[mintupdate] Empty rules file

[Clement Lefebvre]

When there is no connection to the Internet, mintupdate fails to download the rules file, but instead of using the old rules file it uses an empty file. In fact, the empty rules file also overwrites the old one.

Confirmed in Linux Mint Gloria
mintUpdate v3.2.2
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=165&t=28015

[emorrp1 (emorrp1)]

increased importance since users could install unsafe ubuntu packages thinking they're safe.

[Clement Lefebvre (clementlefebvre)]

Solution: the newly downloaded rules file is stored in /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpdate/rules.tmp, if and only if it isn't empty (which it is when there is no connection to the Internet), it gets copied to /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpdate/rules.

The files /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpdate/tmp/rules and /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpdate/rules.old aren't used anymore.

Fix released in mintupdate 3.7.9.

[1bruceamint (balbinson)]

i think this is the one i had this morning. i did apt update and upgrade and it went away but i also lost the thread to the log. it is ok now but i dont know about the security aspect.

also somehow i went into the ubuntu area on launchpad in error when i reported it under ubuntu bug no. 400699. dont know how i did that but others have done it too and could not find mint on drop down menu of launchpad-not sure if that is because i was in ubuntu area.

thanks and keep up the good work

grateful user

[Ben Lovell (snakey-ben)]

Using mintupdate 3.7.9, had similar error. It couldn't download it due to permission being denied, connection was fine.

++ Launching mintUpdate in user mode
++ Testing initial connection
++ Connection found - checking for updates
++ Starting refresh
++ Auto-refresh timer is going to sleep for 5 minutes, 0 hours and 0 days
-- Failed to download new safety rules: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpdate/rules.tmp' None
-- Could not download safety rules

Permissions for /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpdate/rules.tmp are -rw-r--r--

Interestingly, there was no rules file at all, so went in as root to rename rules.old to rules. rules.old was identical to rules.tmp at the time.

[emorrp1 (emorrp1)]

Ben: make sure to run mintUpdate as root. There is a blueprint for this not to be needed, but for the moment it's essential.

[Clement Lefebvre (clementlefebvre)]

Ben: You're right, there was a little bug in 3.7.9. In user-mode the tool was trying to put the rules file in /usr while it should have gone in ~. This is now fixed in version 3.7.9.1.