software-center crashed with SIGSEGV in __cxa_allocate_exception()

[Titus Soporan]

Binary package hint: software-center

Attempted to run "software-center" from command line, ended up in a segfault.

WORKAROUND:

Launch Software Center from the command line as:

   LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6 software-center

---
Steps to reproduce (safely with a test xapian database):

1. In a terminal, make a test directory to work in, and cd into it.
2. Type the following to get the branch revision for version 3.1.23.1 of software-center (tho latest trunk is likely fine too):

  bzr branch -r1564 lp:software-center

3. Run the branch in-place as shown:

  cd software-center
  PYTHONPATH=. python ./software-center

4. You should shortly see the segfault message and software-center will not be started.
5. You'll likely have a zombie software-center process at this point so you'll want to kill it:

  ps aux | grep software-center
  kill nnnn (where 'nnnn' is the PID for the 'python ./software-center' process in the output above)

6. To verify that downgrading the libgl1-mesa-glx package from 7.10.1-0ubuntu1 fixes the crash (refer to comment #6), NOTE these steps are for amd64:

  wget http://launchpadlibrarian.net/64671121/libgl1-mesa-glx_7.10.1%7Egit20110215.cc1636b6-0ubuntu2_amd64.deb
  sudo dpkg -i libgl1-mesa-glx_7.10.1~git20110215.cc1636b6-0ubuntu2_amd64.deb

7. And now try again:

  PYTHONPATH=. python ./software-center

8. Software Center should now start with no crash.
9. Finally, you can verify that upgrading back to libgl1-mesa-glx 7.10.1-0ubuntu1 reintroduces the problem; first you will need to recreate the condition of a fresh install bu clearing the local xapian data as shown:

  rm -fr data/xapian/*

10. Update libgl1-mesa-glx back to 7.10.1-0ubuntu1:

  sudo apt-get install libgl1-mesa-glx

11. Run it again and voila, the crash has returned:

  PYTHONPATH=. python ./software-center

12. Don't forget to kill the zombie process again, if you have it (see step 5).

ProblemType: Crash
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: software-center 3.1.23.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-5.32-generic 2.6.38-rc6
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-5-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
CrashCounter: 1
Date: Tue Mar 8 20:36:53 2011
ExecutablePath: /usr/share/software-center/software-center
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Alpha amd64 (20110308)
InterpreterPath: /usr/bin/python2.7
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcCmdline: /usr/bin/python /usr/bin/software-center
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
 LANGUAGE=en_CA:en
SegvAnalysis:
 Segfault happened at: 0x7f99aabed244 <__cxa_allocate_exception+36>: addl $0x1,0x8(%rax)
 PC (0x7f99aabed244) ok
 source "$0x1" ok
 destination "0x8(%rax)" (0x00000018) not located in a known VMA region (needed writable region)!
SegvReason: writing NULL VMA
Signal: 11
SourcePackage: software-center
StacktraceTop:
 __cxa_allocate_exception () from /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6
 Xapian::Database::Database(std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&) () from /usr/lib/libxapian.so.22
 ?? () from /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/xapian/_xapian.so
 PyEval_EvalFrameEx ()
 PyEval_EvalCodeEx ()
Title: software-center crashed with SIGSEGV in __cxa_allocate_exception()
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare

[Paulo Cheadi Haddad Filho (paulochf)]

Got this bug after trying to install Skype for Ubuntu 64bit using skype-ubuntu-intrepid_2.1.0.81-1_amd64.deb downloaded from official site.

[IC Raibow (icrbow)]

Got this on alpha 3 and after current (09-03) updates.

[Taylor Browne Hawkings (astronomy-1989)]

Updated morning of March 9, 2011 US-Central 8:30 am. Bug appears to be from the update from the update manager. Re-installed software center with no luck, program still affected. Importance is high, please submit ASAP to Canonical. :]

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

here is the xapian crash trace from bug 732128:

#0 0x054be6bd in __cxa_allocate_exception () from /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6
No symbol table info available.
#1 0x0148980f in Xapian::Database::Database(std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&) () from /usr/lib/sse2/libxapian.so.22
No symbol table info available.
#2 0x01aadfae in _wrap_new_Database__SWIG_1 (self=0x0, args=0x8d0872c) at ../../../../python/modern/xapian_wrap.cc:25493
        _swig_thread_allow = {status = true, save = 0x84d1050}
        resultobj = 0x0
        arg1 = 0x8d461e8
        res1 = 512
        result = 0x0
#3 _wrap_new_Database (self=0x0, args=0x8d0872c) at ../../../../python/modern/xapian_wrap.cc:25602
        argc = <value optimized out>
        argv = {0xb74dc910, 0x8241620}
#4 0x080deaac in PyEval_EvalFrameEx ()

I can add more symbols if required.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

This appears to be a bug in libgl1-mesa-glx. When I downgerade to the previous version:
http://launchpadlibrarian.net/64671121/libgl1-mesa-glx_7.10.1%7Egit20110215.cc1636b6-0ubuntu2_amd64.deb
the crash is fixed for me.

[Ricardo Lameiro (rlameiro)]

I can confirm the same situation that Michael Vogt described. I installed the package that he lists on the comment and ubuntu software center runs.

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

Confirm that downgrading fixes the problem on i386 too.

[Gary Lasker (gary-lasker)]

I can also confirm, downgrade it works, upgrade it fails again.

[Gary Lasker (gary-lasker)]

Chris Halse Rogers investigated this and he has confirmed that this problem is actually due to longstanding bug 259219. The recent update of libgl1-mesa-glx to version 7.10.1-0ubuntu1 adds a dependency on libstdc++6, with the result that we are now seeing the effects of bug 259219 in software-center.

Per Chris' suggestion, this is confirmed by the fact that launching software-center as follows fixes the problem:

    LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6 PYTHONPATH=. python ./software-center

[Gary Lasker (gary-lasker)]

Based on the information in comment #10, I'll set this bug as a duplicate of bug 259219. Please add any additional information or comments to that bug, and watch that one for the status of the fix.

Thanks again Chris!