Add/Remove programs crashed on Feisty

[Denis Fuenzalida]

Binary package hint: gnome-app-install

Installed Feisty (etch 2) into a virtual machine (QEMU) without problems. Updated the packages as suggested.

While trying to Add/Remove programs from the Applications menu, the Add/Remove Apps dialog crashed.

The crash dump file is attached.

[Denis Fuenzalida (denis-fuenzalida)]

Running from a terminal, prints the following:

Introspect error: The name org.freedesktop.AppInstall was not provided by any .service files
no listening object (The name org.freedesktop.AppInstall was not provided by any .service files)

** (gnome-app-install:6500): WARNING **: return value of custom widget handler was not a GtkWidget
/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/AppInstall/Menu.py:94: DeprecationWarning: The sre module is deprecated, please import re.
  self.pickle = cPickle.load(open("%s/menu.p" % cachedir))
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/gnome-app-install", line 141, in <module>
    sys.argv, mime_search=msi)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/AppInstall/AppInstall.py", line 230, in __init__
    self.updateCache(filter_to_restore)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/AppInstall/AppInstall.py", line 804, in updateCache
    progress, filter)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/AppInstall/Menu.py", line 94, in __init__
    self.pickle = cPickle.load(open("%s/menu.p" % cachedir))
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute '_compile'

----

Python version:
Python 2.5 (release25-maint, Jan 15 2007, 20:25:01)
[GCC 4.1.2 20070106 (prerelease) (Ubuntu 4.1.1-21ubuntu7)] on linux2

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Thanks for your bugreport.

This should be fixed with the latest python-dbus package. Could you please install it and see if that fixes the issue?

Thanks,
 Michael

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

I have spoken too early, this bug is not related to the python-dbus problem (a speperate bug).

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Added a python2.5 task as it seems like python2.4 generated pickle files can't be read by python2.5 anymore.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Ok, I can reproduce the problem here just fine with the following command:

$ sudo python2.4 /usr/sbin/update-app-install ; gnome-app-install
and it crashes reliable

$ sudo python2.5 /usr/sbin/update-app-install ; gnome-app-install
and it works fine.

The code builds a medium complex pickle.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Please note that this is a different bug than #74773. This one is a pickle problem, the other one is a python-dbus error.

[dloewi (dloewi)]

more or less same experience for me. I installed Feisty in a virtual machine under vmware server 1.0.1, ran updates successfully, then attempted add/remove for other programs. it crashes after a few seconds, just long enough to show splash screen...

file attached below

[BrettLee (brett-brown)]

Ok. I think I'm fixed. I ran:

$ sudo python2.5 /usr/sbin/update-app-install ; gnome-app-install

and it works fine.

I'm posting on the python-dbus bug error page. I'm new to this so sorry for my confusion.

[Christof Krüger (christofkr)]

I had the same problem. I don't know if this happenede because I upgraded to a dev version of ubuntu and if this problem would not occur for updates to the release version of feisty.
Nevertheless, if the pickle-file is corrupt for whatever reason, it would be nice if gnome-app-install would recover from that error. The attached patch should do the job.

[Jonah (jonah)]

add remove also wont open for me on feisty. i'm on amd64 and here's my crash report attached

[ville palo (vi64pa)]

Same here

[Jan-Erik van de Pol (pollypicasso-deactivatedaccount)]

Same here,

I have a fresh install of feisty herd 2 (downloaded 30min. ago) and also "add/remove ..." didn't work.

[Jorge Azevedo (jmmazevedo)]

Same mistake

when I run

$ sudo python2.5 /usr/sbin/update-app-install ; gnome-app-install

I get the following messageCaching application data...
Generating mime/codec maps...
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/gnome-app-install", line 208, in <module>
    from AppInstall.AppInstall import AppInstall
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/AppInstall/AppInstall.py", line 63, in <module>
    from UpdateManager.Common.aptsources import SourcesList, is_mirror
ImportError: No module named UpdateManager.Common.aptsources

[Jonh Wendell (wendell)]

Problem solved with last update (version 0.3.6).

I guess we can close this one, right, Michael?

[Christof Krüger (christofkr)]

Unfortunately, I failed to backup the "menu.p" pickle file that triggered this bug so I can't tell if the new release fixed the bug. Forcing update-app-install as root seems to recreate the menu.p file so that it works again, so maybe the actual bug was that this has not been forced after transition from edgy to feisty.

Nevertheless, if the menu.p is corrupt for some reason, gnome-app-install does not handle it and crashes. This is never good. See my patch above for a fix.

[Denis Fuenzalida (denis-fuenzalida)]

Hi,

Just a quick note: the lastest update to gnome-app-install version 0.3.6 fixed the problem.

$ sudo apt-get install gnome-app-install

[Constantine Evans (cevans)]

Denis, Jonh just said that two comments ago, and the status is Fix Released. Also, I think it is safe to assume that people here know how to use apt.

As for the patch, I agree with Christof here - even if the problem isn't occurring any more, the patch should still be applied, since it would prevent a whole class of possible bugs where the pickle file was corrupted.

Is there some reason for not applying the patch, besides the obvious reason that it would be a change to the code?

[Denis Fuenzalida (denis-fuenzalida)]

No, there's no reason for not applying the patch, IMHO it's clear and
safe enough to me (without being a developer/packager of that
package).

Regards,

Denis

2007/1/21, Constantine Evans <email address hidden>:
> Denis, Jonh just said that two comments ago, and the status is Fix
> Released. Also, I think it is safe to assume that people here know how
> to use apt.
>
> As for the patch, I agree with Christof here - even if the problem isn't
> occurring any more, the patch should still be applied, since it would
> prevent a whole class of possible bugs where the pickle file was
> corrupted.
>
> Is there some reason for not applying the patch, besides the obvious
> reason that it would be a change to the code?
>
> --
> Add/Remove programs crashed on Feisty
> https://launchpad.net/bugs/79619
>

--
"And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make"
-- The Beatles, "The End"

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

I might add that I applied the patch as well. Its nice and simple and protects against other potential problems too. Thanks for it!

[UBfusion (ubfusion)]

This bug has been declared as fixed, however I did not manage to see any improvement when testing all this week's (up to Jan 26) builds of amd64 desktop, which has built-in gnome-app-install version 0.3.6

Might be a particularity of amd64 and/or my testing in vmware.

[M Lucius (marcel-lucius)]

caused by the new python-dbus package

here a short output

PythonArgs: ['/usr/bin/gnome-app-install']
Traceback:
 Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "/usr/bin/gnome-app-install", line 213, in <module>
     sys.argv, as, transient_for)
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/AppInstall/AppInstall.py", line 117, in __init__
     self.setupDbus()
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/AppInstall/AppInstall.py", line 306, in setupDbus
     proxy_obj = bus.get_object('org.freedesktop.AppInstall', '/org/freedesktop/AppInstallObject')
   File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/dbus/_dbus.py", line 412, in get_object
     follow_name_owner_changes=follow_name_owner_changes)
   File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/dbus/proxies.py", line 232, in __init__
     _dbus_bindings.UInt32(0))
   File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/dbus/proxies.py", line 171, in __call__
     reply_message = self._connection.send_message_with_reply_and_block(message, timeout)
 DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.AppInstall was not provided by any .service files

[Christof Krüger (christofkr)]

Hi MLucius,
the crash caused by dbus is not related to the original bug reported here.

The dbus-python-problem has been reported in bug #81727 and bug #81835

[UBfusion (ubfusion)]

Crash also happens with 20070129 & 30 amd64 desktop live (in vmware) for a bit different reason, see attached log.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1675967&group_id=5470&atid=105470 upstream bug

[Matthias Klose (doko)]

fixed in python2.5.1 in feisty

[kushykush (kushykush)]

Installer keeps crashing. will not let me install third party hardware drivers. will not let me install Nvidia X-org