Linux Mint live DVD installer crashes on Dell Inspiron 6000

[hasan alsancak]

I am trying to install 32bit Linux Mint 11 Katya from the live dvd on a Dell Inspiron 6000.
Installer can start for the first time, and lets me choose language (turkish). After choosing language and hitting the next button, installer crashes refferring to this error:
"ubiquity[3565]: TypeError: Gtk.Label.set_text() argument 1 must be string, not None"

and the next time i try to start the installer, it crashes immediately with this line in the crash message:
"ubiquity[4741]: IOError: [Errno 32] Broken pipe"

(i couldn't save the entire crash dialogues but i think these lines from syslog can be enough pointing to the error.)

i have the /var/log/syslog attached.

[oh by the way i created a live usb with the program "LiveUSB install" using the same .iso and succesfully installed Mint without booting in the live system by choosing "install Linux Mint" option in the boot menu. ]

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

Thanks for your report. I'm closing the Ubuntu task and opening one against the project Mint since it is not a problem in Ubuntu. In the future please report Mint bugs directly against Mint.

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

I just have this too with Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon DVD.

My crash:
/***
Jan 28 06:33:13 mint ubiquity:
Jan 28 06:33:14 mint /plugininstall.py: Exception during installation:
Jan 28 06:33:14 mint /plugininstall.py: Traceback (most recent call last):
Jan 28 06:33:14 mint /plugininstall.py: File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/ubiquity/install_misc.py", line 287, in pulse
Jan 28 06:33:14 mint /plugininstall.py: self.db.progress('SET', int(self.percent))
Jan 28 06:33:14 mint /plugininstall.py: File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/debconf.py", line 62, in <lambda>
Jan 28 06:33:14 mint /plugininstall.py: lambda *args, **kw: self.command(command, *args, **kw))
Jan 28 06:33:14 mint /plugininstall.py: File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/debconf.py", line 67, in command
Jan 28 06:33:14 mint /plugininstall.py: self.write.flush()
Jan 28 06:33:14 mint /plugininstall.py: BrokenPipeError: [Errno 32] Broken pipe
Jan 28 06:33:14 mint /plugininstall.py:
Jan 28 06:36:21 mint dbus[934]: [system] Activating service
****/

This seems to (have been) a known bug affecting AMD Athlon XP 2600+ to 2800+
Mine is a 2700+
As can be seen on Bug #710582 :
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/710582
People was saying that removing slideshow package (on XUbuntu or Kubuntu) prior to installing was fixing problem.
Not tried it.
Seems they did (supposedly) resolved it in webkit (I can only suppose slideshow use webkit).

Now, because of my graphics card I am in fallback mode... and I am not sure it did not trigger the bug:
in install_misc.py in pulse function near:
        try:
            if os.environ['UBIQUITY_FRONTEND'] != 'debconf_ui':
                self.db.progress('SET', int(self.percent))
        except debconf.DebconfError:
            return False

I have seen also, still not resolved bug:
I consider bug #1309340 linked
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/1309340

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

I now guess slideshow is/was using debconf at installation time to request information.
I guess this is ubiquity that use webkit for ... I don t know (don t think it is the progress bar... maybe for debconf finally).

So probably any package using debconf trigger the problem.
Not sure if it is webkit... could try the trick of installing webkit_debug and try to get a backtrace...
I am not too used to that but I think the mentioned bug was explaining how to do.

Middle of night here... I need to sleep now!

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

Well, I think I made this bug much more complex than it is.
My stacktrace shows no problem with webkit... other bug I mention was having.

Here, the problem is only that the flush need to be inside try catch, because the write stream have been receive
at class initialisation.

We don't control it, it may well have been close, so we cannot assume that we can flush it... that's all... I think.

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

I now believe that sleep deprivation made me think that this bug was related to mine.
So I created a new bug #1415654 for mine.

Original poster have some OutOfMemory error (kind that kill "random" process to find memory) in his syslog:
/***
Oct 13 10:59:34 mint nautilus: [N-A] Nautilus-Actions Tracker 3.0.5 initializing...
Oct 13 11:00:27 mint kernel: [ 222.877241] python invoked oom-killer: gfp_mask=0x280da, order=0, oom_adj=0, oom_score_adj=0
Oct 13 11:00:27 mint kernel: [ 222.877249] python cpuset=/ mems_allowed=0
Oct 13 11:00:27 mint kernel: [ 222.877253] Pid: 3427, comm: python Not tainted 2.6.38-8-generic #42-Ubuntu
Oct 13 11:00:27 mint kernel: [ 222.877257] Call Trace:
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877268] [<c10e4df5>] ? dump_header.clone.5+0x85/0x1b0
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877275] [<c1276429>] ? ___ratelimit+0x89/0x110
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877279] [<c10e5294>] ? oom_kill_process+0x64/0x160
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877283] [<c10e540d>] ? select_bad_process.clone.7+0x7d/0x100
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877287] [<c10e572f>] ? out_of_memory+0xbf/0x1e0
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877291] [<c10e55ed>] ? try_set_zonelist_oom+0xcd/0xe0
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877296] [<c10e8e0b>] ? __alloc_pages_nodemask+0x6fb/0x710
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877300] [<c10e8b23>] ? __alloc_pages_nodemask+0x413/0x710
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877306] [<c10fdbe4>] ? do_anonymous_page+0x124/0x280
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877310] [<c1101548>] ? handle_pte_fault+0x1e8/0x210
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877314] [<c10fe82f>] ? __pte_alloc+0x9f/0xb0
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877318] [<c1101627>] ? handle_mm_fault+0xb7/0x120
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877324] [<c150ce00>] ? do_page_fault+0x0/0x490
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877328] [<c150cf5e>] ? do_page_fault+0x15e/0x490
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877333] [<c11059c3>] ? sys_mmap_pgoff+0x73/0x1d0
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877339] [<c151087b>] ? smp_apic_timer_interrupt+0x5b/0x8a
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877343] [<c150ce00>] ? do_page_fault+0x0/0x490
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877346] [<c150a2df>] ? error_code+0x67/0x6c
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877351] [<c1500000>] ? print_cpu_info+0xe3/0x126
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877354] Mem-Info:
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877356] DMA per-cpu:
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877359] CPU 0: hi: 0, btch: 1 usd: 0
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877361] Normal per-cpu:
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877364] CPU 0: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 0
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877370] active_anon:75674 inactive_anon:15302 isolated_anon:0
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877371] active_file:11495 inactive_file:11693 isolated_file:64
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877373] unevictable:0 dirty:0 writeback:0 unstable:0
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877374] free:1201 slab_reclaimable:2874 slab_unreclaimable:2829
Oct 13 11:00:28 mint kernel: [ 222.877375] mapped:12984 shmem:33386 pagetables:1097 bounce:0
Oct 13 11:0...