ubiquity crash - ubuntu plugininstall.py: OSError: [Errno 12] Cannot allocate memory

[Matt Sturgeon]

Crash just after running update-grub

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: ubiquity 2.11.5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.4.0-5.11-generic 3.4.0
Uname: Linux 3.4.0-5-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.1.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CasperVersion: 1.317
Date: Mon Jun 18 10:53:04 2012
InstallCmdLine: file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash -- maybe-ubiquity
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Alpha amd64 (20120606.2)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB.UTF-8
 TERM=unknown
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: ubiquity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Sasa Paporovic (melchiaros)]

In UbiquitySyslog.txt:

Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: Exception during installation:
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: Traceback (most recent call last):
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/ubiquity/install_misc.py", line 879, in do_install
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: fetchprogress, installprogress):
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/ubiquity/install_misc.py", line 816, in commit_with_verify
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: res = cache.install_archives(pm, install_progress)
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apt/cache.py", line 444, in install_archives
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: res = install_progress.run(pm)
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/ubiquity/install_misc.py", line 330, in run
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: child_pid = self.fork()
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apt/progress/base.py", line 210, in fork
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: return os.fork()
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: OSError: [Errno 12] Cannot allocate memory
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py:
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py:
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: Traceback (most recent call last):
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/share/ubiquity/plugininstall.py", line 56, in wrapper
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: func(self)
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/share/ubiquity/plugininstall.py", line 218, in run
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: self.install_restricted_extras()
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/share/ubiquity/plugininstall.py", line 1197, in install_restricted_extras
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: self.do_install(packages)
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/ubiquity/install_misc.py", line 898, in do_install
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: chroot_cleanup(self.target)
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/ubiquity/install_misc.py", line 179, in chroot_cleanup
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: chrex(target, 'umount', '/sys')
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/ubiquity/install_misc.py", line 70, in chrex
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: return misc.execute('chroot', target, *args)
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/ubiquity/misc.py", line 494, in execute
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: status = subprocess.call(log_args)
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/lib/python3.2/subprocess.py", line 471, in call
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: return Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs).wait()
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/lib/python3.2/subprocess.py", line 745, in __init__
Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: restore_signals, start_new_s...

[Sasa Paporovic (melchiaros)]

This is an extraordinary interesting one. The original crash cascades into two levels with other crashes. In The syslog it is better to see than in my copy above. Look for the lines beginning with exceptions.

[Sasa Paporovic (melchiaros)]

Hi Matt,

I hope ubiquity(the installer) has not rendered your system unbootable.

I have just red the story that syslog try to tell me. As far as I can see ubiquity has trouble to allocate memory as you can see for example here:

Jun 18 09:52:21 ubuntu plugininstall.py: OSError: [Errno 12] Cannot allocate memory

It has tried it tree times and give finally up. That is the cause for the cascading exceptions.

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So interpretion of this may be a wrong allocate line in ubiquity itself, not enough harddisk memory(seems to be apt cache - package storage before install of it), or simple a defect RAM.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Because this report is dated to 18-6-2012 and the program versions have changed, are you willing to do a simple retest of this issue with the latest program versions.

We have for this daily builds which incorporate them. You can find them here:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/

---------------------------------------------------------------

A helpfull tool for simple work with checksums for download validity is a firefox extension called downthemall.

On download you can choose sha256 instead of simple MD5.

Thank you in advance

melchiaros

[Sasa Paporovic (melchiaros)]

Aha I see that you tried it in virtualbox. So, your system is not corrupted.

You know virtualbox is not so stable than kvm(but faster in my feeling), which makes trouble to the latest development versions.

Please use for your test the latest virtualbox(4.1.18 AFAIK) that you can find in the ppa of Felix Greyer:

https://launchpad.net/~debfx/+archive/virtualbox

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[amjjawad  (amjjawad)]

Hi, can someone tell me please whether this bug affect 12.04 or 12.10 ONLY?
I have done so many installation for Lubuntu 12.04 from the LiveCD and I can't produce this one.

[Marcus Tomlinson (marcustomlinson)]

This release of Ubuntu is no longer receiving maintenance updates. If this is still an issue on a maintained version of Ubuntu please let us know.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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