LTSP client can not run local apps after server is shutdown before client logs out when /tmp is not cleared on next boot.

[Frederick J. Henderson]

Hi!

I discovered this bug because of another bug that did not clean /tmp out on each boot.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mountall/+bug/602723

I accidentally shut the server down while on client was still logged in and working. This is possible from the Gnome server login by selecting shutdown. It is not possible if I am logged in and try to shutdown there in tells me I need to give a root password as the system policy prevents shutdown while other users are logged in. That however is another bug report for me to file.

Upon the next boot the only the client that was logged in was no longer able to run some local applications. Other terminal were functioning normally. Other users logging on the client that was not shut down properly had the same problem. For example opera would start but the gui interface would never show. If you try to start Opera twice it pops up a window telling you.

Running ltsp-localapps xterm would start an xterm window, but running either of the commands ps or ls would cause the xterm window to freeze. I could however run top and pwd. Using Ctrl-Alt-F1 to go to the root terminal and I got the same results.

I used the fix in the bug report above so that the /tmp folder would be cleared. Rebooted and everything works as it should.

This is a problem that should be fixed as it is possible for a user to set their /tmp folder to only clear files older that a certain age.

 LTSP needs a way to cleanup its temp files on reboot if they exist in /tmp. I can only image how much grief this would cause a LTSP admin on Lucid when someone accidentally shuts the server down with say 25 client connected and now 25 machine will not run local apps.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: ltsp-server 5.2.1-0ubuntu9
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-23.37-generic 2.6.32.15+drm33.5
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-23-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Wed Jul 7 15:17:00 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100427.1)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: ltsp

[Stéphane Graber (stgraber)]

Just to clarify, after you rebooted your server, did you reboot ALL your thin clients?

LTSP thin clients aren't expected to work after rebooting the server. This is because nbd will have disconnected and the image might have changed on the server side.
In such case, you need to reboot ALL your thin clients so you get a consistent environment again.

[Frederick J. Henderson (frederickjh)]

Hi Stéphane Graber!

Yes I rebooted all the LTSP cilents.

The problem is related to the temporary files that are stored on the server for local apps. If the server was shut down improperly, say as in my case with the clients connected(because of the other bug) the temporary files are not removed. This causes local apps that were running to not start if they are set to only allow one instance as they find their old lock file in the /tmp directory. Other problems may occur with programs.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for ltsp (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Frederick J. Henderson (frederickjh)]

Just wondering if this has been fixed or if no one else has experienced it that it has not been changed in priority. Would be nice to at least see its status changed to confirmed even if it does no get assigned to someone to fix right away. Admittedly this would be low priority as it should rarely occur, but it could be a frustrating experience for a LTSP administrator that does not know about it.