(Kubuntu Intrepid) KMail crashes when I create a new message and try to access the body of the message

[1cewolf]

This one's pretty simple. Whenever I go to write a new e-mail and try to access the body of the message, whether by clicking on it or "tabbing" in to it, KMail crashes.

This behavior is NOT exhibited with existing e-mails, IE when trying to reply/forward.

[Yannig (yannig-perre)]

Version: 1.10.0 (using KDE 4.1.0)
Installed from: Ubuntu Packages
OS: Linux

When I try to compose an new message with kmail (either embedded in kontact or in stand alone), the application freeze and kmail get 100% of CPU.

Here is a backtrace of kmail when I get this hang (no crash) :

(gdb) bt
#0 0xb66c4d2c in strcmp () from /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6
#1 0xb722191b in qstrcmp (str1=0x811b7e8 "MessageTag #0", str2=0x811b7f0 "ag #0") at tools/qbytearray.cpp:207
#2 0xb748783e in operator< (k1=@0x811b9a8, k2=@0xbfa6ffe4) at /build/buildd/kde4libs-4.1.0/kdecore/config/kconfigdata.h:106
#3 0xb74878c8 in qMapLessThanKey<KEntryKey> (key1=@0x811b9a8, key2=@0xbfa6ffe4) at /usr/include/qt4/QtCore/qmap.h:106
#4 0xb74879cc in QMap<KEntryKey, KEntry>::findNode (this=0x80db138, akey=@0xbfa6ffe4) at /usr/include/qt4/QtCore/qmap.h:428
#5 0xb7488979 in QMap<KEntryKey, KEntry>::find (this=0x80db138, akey=@0xbfa6ffe4) at /usr/include/qt4/QtCore/qmap.h:562
#6 0xb7488a8f in KEntryMap::findEntry (this=0x80db138, group=@0xbfa70284, key=@0xbfa70208, flags=@0xbfa700b4) at /build/buildd/kde4libs-4.1.0/kdecore/config/kconfigdata.h:164
#7 0xb7488c2e in KEntryMap::setEntry (this=0x80db138, group=@0xbfa70284, key=@0xbfa70208, value=@0xbfa70204, options=@0xbfa70200)
    at /build/buildd/kde4libs-4.1.0/kdecore/config/kconfigdata.h:198
#8 0xb7499bc0 in KConfigIniBackend::parseConfig (this=0x80dc7d0, currentLocale=@0xbfa70378, entryMap=@0x80db138, options=@0xbfa702d0, merging=false)
    at /build/buildd/kde4libs-4.1.0/kdecore/config/kconfigini.cpp:252
#9 0xb749a48e in KConfigIniBackend::parseConfig (this=0x80dc7d0, currentLocale=@0xbfa70378, entryMap=@0x80db138, options=@0xbfa7036c)
    at /build/buildd/kde4libs-4.1.0/kdecore/config/kconfigini.cpp:66
#10 0xb74830cf in KConfigPrivate::parseConfigFiles (this=0x80db120) at /build/buildd/kde4libs-4.1.0/kdecore/config/kconfig.cpp:506 ...

[Jools Wills (jools)]

I am also having the same problem. I can reply to messages fine, but making a new message, kmail will hang/freeze as soon as I click in the body part of the mail.

Qt: 4.4.2
KDE: 4.1.1 (KDE 4.1.1)
KMail: 1.10.1

[Clay Weber (claydoh-u)]

I am seeing this now as well anytime I try to either compose a new mail or reply

kmail 1.10.1
KDE 4.1.1
Qt 4.4.2
Kubuntu Intrepid 8.10 packages

[Troy Carpenter (troy-carpenter)]

Same here. Anytime I compose, reply or forward a message, instant crash.

I am using Kontact with a Kolab server. I have my main account as an IMAP account and the Kolab info as a disconnected IMAP account (The standard way the Groupware Wizard configures Kontact). I have another standard IAMP account provisioned as well.

kmail 1.10.1
KDE 4.1.1
Qt 4.4.2
Kubuntu Intrepid 8.10 packages

[Clay Weber (claydoh)]

I am seeing this as well, both composing, replying, and for forwarding as well.

I have recreated my email settings on a clean Intrepid install with the same results.

[Jools Wills (jools)]

I can also confirm this bug. Makes kmail rather unusable!

[Jools Wills (jools)]

There is an upstream bug about this, but I'm not sure much attention has been paid to it by any kde devs (lost in the sea of kde bugs!).

I notice a fair few people in the kde bug are running intrepid, so I don't know if this is just a kubuntu bug, or an actual kde bug. But it certainly is an important one!

[Jools Wills (jools)]

I forgot the link. sorry

http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=168245

[Clay Weber (claydoh)]

This problem disappeared for me over the weekend, but has returned today after the 4.1.2 update

Is there anyway to get info on what is happening here?

[Clay Weber (claydoh)]

I can compose a new message if I open a composer window by itself (with kmail either closed or running)

kmail openComposer

[1cewolf (zeratul-zoominternet)]

I tried running opening a composer window by itself with the same results. There must be something that sets it off when you use KMail to open a new message window.

I agree that this is a very important bug to fix. Kubuntu has an image problem as it is and something like this making it through would only make things worse.

[Harald Sitter (apachelogger)]

For some reason myspell-en-gb/huspell-en-us are not installed properly.
Only the symbolic links are available, kmail tries to open the link and stumbles because the real file is not available.
Moving the bug to openoffice.org-dictionaries, since I don't have time to check it's packaging right now. Importance Critical, Milestone 8.10.

[Harald Sitter (apachelogger)]

Attaching a log of the investigation.

[Roderick B. Greening (roderick-greening)]

There are two issues here:

1) what is causing missing files in the dict packages. Personally, I cannot duplicate the situation, having re-installed the dictionaries. However, having packages sometimes not install correctly is a problem. Not sure how to combat that issue. Possibly a dpkg/apt command that could verify files exist. This would prove the integrity of the system (something like a fsck for installed packages), Anyway, rambling....

2) kmail should not crash on attempting to read a symlink. It should be graceful and report that the language pack is either corrupt or possibly missing. It should try working in the default locale/language anyway. (IMHO). So, I would call this at least related to kdepim/kmail in how it handles the exception - i.e. Not at all gracefully.

[Clay Weber (claydoh-u)]

Some information discovered from Launchpad:
https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kdepim/+bug/275218

It looks like kmail is choking on a broken myspell-en-us/hunspell-en-us installation in Intrepid - symlinks are present, but their targets are not

A workaround I used was to re-install hunspell-en-us (or myspell-en-us if thats what you have)

[Troy Carpenter (troy-carpenter)]

Confirmed that installing myspell-en-us fixed the problem.

[1cewolf (zeratul-zoominternet)]

It looks like this problem has been corrected. I tried creating a new message within KMail and accessing the body of the message just now and no crash occurred. Can someone else confirm this?

[Chris Cheney (ccheney)]

hunspell-en-us has not been changed in months so its unlikely it is the cause or almost everyone would be seeing this issue, there might be some kind of weird dpkg issue though.

[Harald Sitter (apachelogger)]

We just noticed a similar problem with the language packs. Somehow ubiquity messes up and creates the issues described above (in case of language packs you end up with an untranslated desktop). I have been told a fix is to be expected in 8.10 final, so I am going to mark this bug as incomplete, and if there shouldn't be any reports about this within the next couple of weeks we can probably close it as fixed.

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

Assuming fixed.

[Dario Andres (andresbajotierra)]

Have anyone experienced this bug again using a recent KDE (4.1.4 / 4.2beta2 / 4.2rc1 / 4.2svn / 4.3svn) ? (besides the Ubuntu Intrepid specific thing)
Thanks :)

[Jtamate (jtamate)]

Waiting for an answer.

[Myriam Schweingruber (myriam)]

Closing based on comment #5