6` executable in the iputils package has an important bug (as per the Debian bug entry), and that the workaround is to install the traceroute package, and then use `update-alternatives` to set traceroute's traceroute6 as the preferred traceroute6.

[Aaron Dudek (adudek16)]

I have hit this issue too. via iputils-tracepath under ubuntu 18.04. There are actually 2 issues with this, one with ipv6 address and the other to an ipv6 hostname.
https://github.com/iputils/iputils/issues/68
https://github.com/iputils/iputils/issues/81

I also do not see how this is fixed in the version when the issue wasn't fixed by the iputils maintainer until after 10 Nov 2016.
This is a new issue that is not fixed in the released version of 18.04 iputils-tracepath or any iptuils utility based on the s20161105 build of iptuils.

[Aaron Dudek (adudek16)]

and no, using the traceroute package does not fix the issue
dudek@test-box:~$ sudo apt-get install traceroute
[sudo] password for adudek:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  traceroute
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
Need to get 45.4 kB of archives.
After this operation, 152 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/universe amd64 traceroute amd64 1:2.1.0-2 [45.4 kB]
Fetched 45.4 kB in 3s (14.3 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package traceroute.
(Reading database ... 103312 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../traceroute_1%3a2.1.0-2_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking traceroute (1:2.1.0-2) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.8.3-2ubuntu0.1) ...
Setting up traceroute (1:2.1.0-2) ...
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/traceroute.db to provide /usr/bin/traceroute (traceroute) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/lft.db to provide /usr/bin/lft (lft) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/traceproto.db to provide /usr/bin/traceproto (traceproto) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/sbin/tcptraceroute.db to provide /usr/sbin/tcptraceroute (tcptraceroute) in auto mode
adudek@test-box:~$ traceroute6 -V
traceroute6 utility, iputils-s20161105
adudek@test-box:~$ traceroute -V
Modern traceroute for Linux, version 2.1.0
Copyright (c) 2016 Dmitry Butskoy, License: GPL v2 or any later
adudek@test-box:~$ traceroute6 2001:4860:4860::8888
traceroute to 2001:4860:4860::8888 (2001:4860:4860::8888) from 2003:8:8:4:20c:29ff:fe59:583c, 30 hops max, 24 byte packets
sendto: Invalid argument
 1 traceroute: wrote 2001:4860:4860::8888 24 chars, ret=-1

adudek@test-box:~$

[Calvin Cheng (calvincheng)]

Yes I also ran into this same problem.

$ traceroute6 -n 2001:4860:4860::8888
traceroute to 2001:4860:4860::8888 (2001:4860:4860::8888) from 2003:XXXXXX, 30 hops max, 24 byte packets
sendto: Invalid argument
 1 traceroute: wrote 2001:4860:4860::8888 24 chars, ret=-1
 *sendto: Invalid argument
traceroute: wrote 2001:4860:4860::8888 24 chars, ret=-1
 *sendto: Invalid argument

$ traceroute6 -V
traceroute6 utility, iputils-s20161105

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS
Release: 18.04
Codename: bionic

$ dpkg-query -s iputils-tracepath
Package: iputils-tracepath
Status: install ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: net

Installed-Size: 76
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <email address hidden>
Architecture: amd64
Source: iputils
Version: 3:20161105-1ubuntu2
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.15), libcap2 (>= 1:2.10), libidn11 (>= 1.13)
Suggests: traceroute
Description: Tools to trace the network path to a remote host
 The tracepath utility is similar to the traceroute utility, but also
 attempts to discover the MTU of the path. Supports IPv4 and IPv6.
Original-Maintainer: Noah Meyerhans <email address hidden>

[Aaron Dudek (adudek16)]

Is there any plan to fix this bug in the 178.04 LTS version?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Could those having the issue try if the deb on https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-desktop/+archive/ubuntu/ppa/+sourcepub/10307594/+listing-archive-extra fixes their issue (I don't know enough ab out IPv6 to have those commands return something else than 'network unreachable')

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

The issue is fixed in the current version, a SRU has been uploaded to bionic now

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

(the ppa build has been deleted since replaced by the SRU)

[Rami Lehti (ramilehti)]

I can confirm that the package linked to in #13 does indeed fix the problem.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Hello Rami, or anyone else affected,

Accepted iputils into bionic-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/iputils/3:20161105-1ubuntu3 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested and change the tag from verification-needed-bionic to verification-done-bionic. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-bionic. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

[Łukasz Zemczak (sil2100)]

All autopkgtests for the newly accepted iputils (3:20161105-1ubuntu3) for bionic have finished running.
There have been regressions in tests triggered by the package. Please visit the sru report page and investigate the failures.

https://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/pending-sru.html#bionic

[Rami Lehti (ramilehti)]

I've tested the 3:20161105-1ubuntu3 version in proposed and it fixes the bug for me. I've changed the tag accordingly.

The Autopkgtest regression report doesn't seem to have anything to do with the package itself. But the testing framework seems to be failing.

[Łukasz Zemczak (sil2100)]

The verification of the Stable Release Update for iputils has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package iputils - 3:20161105-1ubuntu3

---------------
iputils (3:20161105-1ubuntu3) bionic; urgency=medium

  * debian/patches/git_after_free.patch,
    debian/patches/git_routing_ipv6.patch:
    - backport fixes for ipv6 routing commands not working (lp: #1798313)

 -- Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> Fri, 28 Jun 2019 13:05:23 +0200