System Monitor crashes when lowering nice value of process

[Josh Smith]

Binary package hint: gnome-system-monitor

I tried to change the priority of a process by right clicking > Change Priority
After changing the slider value and clicking the Change Priority value, System Monitor closes.

The crash only occurs when increasing the priority (lowering the nice value). Decreasing priority works as intended.

WORKAROUND:
With gconf-editor, set /apps/gksu/disable-grab to True

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Mar 25 15:15:46 2008
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.04
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/gnome-system-monitor
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
Package: gnome-system-monitor 2.22.0-1ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-system-monitor
Uname: Linux 2.6.24-12-generic i686

[Marcelo Atie (marceloatie)]

I can confirm it

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. However, your crash report is either missing or challenging to deal with as a ".crash" file. Please follow these instuctions to have apport report a new bug about your crash that can be dealt with by the automatic retracer.

If you are using Ubuntu with the Gnome desktop environment - launch nautilus and navigate to your /var/crash directory and double click on the crash report you wish to submit.

I'm closing this bug report since the process outlined above will automatically open a new bug report which can then dealt with more efficiently. Thanks in advance for your cooperation and understanding.

[Josh Smith (saxsux)]

Hi Pedro,
The crash doesn't generated a .crash file - System Monitor just closes.

Here's my terminal output:
The program 'gnome-system-monitor' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadWindow (invalid Window parameter)'.
  (Details: serial 72926 error_code 3 request_code 18 minor_code 0)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
   option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)

If I run "gnome-system-monitor --sync", I get the following:
The program 'gnome-system-monitor' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)'.
  (Details: serial 66834 error_code 8 request_code 1 minor_code 0)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
   option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)

[Marcelo Atie (marceloatie)]

I think that it's happen because users don't have permission to use
"renice", so, it's crash

[Josh Smith (saxsux)]

I seem to recollect System Monitor using gksu when changing process priority in Gutsy. Why doesn't that work in Hardy?

[Marcelo Atie (marceloatie)]

using gksu gnome-system-monitor it's works, because root have privileges to
change any priority, but gksu gnome-system-monitor shows only processes from
from the user that started gnome-system-monitor, so it shows only processes
from root, and not processes from my user, like firefox.
I think that will be good if when trying to change a priority of a process
when user haven't a permission to do it, ask to this user the su password
and change the priority, and when users can't use sudo, show a alert saying
that the user can't do ir because he don't have privileges.

- Sorry For The Bad English -

I Hope Help

[Gadget Boy (gadgetboy99)]

Hi

What I don't understand is : we have privileges to set a process to a lower priority (for instance 5), but when we want to set this process back to 0, we don't have this privilege. Is this normal ?

[Lafa (luis-alves)]

I have same problem.

[Marcelo Atie (marceloatie)]

Gadget Boy,

Confirmed it in my PC too

[starNIX (ben-pregont)]

Confirmed.

[unggnu (unggnu)]

This still happens in final Hardy.

[Götz Christ (g-christ)]

I have the same problem.

Can this issue be related with the change to Policykit? Because in Gutsy, (in general with Gnome 2.20) when someone has not had permissions to change the priority, a message has appeared.

[Jerdsy (jerdsy)]

This is confirmed in Xubuntu Hardy 8.04.

System Monitor quits when the nice value of a process is changed. This functioned properly in Xubuntu and Gnome Gutsy prior to the Hardy upgrade.

[Skeletonix (tomaskloucek)]

I can confirm it too :-(

[TRiSS (triss)]

I can confirm this as well.... The crash only happens when you give a process a lower nice value (requiring root rights) , not when you renice it to a higher value (which can be done without root rights). It seems like there's a problem asking for the user password for the renice, because my taskbar does show a "administrative task" entry, the admin window that should ask the password never appears though, and the gnome-system-monitor closes.

[ghf (ghf-85)]

confirmed

[Thomas Ohms (tohms)]

This can be confirmed.
As I tried to check this I have noticed a strange workaround:

- Go to a directory of your choice (I prefer /usr/src) and run: apt-get source gnome-system-monitor
- Next run: sudo apt-get build-dep gnome-system-monitor
- Go into the created directory usually called "gnome-system-monitor-2.22.0" (if you got an older version you are not up to date!)
- Run the following commands: ./configure --prefix=/usr && make && make install

This should do the trick! Now you can run gnome-system-monitor and if you try to change a forbidden process you'll be informed about it and gsm keeps running.

Actually I have done this to fix the bug, but in a compiled version it doesn't seem to happen. Maybe anyone got an idea of what is going on here - I don't.

Cheers,
Thomas

[Bordiga Giacomo (gbordiga)]

Rebuilding the package with debuild (instead of ./configure && make && make install) makes the bug disappear too.

[s3a (gamingtechnology)]

I use 64 bit and noticed, System Monitor only crashes when you want to make the process have a higher priority. Lower priority works fine.

[Diabolo (diabol0)]

It seems it has problems with raising permissions. Any operation that would require superuser's permission crashes System Monitor. I find it particularly annoying when trying to kill some other user's process.

ATM the only way I know of to get around this bug is to launch SM explicitly with superuser's permissions:

sudo gnome-system-monitor

I have also recompiled the package as mentioned earlier and it seemed to work for a while, but recently the bug has reappeared. This last part is particularly confusing.

[TRiSS (triss)]

at this moment, this bug seems solved, but can't tell since when it started working....

this is on a 64bit hardy...

[Hew (hew)]

I tried to reproduce this on Intrepid yesterday but encountered an apport-crash (bug #250578) which may or may not be related to this issue. Today after some updates (not including g-s-m), I can adjust the nice value just fine. Can someone else confirm their experience on Hardy, and on Intrepid? Thanks in advance.

gnome-system-monitor/intrepid uptodate 2.23.3-0ubuntu1

[Diabolo (diabol0)]

I've checked today on a 32-bit Hardy Heron (g-s-m 2.23.3) and the bug is still there. It still crashes while trying to end other user's task.

[Hew (hew)]

Diabolo: Are you sure you're running g-s-m 2.23.3 on Hardy? That is a version only for Intrepid. Make sure you're only using software from the Hardy repositories.

It would be great if someone could still test this on an up-to-date Intrepid system, or the Intrepid Alpha 3 Live CD once it comes out. Thanks again.

[Diabolo (diabol0)]

Hew: You're obviously right - I've misread the version number. So it's actually g-s-m 2.22.3 (still on 32-bit Hardy Heron), the newest one I got from the official repositories.

[Josh Ancill (mempf)]

Problem appears to be resolved in an up to date Intrepid system.

[Diabolo (diabol0)]

I'm glad to hear that. Is there any chance of backporting the fix to Hardy?

[Hew (hew)]

To get a SRU, we need to find the specific fix that was made. After testing with g-s-m 2.22.3-0ubuntu2 (aka: the Hardy version) on Intrepid, I can report that this issue still does not occur! The fix is therefore in another package.. I'll try some more selective downgrading to Hardy versions, but I don't know how successful this will be. There is a lot of ground to cover.

Marking this is Fix Released, but removing g-s-m as the package affected.

[Makoto (makotothedragon)]

I can confirm this bug, but the weirdest part is as follows:

If I type "gksu gnome-system-monitor", I get the root processes. No surprise there.

If I go back into g-s-m, I can renice things! That's surprising.

If it's fixed in Intrepid, I'd like to see it backported. Seems like something an LTS can't do without.

[Gergely Janossy (marcabru)]

edited@edited:~$ gnome-system-monitor --sync

** (gnome-system-monitor:657): WARNING **: SELinux was found but is not enabled.

The program 'gnome-system-monitor' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)'.
  (Details: serial 55621 error_code 8 request_code 1 minor_code 0)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
   option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)

It's really weird, because I cannot always reproduce this error. Sometimes I get the error, sometimes not.

[Jordan Erickson (lns)]

This bug affects me and my clients as well, as they normally use G-S-M in a Hardy LTSP environment to end misbehaving processes of other users (see duplicate bug #255567). Running G-S-M with gksudo works fine - it would be nice to see PolicyKit integrated into G-S-M and backported to our current LTS version..

---
$ gnome-system-monitor

** (gnome-system-monitor:25877): WARNING **: SELinux was found but is not enabled.

The program 'gnome-system-monitor' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)'.
  (Details: serial 36043 error_code 8 request_code 1 minor_code 0)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
   option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

bug 260931 has a backtrace of the issue, will take it upstream. thanks.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

I've sent this upstream at http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=549760 ; to grab some opinions from the projects authors, thanks.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

May someone submit the ~/.xsession-errors file after reproducing the crash? thanks.

[Jesper Larsen (knorr)]

Doesn't seem to be more info. The file is quite long, but the last entry is provoked by the crash.

[Stumpy (wow-stumpy)]

This is a work round set '/apps/gksu/disable-grab' to true in gconf-editor.

Please note the warning from gconf-editor.
"Whether the keyboard and mouse grabbing should be turned off. This will make it possible for other X applications to listen to keyboard input events, thus making it not possible to shield from malicious applications which may be running."

In reply to https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/hardy/+source/gnome-system-monitor/+bug/206583/comments/30

Nothing weird about that, your password is kept for some time before it gets deleted.
E.G. Do 'sudo gedit' asks for your password give the right password and run 'sudo gedit' again and it will not ask you for your password.

Sorry for my bad English.

[zajca (zajcaa)]

I have the same problem in intrepid ibex, when i try to change nice of process gnome-system-monitor close.

Ubuntu 8.10
AMD seprom procesor
Gnome-system-monitor 2.24.0
Linux 2.6.27-4-generic i686

[zajca (zajcaa)]

sry i forget data from terminal

gnome-system-monitor

** (gnome-system-monitor:4874): WARNING **: SELinux was found but is not enabled.

The program 'gnome-system-monitor' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)'.
  (Details: serial 99246 error_code 8 request_code 1 minor_code 0)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
   option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)

[Hew (hew)]

You're right. This bug had disappeared with Intrepid, but now it's back again. Crashing only occurs when lowering the nice value still, so only when gksu is triggered.

The upstream bug report suggested to change the gconf key /apps/gksu/disable-grab key to True, which correctly stops the crash from occuring (although gksu now has window decoration, another issue). Due to this, I am marking as also affecting gksu.

[Nicola Jelmorini (jelmorini)]

I use Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10 32 bit and I have the same problem when trying to kill a process that don't belong to my user.
For example if I try to kill a root process the system monitor exit and this is the message in a terminal:

nicola@nicola-laptop:~$ gnome-system-monitor

** (gnome-system-monitor:22558): WARNING **: SELinux was found but is not enabled.

The program 'gnome-system-monitor' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)'.
  (Details: serial 1274769 error_code 8 request_code 1 minor_code 0)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
   option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)
nicola@nicola-laptop:~$

[Psy[H[] (vovik-wfa)]

Confirming.

[Psy[H[] (vovik-wfa)]

another workaround is to start gnome-system-monitor with sudo.

[Øyvind Stegard (oyvindstegard)]

Confirming on fully updated Ubuntu Intrepid x86-64.

[Jordan Erickson (lns)]

Please see http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=549760#c6 for another workaround using gconf:

"Setting /apps/gksu/disable-grab to True makes the problem disappear."

Hopefully this sheds some light on the core issue so we can get it fixed for real :)

[Fifoxtasy (philipp-foerster)]

+1 confirming

sudo workaround works

[Hans L (thehans)]

This bug still exists for me on Intrepid 64bit.

Also, something not mentioned in other comments is that when gnome-system-monitor closes, I see a new item in my taskbar that says "Starting Administrative Application", but it goes away after a few seconds, and no window ever shows for it.

[Hew (hew)]

Upstream libgksu as of 2.0.8 contains a fix for the issue. I have filed a merge request at bug 339428.

[A.Kromic (akromic)]

Can confirm it happens on my x86-64 system with Intrepid.

[Hew (hew)]

Tested with libgksu2-0 2.0.9-1ubuntu2 in Jaunty and confirmed the problem has been fixed.

[Leon Kaiser (literalka)]

`With gconf-editor, set /apps/gksu/disable-grab to True' worked for me, though it's a shame I had to do that.

[Psy[H[] (vovik-wfa)]

Bug Still appears in Jaunty.

[Hew (hew)]

Thanks for your comment Psy[H[]. I can confirm the issue you're experiencing in the latest Jaunty, but it appears to be different in several ways, and did not occur previously in Jaunty. I have opened a new bug for this issue at bug #363558.

[Paul Crawford (psc-sat)]

Just found all of you have the same problem as I have just seen on my 8.10 system (32-bit OS, but 64-bit AMD CPU). No crash report, but /var/log/auth.log has this:

paul-ubuntu sudo: pam_unix(sudo:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty= ruser= rhost= user=paul

So clearly lacking in privileges to reduce the 'nice' level. Strikes me as something that should be fixed, even if its just done by a prompt for sudo password to confirm your actions.

[A.Kromic (akromic)]

Stil doesn't work for me in Jaunty.

[Hew (hew)]

Please do not reopen this bug. If you are experiencing a similar problem with g-s-m renice in Jaunty, please see bug 363558.

[SerP (serp2002)]

problem exist on hardy with last updates....

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

dropping milestone for hardy, since there doesn't appear to be any committment to fix this on a particular timetable.

[A.Kromic (akromic)]

Still not solved in Karmic...

[bugreport (reportbug1)]

This bug is in Ubuntu 9.10 with libgksu 2.0.12

Is there a fix for it?

[Paul Crawford (psc-sat)]

Appears fixed in 10.04 release, now you get prompted for your (sudo) password.

[Jens (jens.timmerman)]

tried this in ubuntu 10.10 and 10.04,
it was fixed in both.

[seatsea (seatsea)]

I'm not using Ubuntu for now

On Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 04:20, Bug Watch Updater
<email address hidden>wrote:

> ** Changed in: gnome-system-monitor
> Importance: Unknown => Critical
>
> --
> System Monitor crashes when lowering nice value of process
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/206583
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug (363558).
>
> Status in The GNOME System Monitor: New
> Status in The "gksu" Library: Fix Released
> Status in “gnome-system-monitor” package in Ubuntu: Invalid
> Status in “libgksu” package in Ubuntu: Fix Released
> Status in “gnome-system-monitor” source package in Hardy: Invalid
> Status in “libgksu” source package in Hardy: Triaged
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: gnome-system-monitor
>
> I tried to change the priority of a process by right clicking > Change
> Priority
> After changing the slider value and clicking the Change Priority value,
> System Monitor closes.
>
> The crash only occurs when increasing the priority (lowering the nice
> value). Decreasing priority works as intended.
>
> WORKAROUND:
> With gconf-editor, set /apps/gksu/disable-grab to True
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> Architecture: i386
> Date: Tue Mar 25 15:15:46 2008
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.04
> ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/gnome-system-monitor
> NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
> Package: gnome-system-monitor 2.22.0-1ubuntu1
> PackageArchitecture: i386
> ProcEnviron:
> LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
>
> PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> SourcePackage: gnome-system-monitor
> Uname: Linux 2.6.24-12-generic i686
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-system-monitor/+bug/206583/+subscribe
>

[Jamie Strandboge (jdstrand)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu. hardy has reached EOL
(End of Life) for this package and is no longer supported. As
a result, this bug against hardy is being marked "Won't Fix".
Please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases for currently
supported Ubuntu releases.

Please feel free to report any other bugs you may find.