broken apport hook: TypeError: a bytes-like object is required, not 'str'

[Seth Arnold]

The apport hook for ubiquity appears broken. (Ignore the Wnck error, that's bug 1580412).

$ ubuntu-bug ubiquity
/usr/share/apport/apport-gtk:16: PyGIWarning: Wnck was imported without specifying a version first. Use gi.require_version('Wnck', '3.0') before import to ensure that the right version gets loaded.
  from gi.repository import GLib, Wnck, GdkX11, Gdk
dpkg-query: no packages found matching ubiquity
ERROR: hook /usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_ubiquity.py crashed:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport/report.py", line 197, in _run_hook
    symb['add_info'](report, ui)
  File "/usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_ubiquity.py", line 61, in add_info
    if 'Buffer I/O error on device' in syslog:
TypeError: a bytes-like object is required, not 'str'

Thanks

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: ubiquity (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-21.37-generic 4.4.6
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-21-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zcommon znvpair zavl
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Tue May 17 17:31:33 2016
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-10-18 (1307 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120823.1)
SourcePackage: ubiquity
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to xenial on 2016-04-30 (17 days ago)

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We noticed that you were installing the LTS version of Ubuntu using an older version of the installation media. The latest point release of 12.04 is 12.04.5. Please try installing from that version of the installation media and see if that resolves your issue. Thanks in advance!

[This is an automated message. I apologize if it reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Seth Arnold (seth-arnold)]

Dear bot, I'm not sure what you're on about. You're also missing 14.04 LTS information. :)

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

The bot saw your UbiquitySyslog file and wanted to talk to you about it.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

The ubiquity hook is proved by apport not ubiquity.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Hello Seth, or anyone else affected,

Accepted apport into artful-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apport/2.20.7-0ubuntu2 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed.Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested and change the tag from verification-needed-artful to verification-done-artful. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-artful. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package apport - 2.20.7-0ubuntu2

---------------
apport (2.20.7-0ubuntu2) artful; urgency=medium

  * data/package-hooks/source_ubiquity.py: Convert the content of syslog from
    bytes to string so comparison and regex matches in the hook work.
    (LP: #1582950)

 -- Brian Murray <email address hidden> Wed, 27 Sep 2017 14:44:40 -0700

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Did we confirm that this fix worked? Because bug 1744821 and bug 1744809 have crashes in the ubiquity hook. I imagine there are more.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Its worth noting that the two bugs I looked at are from live versions of the system so perhaps the version of python being used there is different.

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

you're right, it crashes on the live session but not after installation. The version of python is the same on bionic (2.7.14+) (tested on 17.10.1 and 18.04)

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

Actually on the live session the hook reads /var/log/syslog which has read access for the group adm and after installation it reads /var/log/installer/syslog which does not and the code path is different.
In the former case decoding of utf8 bytes object is already done (the file is read with the function read()) but not in the latter (the file is the output of the command 'cat')

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package apport - 2.20.8-0ubuntu7

---------------
apport (2.20.8-0ubuntu7) bionic; urgency=medium

  * bin/apport-bug: recommend python3-apport not python-apport.
    (LP: #1729879)
  * data/package-hooks/source_ubiquity.py: Convert the content of syslog from
    bytes to string so comparison and regex matches in the hook work. Thanks
    to Jean-Baptiste Lallement for the improved patch. (LP: #1582950)

 -- Brian Murray <email address hidden> Tue, 30 Jan 2018 08:24:53 -0800