unity tries to kill all unity-panel-service processes on startup (even other users’)

[Anders Kaseorg]

Binary package hint: unity

The run_unity function in /usr/bin/unity tries to do:
        subprocess.Popen(["killall", "unity-panel-service"])
If there are other users logged into the system, this spews “Operation not permitted” errors (unless you’re logging in as root, in which case it will probably actually kill every user’s panel process!). The killall should at least be limited by username, and ideally by session as well.

By the way, it’s rather sloppy that wait() isn’t called on that subprocess object; that results in a zombie killall process being leaked:
jarthur 25886 25884 0 01:42 ? 00:00:00 [killall] <defunct>

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: unity 3.8.12-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.39-0.5-generic 2.6.39-rc5
Uname: Linux 2.6.39-0-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: openafs
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,decor,mousepoll,vpswitch,regex,animation,snap,expo,move,compiztoolbox,place,grid,imgpng,gnomecompat,wall,ezoom,workarounds,staticswitcher,resize,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,scale,session,unityshell]
Date: Thu May 5 01:47:46 2011
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Alpha amd64 (20101202)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

I believe this bug to be quite a low priority, though confirming here.

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu. Ubuntu 11.10 reached EOL on May 9, 2013.
See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

Are you facing this bug in any current supported release?

[Anders Kaseorg (andersk)]

The bug remains present as described in saucy.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package unity - 7.1.2+14.04.20140328.1-0ubuntu1

---------------
unity (7.1.2+14.04.20140328.1-0ubuntu1) trusty; urgency=low

  [ Robert Ancell ]
  * Call pam_acct_mgmt and pam_chauthtok when unlocking screen (LP:
    #1296443)

  [ Stephen M. Webb ]
  * restart unity-panel-service for only the current session when
    restarting unity from the command line (LP: #777594)

  [ Brandon Schaefer ]
  * When we see an escape in lockscreen prompt, clear the password. (LP:
    #1292647)

  [ Andrea Azzarone ]
  * Fixes the double lockscreen when switching users. (LP: #1291088)

  [ Marco Trevisan (Treviño) ]
  * Tooltip, QuicklistView: use the decoration shadow radius for
    computing padding (LP: #1291407)
  * 02_unity_setup_text_scale_factor: actually make it working, copy the
    gnome value to unity (LP: #1298492)
  * IconRenderer: scale textures when loading them based on the current
    launcher scaling Add SVG textures for tiles and markers (thanks to
    Matthieu James) to replace .pngs, also make them themable. (LP:
    #1297588)
 -- Ubuntu daily release <email address hidden> Fri, 28 Mar 2014 10:16:02 +0000