packagekitd crashes when installing .deb

[Aaron]

I created a .deb file using fpm directly from raspbian and whenever a user tries to install it via the GUI, packagekitd crashes.

This is a fresh install of Raspbian (Jessie) via NOOBS on a Raspberry Pi 2.

The interface appears to hang on "Running..." since the process "pi-gpk-install-local-file" never exits after packagekitd crashes by throwing an instance of the exception "std::length_error" where what() is "basic_string::resize".

No additional information is provided when running packagekitd with --verbose.

I know this is a bug with packagekitd but I am unsure if it is something wrong with my package that is exposing it or not. At the very least it should fail gracefully and inform the user of the problem.

The package can be successfully installed via the terminal:
sudo dpkg --install audio-acacia.deb

Steps to reproduce:
Download installer from: http://install.plethra.com/prelude/linarmhf32/audio-acacia.deb
Attempt to install via the GUI by double clicking or selecting "Package Install" from the context menu.

uname -a:
Linux raspberrypi 4.1.19-v7+ #858 SMP Tue Mar 15 15:56:00 GMT 2016 armv7l GNU/Linux

Exact syslog output:
Apr 27 17:25:11 raspberrypi dbus[376]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.PackageKit' unit='packagekit.service'
Apr 27 17:25:11 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Starting PackageKit Daemon...
Apr 27 17:25:11 raspberrypi PackageKit: daemon start
Apr 27 17:25:11 raspberrypi dbus[376]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.PackageKit'
Apr 27 17:25:11 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started PackageKit Daemon.
Apr 27 17:25:20 raspberrypi PackageKit: search-file transaction /21_eecccbac from uid 1000 finished with success after 8744ms
Apr 27 17:25:21 raspberrypi org.freedesktop.PackageKit[610]: Gtk-Message: GtkDialog mapped without a transient parent. This is discouraged.
Apr 27 17:25:42 raspberrypi packagekitd[1009]: std_out 2
Apr 27 17:25:42 raspberrypi packagekitd[1009]: std_err 0
Apr 27 17:25:42 raspberrypi packagekitd[1009]: installPkgs.size: 0
Apr 27 17:25:42 raspberrypi packagekitd[1009]: removePkgs.size: 0
Apr 27 17:25:43 raspberrypi PackageKit: install-files transaction /22_ceaadbcc from uid 1000 finished with success after 20428ms
Apr 27 17:26:05 raspberrypi packagekitd[1009]: std_out 2
Apr 27 17:26:05 raspberrypi packagekitd[1009]: std_err 0
Apr 27 17:26:05 raspberrypi packagekitd[1009]: installPkgs.size: 0
Apr 27 17:26:05 raspberrypi packagekitd[1009]: removePkgs.size: 0
Apr 27 17:26:06 raspberrypi packagekitd[1009]: terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::length_error'
Apr 27 17:26:06 raspberrypi packagekitd[1009]: what(): basic_string::resize
Apr 27 17:26:06 raspberrypi systemd[1]: packagekit.service: main process exited, code=killed, status=6/ABRT
Apr 27 17:26:06 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Unit packagekit.service entered failed state.
Apr 27 17:37:24 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Starting Cleanup of Temporary Directories...
Apr 27 17:37:24 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started Cleanup of Temporary Directories.

[Jasper van Zuijlen (nebula83)]

Today I ran into the same issue and stumbled upon this post. I ended up fixing it for my own package by adhering to the debian spec for description: https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields.html#s-f-description.

It turns out that the description field must at least contain two lines. The first line is the header, the second one the body, if you will. My package had a 1 line description, yours has none:

pkg --info audio-acacia.deb
 new debian package, version 2.0.
 size 26729108 bytes: control archive=1680 bytes.
     246 bytes, 11 lines control
    4168 bytes, 39 lines md5sums
      85 bytes, 2 lines * postinst #!/bin/bash
     144 bytes, 3 lines * prerm #!/bin/bash
 Package: audio-acacia
 Version: 1.0
 License: unknown
 Vendor: none
 Architecture: armhf
 Maintainer: Plethra <email address hidden>
 Installed-Size: 71124
 Section: default
 Priority: extra
 Homepage: http://www.plethra.com
 Description: no description given

Make it so that Description reads like this (don't extend the 80 chars width for good measure):

Description: Audio-Acacia
 Zero-configuration software for music source access and audio playback.
 Plus the option to configure advanced features.