Most recent kernel header update (from a week or so ago) seems to break C/C++ file I/O applications

[B Yoder]

I held off on applying the latest security fixes that were first reported over a week ago, and applied them on 25 Sep 2009. After rebooting, I noticed that my application (which contains extensive low-level file read access) could no longer access indexes/keys (an application abstraction, not part of Ubuntu/Linux/packages) reliably. The exact same unreliable behavior was once seen a few weeks ago when I hadn't been fully rebuilding my application after kernel header updates. To solve that, I fully rebuilt my entire application (over 10 custom libraries internally) and it worked again. The symptoms I am seeing now are (as far as I can tell) identical to those I saw before, and that's why I am guessing that the latest Hardy kernel header updates are not properly matched to the run-time libraries.

Rebuilding the entire application on AIX and RedHat ES yields a fully functional and fully correct program. Only Ubuntu 8.04 x86-64 is no longer usable as a 64-bit C++ development environment for this application.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue Sep 29 12:32:39 2009
Dependencies:

DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.04
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: linux None [modified: /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux.list]
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.6.0_07/jre/bin:/usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.6.0_07/bin:/home/username/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/bin:/home/username/bin:/usr/local/bin/build.tools:.:/usr/lpp/isxdb/framework/bin:/usr/lpp/isxdb/nfip/bin:/usr/lpp/isxdb/migration:/lsip/bin:.
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: linux-meta
Uname: Linux 2.6.24-24-generic x86_64

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

Hi B,

This bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? Can you try with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ .

If it remains an issue, could you run the following command from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p linux 438823

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

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[B Yoder (brian-from-fl)]

I will try the apport-collect command as described above.

However:

1. The failure to build Xalan (see http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1275346 for details) is a show-stopper. I suspect it's because the Debian shell suddenly and (seemingly randomly) deletes environment variables from being passed to subshells, which then breaks the Xalan and Xerces builds. A good friend suggested this, and my subsequent analysis seemed to verify it.

2. I've stopped applying updates because of the failure to boot after one of the updates had forced me to select an older kernel. At this time, my reliably booting older kernel and previously-built-but-cannot-be-rebuilt Xerces and Xalan libraries mean that I am frozen in time on this 8.04 distro.

3. Before I upgrade my (otherwise working well enough, even if not perfectly) machine and find that I am dead in the water (if I can't build Xalan or Xerces I would truly be dead in the water), I need to find another machine to use for upgrade / migration experiments.

I do thank everyone for their support, and I continue to favor Ubuntu, largely because of the dedication of the Cannonical team and of the user community. And it's not anyone's fault here that I cannot obtain access to a second machine to test an upgraded build environment. But if someone could shed some light on my item (1) above (missing env vars in subshells), I would feel a lot safer with an installation of the latest Ubuntu on this machine.

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

This bug report was marked as Incomplete and has not had any updated comments for quite some time. As a result this bug is being closed. Please reopen if this is still an issue in the current Ubuntu release http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download . Also, please be sure to provide any requested information that may have been missing. To reopen the bug, click on the current status under the Status column and change the status back to "New". Thanks.

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