~/.cache/upstart/startkde.log fills up every available disk space

[Vargnatt]

I've recently discovered that ~/.cache/upstart/startkde.log is growing uncontrollably until a point it fills up my whole Linux partition. As I see, it's only filled with an endless recursion of the same error message:

Object
  - prototype Object
console.error: ytda:
Object
  - prototype Object
console.error: ytda:
Object
    - _errorType = Error
    - message = document.getElementsByClassName(...)[0].click is undefined
    - fileName = resource://gre/modules/commonjs/toolkit/loader.js -> resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/loader/sandbox.js -> resource://ytda-at-notsie-dot-com/ytda/data/engine.js
    - lineNumber = 16
    - stack = checkDIV@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/toolkit/loader.js -> resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/loader/sandbox.js -> resource://ytda-at-notsie-dot-com/ytda/data/engine.js:16:3|oInv<@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/toolkit/loader.js -> resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/loader/sandbox.js -> resource://ytda-at-notsie-dot-com/ytda/data/engine.js:1:33|onFire@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/toolkit/loader.js -> resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/loader/sandbox.js -> resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/content/content-worker.js:149:11|
    - name = TypeError
console.error: ytda:

I also observed that this behavior is probably triggered by Firefox (version 41.0.1). If I stop it, the log file doesn't grow faster than normal, if I start it, it logs again madly.

I'm currently on Kubuntu 14.04.3 LTS (kernel 3.16.0-50-generic).

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It seems that your bug report is not filed about a specific source package though, rather it is just filed against Ubuntu in general. It is important that bug reports be filed about source packages so that people interested in the package can find the bugs about it. You can find some hints about determining what package your bug might be about at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. You might also ask for help in the #ubuntu-bugs irc channel on Freenode.

To change the source package that this bug is filed about visit https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1505660/+editstatus and add the package name in the text box next to the word Package.

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

[Carlo Wood (carlo-alinoe)]

Something is MAJORLY wrong with something... I can't even login anymore (into KDE).
Like another user somewhere else said, normal users might just have to give up on their PC in this case :/.

Fortunately, I'm an advanced user and could log in remotely from another PC and find out
that two partitions had been filled up entirely:

1) Firstly, the partition containing /home/carlo/.cache/upstart :

-rw-r----- 1 carlo carlo 38G Mar 24 01:05 /home/carlo/.cache/upstart/startkde.log

that's 38 GB of repeated spam, and then, because this partition (.cache) ran full,

2) also my home directory partition was filled:

-rw------- 1 carlo carlo 1.5G Mar 24 00:29 .xsession-errors

with the repeated spam of 20739073 times:

init: Failed to write to log file /home/carlo/.cache/upstart/startkde.log

Really? 20739073 times? Of course it only stopped because then the
partition was full (which only had 1.5GB free).

The spam in /home/carlo/.cache/upstart/startkde.log exists of
an infinitely number of times the repeat of:

cannot connect alsa-jack.jackP.3627.0:out_000 to system:playback_1
AL lib: (EE) ALCplaybackAlsa_mixerProc: start failed: Input/output error
Server is not running

Which isn't that weird since I have to start the JACK server by hand.
Now I'm sure that whatever is flooding with this log message is in
error, but imho also upstart shouldn't create log files of 38 GB at
100 MB/s because anything is flooding it with repeated lines of
messages...

[Flames_in_Paradise (ellisistfroh-deactivatedaccount)]

hi!

Looks to me like you have run into an java-exploit (sandbox), See USN:

http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-2942-1/

As such I've marked this bug-report invisible as only to be seen for the Ubuntu-security-team.

Since not knowing if it's any interested in helping to hunt these criminal subjects, your system may hold most valuable information for forensic experts to track this down to its source.

You may be approched by the Ubuntu-experts from the Security-team tseeking advice what further steps are in need to be taken.

[Vargnatt (metaltrabant)]

Hello Flames_in_Paradise! Are you writing this to me, or Carlo Wood?

As for me, I've set up a scheduled task to delete startkde.log every minute, so it won't fill up my drive, and almost forgot about this problem.

As I see now, the bug probably got fixed somehow, since I have Firefox open with hundreds of tabs, and startkde.log seems steady, and barely using any disk space. I've kept openjdk updated, so it's now on version 7u95-2.6.4-0ubuntu0.14.04.2, I'm not sure if that was what helped, but maybe.

[Seth Arnold (seth-arnold)]

Looks like usual stderr logspam from an application where no one actually looks at the stderr output, so there's tons of it and no pressure to reduce it from users. (Seriously, running firefox or (many? most? all?) kde programs from a shell is illuminating. And painful.)

Thanks

[Flames_in_Paradise (ellisistfroh-deactivatedaccount)]

@Vargnatt: I have been writing this to the original bug-reporter, as he has been given valuable information.

 -> resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/loader/sandbox.js -> resource://ytda-at-notsie-dot-com/ytda/data/engine.js

This can be clearly identified.

@ Seth Arnold:

>> (Seriously, running firefox or (many? most? all?) kde programs from a shell is illuminating. And painful.)

I do not accept any kind of offensive distro-bashing. If this happens again in my presence, you may be assured that an incident as such will be reported as violence to the code of conduct in a formal complaint within the Ubuntu-community. As a user of Kubuntu since 8.04 I do feel personnaly offended with unrelated comments as such.

For now I will accept a friendly apology to settle this matter, timely.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Axel Pospischil (apos)]

I have the exact same problem here with Standard Ubuntu 16.06:

The ~/.cache/upstart/unity7.log file is filled with this crap over and over after suspend /resume:

"AL lib: (EE) ALCplaybackAlsa_mixerProc: start failed: File descriptor in bad state"

I am using blender and firefox simultaneously.

[Axel Pospischil (apos)]

It turned out that the combination of blender / pulseaudio and the log-level of pulseaudio was the problem. When I open Blender then suspend the machine and resume again, the above error immediately fills the logfile with tons of data. The problem persist until blender is stopped.

So first I did:

#> echo "" > .cache/upstart/unity7.log

Then I altered the pulseaudio daemon log-level to "error":_

#> sudo vim /etc/pulse/daemon.conf

; log-target = auto
; log-level = notice
log-level = error

Login / logout.

Cheers