OK,

so far for that. I will first install gnome debugging package through synaptic now. If you see this in time, you may also give more specific instructions.

Cheers,

Thomas

Terminal Output:

thomas@thomas-laptop:~$ cd /var
thomas@thomas-laptop:/var$ ls
backups  cache  crash  games  lib  local  lock  log  mail  opt  run  spool  tmp
thomas@thomas-laptop:/var$ cd crash
thomas@thomas-laptop:/var/crash$ ls
_usr_bin_compiz.real.1000.crash
thomas@thomas-laptop:/var/crash$ apport-gtk --help
bash: apport-gtk: command not found
thomas@thomas-laptop:/var/crash$ apport --help
bash: apport: command not found
thomas@thomas-laptop:/var/crash$ apport-retrace -d
The program 'apport-retrace' is currently not installed.  You can install it by typing:
sudo apt-get install apport-retrace
bash: apport-retrace: command not found
thomas@thomas-laptop:/var/crash$ sudo apt-get install apport-retrace
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  build-essential dpkg-dev g++ g++-4.3 libstdc++6-4.3-dev libtimedate-perl
  patch
Suggested packages:
  debootstrap fakeroot fakechroot debian-keyring g++-multilib g++-4.3-multilib
  gcc-4.3-doc libstdc++6-4.3-dbg libstdc++6-4.3-doc diff-doc
The following NEW packages will be installed
  apport-retrace build-essential dpkg-dev g++ g++-4.3 libstdc++6-4.3-dev
  libtimedate-perl patch
0 upgraded, 8 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 6298kB of archives.
After this operation, 21.7MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get: 1 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main patch 2.5.9-5 [100kB]
Get: 2 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main libtimedate-perl 1.1600-9 [30.1kB]
Get: 3 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main dpkg-dev 1.14.20ubuntu6 [612kB]
Get: 4 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main apport-retrace 0.116 [66.5kB]
Get: 5 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main libstdc++6-4.3-dev 4.3.2-1ubuntu8 [1354kB]
Get: 6 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main g++-4.3 4.3.2-1ubuntu8 [4127kB]
Get: 7 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main g++ 4:4.3.1-1ubuntu2 [1444B] 
Get: 8 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main build-essential 11.4 [7172B] 
Fetched 6298kB in 3min23s (31.0kB/s)                                           
Selecting previously deselected package patch.
(Reading database ... 102354 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking patch (from .../patch_2.5.9-5_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libtimedate-perl.
Unpacking libtimedate-perl (from .../libtimedate-perl_1.1600-9_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package dpkg-dev.
Unpacking dpkg-dev (from .../dpkg-dev_1.14.20ubuntu6_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package apport-retrace.
Unpacking apport-retrace (from .../apport-retrace_0.116_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libstdc++6-4.3-dev.
Unpacking libstdc++6-4.3-dev (from .../libstdc++6-4.3-dev_4.3.2-1ubuntu8_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package g++-4.3.
Unpacking g++-4.3 (from .../g++-4.3_4.3.2-1ubuntu8_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package g++.
Unpacking g++ (from .../g++_4%3a4.3.1-1ubuntu2_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package build-essential.
Unpacking build-essential (from .../build-essential_11.4_i386.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up patch (2.5.9-5) ...
Setting up libtimedate-perl (1.1600-9) ...
Setting up dpkg-dev (1.14.20ubuntu6) ...
Setting up apport-retrace (0.116) ...
Setting up g++-4.3 (4.3.2-1ubuntu8) ...
Setting up libstdc++6-4.3-dev (4.3.2-1ubuntu8) ...
Setting up g++ (4:4.3.1-1ubuntu2) ...

Setting up build-essential (11.4) ...
thomas@thomas-laptop:/var/crash$ apport-retrace -d
Usage: apport-retrace [options] <apport problem report | crash ID>

apport-retrace: error: no such option: -d
thomas@thomas-laptop:/var/crash$ apport-retrace --help
Usage: apport-retrace [options] <apport problem report | crash ID>

Options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -s, --stdout          Do not put the new traces into the report, but write
                        them to stdout.
  -g, --gdb             Start an interactive gdb session with the report's
                        core dump (-o ignored; does not rewrite report)
  -o FILE, --output=FILE
                        Write modified report to given file instead of
                        changing the original report
  -c, --remove-core     Remove the core dump from the report after stack trace
                        regeneration
  -r CORE, --core-file=CORE
                        Override report's CoreFile
  -x EXE, --executable=EXE
                        Override report's ExecutablePath
  -m MAPS, --procmaps=MAPS
                        Override report's ProcMaps
  -R, --rebuild-package-info
                        Rebuild report's Package information
  -v, --verbose         Report download/install progress when installing
                        additional packages
  -u, --unpack-only     Only unpack the additionally required packages, do not
                        configure them; purge packages again after retracing
  --no-dpkg             Do not use dpkg when using -u and do not purge
                        packages afterwards. This should only be used for
                        temporarily unpacked chroot tarballs where it would
                        just be a waste of time.
  -p EXTRA_PACKAGES, --extra-package=EXTRA_PACKAGES
                        Install an extra package (can be specified multiple
                        times)
  --auth=AUTH_FILE      Path to a file with the crash database authentication
                        information. This is used when specifying a crash ID
                        to upload the retraced stack traces (only if neither
                        -g, -o, nor -s are specified)
  --confirm             Display retraced stack traces and ask for confirmation
                        before sending them to the crash database.
  --duplicate-db=PATH   Path to the duplicate sqlite database (default: no
                        duplicate checking)
thomas@thomas-laptop:/var/crash$ ./_usr_bin_compiz.real.1000.crash
bash: ./_usr_bin_compiz.real.1000.crash: Permission denied
thomas@thomas-laptop:/var/crash$ sudo apport-retrace -d ./_usr_bin_compiz.real.1000.crash
Usage: apport-retrace [options] <apport problem report | crash ID>

apport-retrace: error: no such option: -d
thomas@thomas-laptop:/var/crash$ sudo apport-retrace ./_usr_bin_compiz.real.1000.crash
Usage: apport-retrace [options] <apport problem report | crash ID>

apport-retrace: error: you either need to do a local operation (-s, -g, -o) or supply an authentication file (--auth); see --help for a short online help
thomas@thomas-laptop:/var/crash$ sudo apport-retrace -g ./_usr_bin_compiz.real.1000.crash
WARNING: package libice6-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libxcursor1-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libc6-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package compiz-core-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libselinux1-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package perl-base-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libgcc1-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package dpkg-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package mesa-utils-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libxcb1-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libxcomposite1-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package liblocale-gettext-perl-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libxxf86vm1-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libtext-charwidth-perl-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libx11-xcb1-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libxrandr2-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libxcb-xlib0-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package gcc-4.3-base-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package sed-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libgpg-error0-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libxfixes3-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libpam0g-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libxdmcp6-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libgcrypt11-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libtext-iconv-perl-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libxslt1.1-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package coreutils-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libxml2-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libacl1-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libattr1-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libxinerama1-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package findutils-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libsm6-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libx11-6-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libstdc++6-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libxext6-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libxdamage1-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libncurses5-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package lzma-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libxrender1-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package ncurses-bin-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libgl1-mesa-glx-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package compiz-wrapper-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package zlib1g-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libxau6-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package debianutils-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libstartup-notification0-dbgsym not available
WARNING: package libdrm2-dbgsym not available
WARNING: libglu1-mesa-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libpango1.0-0-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-fusion-plugins-main-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libglib2.0-0-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libx11-6-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libxext6-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libxdmcp6-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-plugins-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libc6-i686-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libxcb-render-util0-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libcompizconfig0-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: zlib1g-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-plugins-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-fusion-plugins-main-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libc6-i686-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libxcursor1-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libpixman-1-0-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libxfixes3-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libcairo2-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libxau6-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-plugins-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libgl1-mesa-glx-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libc6-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-fusion-plugins-main-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libsm6-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-fusion-plugins-main-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-plugins-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-fusion-plugins-main-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-fusion-plugins-main-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libc6-i686-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libxrender1-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libselinux1-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-fusion-plugins-main-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libfontconfig1-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: liborbit2-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libxcb1-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libglib2.0-0-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libjpeg62-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libc6-i686-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libpango1.0-0-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libdrm2-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libcompizconfig0-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-fusion-plugins-extra-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libpcre3-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libglib2.0-0-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libxxf86vm1-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libc6-i686-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compizconfig-backend-gconf-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-plugins-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libstartup-notification0-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libx11-xcb1-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libpango1.0-0-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-plugins-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-fusion-plugins-main-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libice6-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libcroco3-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libpng12-0-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libgtk2.0-0-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libxcb-xlib0-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libgsf-1-114-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-plugins-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-fusion-plugins-main-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-plugins-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libgconf2-4-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libc6-i686-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libglib2.0-0-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-fusion-plugins-main-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: librsvg2-2-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libexpat1-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libdbus-1-3-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libgcc1-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libglib2.0-0-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libstdc++6-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libxinerama1-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libxcb-render0-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libc6-i686-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libbz2-1.0-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-fusion-plugins-main-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libxcomposite1-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libc6-i686-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-plugins-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libfreetype6-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-fusion-plugins-extra-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-plugins-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-fusion-plugins-main-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libxml2-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libxdamage1-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libdecoration0-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-plugins-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libc6-i686-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libxrandr2-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libxslt1.1-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: compiz-fusion-plugins-main-dbgsym is not available
WARNING: libdbus-glib-1-2-dbgsym is not available
GNU gdb 6.8-debian
Copyright (C) 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.  Type "show copying"
and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "i486-linux-gnu".
Reading symbols from /usr/bin/compiz.real...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Cannot access memory at address 0xb8014658
(gdb)