gconfd trashes configuration when disk is full

[Matthias Andree]

Binary package hint: gconf

This isn't easy to reproduce, but has happened twice.

Situation:
1. evolution starts (and with it gconfd)
2. disk is full
3. evolution is closed.
4. next time evolution is started, it starts the mail account setup wizard.

The only remedy was to log out the affected user, shut down her gconfd, and restore the $HOME/.gconfd/ directory from backup.

This leads to the conclusion that gconfd isn't sufficiently careful when rewriting configuration files such as $HOME/.gconfd/apps/evolution/mail/%gconf.xml. gconfd SHOULD write to a temporary file, fsync() and close it, and only then rename it over the old file.

If it did that, only the configuration /CHANGES/ would have been lost, not the whole configuration as such.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: libgconf2-4 2.31.91-0ubuntu3.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-22.35-generic-pae 2.6.35.4
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-22-generic-pae i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: i386
Date: Fri Nov 12 18:25:38 2010
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=de_DE:de:en_GB:en
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=de_DE.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gconf

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thanks for the report, it has been some time without any response or feedback in this bug report and we are wondering if this is still an issue for you with the latest release of Ubuntu the Natty Narwhal, May you please test with that version and comment back if you're still having or not the issue? Please have a look at http://www.ubuntu.com/download to know how to install that version. Thanks in advance and sorry for the late response.

[Matthias Andree (matthias-andree)]

Will try to reproduce, thanks for replying at all.
--
Matthias Andree

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Matthias Andree (matthias-andree)]

The bug report is for maverick, which continues to be supported into 2012.

Even if the bug were fixed on natty it would persist on maverick, so there's no point in wasting time testing natty or oneiric betas.