package identification is awful

[Peter D.]

Recently I reported a bug against the kernel - apport made this very difficult.

The instructions at <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage> clearly state that the correct thing to do is to report kernel bugs against the package "linux". That does not work.

"ubuntu-bug linux" reports that linux is not installed!

After some head-scratching I tried "ubuntu-bug linux-image", that also failed. It did finally work with "ubuntu-bug linux-image-generic", but that is not an obvious choice *and it is contrary to the instructions*. The obvious choice was "ubuntu-bug kernel" (which I tried first) that also failed.

So, I tried to report a bug against ubuntu-bug with "ubuntu-bug ubuntu-bug", not installed! According to the web site <https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+search> ubuntu-bug does not belong to any package! OK it is a link. Try again with the real binary name; apport-bug is not installed either!

If you want feedback from ordinary users, bugs in the bug reporting system are serious.

When apport is given a name that is not a package name it could follow a few simple steps to at lest provide hints to user;
"ls -l $(which ubuntu-bug)" shows that it is a link,
"ls -l --dereference $(which ubuntu-bug)" shows what it links to, and
"dpkg-query --search $(ls --dereference $(which ubuntu-bug))" even reports "apport: /usr/bin/ubuntu-bug".
That would be a useful clue to most users. Note, "dpkg-query --search ubuntu-bug" is less useful.

As for kernel bugs, it should at least behave as documented. Please add an extra line of code so that as a special case both "ubuntu-bug linux" and "ubuntu-bug kernel" work.

There have been many times that apport has stated that a bug could not be reported and I had believed that it was because there were non-standard packages installed, now I am not so sure.

TIA

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: apport 2.19.4-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-2.16-generic 4.4.0
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-2-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.19.4-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
Date: Sun Feb 28 13:06:32 2016
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-02-03 (24 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Alpha amd64 (20160202)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: apport
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Addressing the specific issue of not being able to use "ubuntu-bug linux", I've tried to recreate on two systems running xenial and a fresh install of xenial and was unsuccessful. We can see that apport in appor/ui.py has special casing for linux.

391 def run_report_bug(self, symptom_script=None):
392 '''Report a bug.
...
 441 # "Do what I mean" for filing against "linux"
 442 if self.options.package == 'linux':
 443 self.cur_package = apport.packaging.get_kernel_package()

Then in apport/packaging.py we have:

621 def get_kernel_package(self):
 622 '''Return the actual Linux kernel package name.
 623
 624 This is used when the user reports a bug against the "linux" package.
 625 '''
 626 # TODO: Ubuntu specific
 627 return 'linux-image-' + os.uname()[2]

Do you have linux-image-4.4.0-2-generic installed?

[Peter D. (0123peter)]

I've just booted a few different releases.

A live pre-release DVD of Mythbuntu from a few day ago does behave with "ubuntu-bug linux" and "ubuntu-bug apport" although it could have done better with; "ubuntu-bug kernel", "ubuntu-bug ubuntu-bug", "ubuntu-bug ubuntu", and "ubuntu-bug apport-bug".

The month old installation also misbehaves with "ubuntu-bug linux", but I guess that a bug has been fixed since then.

Also on Trusty Tahr a possibly unrelated bug gives this;

$ ubuntu-bug apport
usage: whoopsie-upload-all [-h] [-t TIMEOUT]
whoopsie-upload-all: error: unrecognized arguments: apport

[Peter D. (0123peter)]

Why is this still "incomplete"? What more needs to be added?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for apport (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]