ubiquity crashed with TypeError in changed(): value is of wrong type for this column

[penalvch]

Binary package hint: ubiquity

1) lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu natty (development branch)
Release: 11.04

2) apt-cache policy ubiquity
ubiquity:
  Installed: 2.5.8
  Candidate: 2.5.8
  Version table:
 *** 2.5.8 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

3) What is expected to happen is when one downloads the Natty Narwhal Live CD via: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/natty-desktop-i386.iso with md5sum 1364964b9e3ff45456998fa834bd60ee burns to a CD and installs, it does so successfully.

4) What happened instead is during the install it crashed, prompting this bug report.

ProblemType: Crash
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: ubiquity 2.5.8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.37-12.26-generic 2.6.37
Uname: Linux 2.6.37-12-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun Jan 16 04:59:18 2011
ExecutablePath: /usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity
InterpreterPath: /usr/bin/python2.7
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Alpha i386 (20110112)
ProcCmdline: /usr/bin/python /usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity --greeter --only
ProcEnviron: Error: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/proc/3166/environ'
PythonArgs: ['/usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity', '--greeter', '--only']
SourcePackage: ubiquity
Title: ubiquity crashed with TypeError in changed(): value is of wrong type for this column
Traceback:
 Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/plugins/ubi-timezone.py", line 130, in changed
     loc.latitude, loc.longitude])
 TypeError: value is of wrong type for this column
UserGroups:

[Apport retracing service (apport)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this crash and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular crash has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug #702898, so is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Please continue to report any other bugs you may find.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

While I trust Apport's implementation in marking my bug a duplicate of another, this action is unaccountable due to my not having the permissions to see any details of private bug 702898. As I practice the trust but verify policy, when that bug is scrubbed for private information and marked public as mine (mostly :p) was, then this should be marked a duplicate of it, not before. :D

[Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure)]

I am able to reproduce this bug with ubiquity 2.5.11 on today's Natty Desktop i386 Install CD (.iso image md5sum e8106eddd8f76212ea6861511d1e4586). It occurs when I am asked to verify the time zone that the installer guesses for me, but before I verify it. I don't know if this would occur if I verified it fast enough--perhaps 30 seconds passed between when I was given the opportunity to verify my time zone and when the crash occurred.

I am unsure that this is a crash, in the usual sense, since ubiquity is still running and copying files to the disk. If Apport had not been launched, I would not know that anything wrong had occurred. I am able to accept the time zone it has suggested for me (and presumably, I could also change it, though I didn't try that) and continue on with the interactive part of the installation, while the noninteractive file copy progress continues to proceed without any indication of trouble.

This bug report indicates that the installation was not successful, so perhaps I am experiencing a related but different bug. It doesn't seem that way to me, but if instructed to do so, I would be pleased to file a separate bug report.

Unlike the original reporter, my live CD system is not running Unity (because its video adapter is not capable of it, at least with the drivers that load automatically from the live CD), but I strongly doubt that is significant.

[Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure)]

Ubiquity successfully finished installing Ubuntu on my system, in spite of this "crash" near the beginning.

[Stanz (stanz)]

Just zsync'd and tried installing daily-live 20110125-amd64 again, but it's probably another duplicate crash?
Some time into the fancy slideshow--screen flickered to terminal output (tty?), ending 'V' something or another,
then the incapability joke, and without any warning or advisement, I'm looking at a 'ubuntu' user desktop.
User Friendly?
and on with a few unexpected 'quit' info windows...but where's the users info about what just happened to the install?
Well, I'll try again. Hey, related to vid card?

I think the cut & paste Apport response lacked checking that bug report! private - gimme a brake!

[Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure)]

@Stanz

Your crash may be due to a bug that's already been reported, but it doesn't seem to be due to *this* bug. This bug appears to be related to time-zone issues, occurs much earlier in the installation, displays different messages than yours, and (at least in my case) does not necessarily result in the installation begin aborted. Reporting your crash here as a comment is unlikely to help get the underlying bug resolved. If you have not done so already, you should report it, following the instructions at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs as well as any bug reporting instructions provided by the Apport bug-reporting utility or by Launchpad in your web browser. If you have not done so already, it's probably a good idea to search for the bug before reporting it, but if you accidentally file a duplicate bug in a popular package like ubiquity, it will probably be identified and flagged as a duplicate in short order.

As for the user-friendliness issue, Natty is alpha software and therefore should be expected to behave badly and require some technical skill to deal with. The problem of ubiquity failing in a user-unfriendly matter will be resolved when it is made not to fail; plus, most of the time when ubiquity crashes, the user is provided with a message that they can understand without technical skill. If you can identify a specific way in which ubiquity could be more user-friendly, you may want to file a bug report / feature request here on Launchpad.

Apport bug reports with automatically collected and attached crash data are private by default because they could contain sensitive personal information like passwords or credit card numbers. Ubiquity wouldn't take your credit card information, but it could certainly take your password (you have to give it the username and password for the initial, administrative user). Many people reuse their passwords on multiple computers or even on Internet services (like Launchpad itself); it would be bad to automatically render that information accessible by everyone on the Internet. If you are confident that your bug report does not contain sensitive personal information, then you can always change it status to public. If you are not confident of this, then you should (1) examine the attached files yourself to ensure they don't contain such information, or (2) wait for the files that potentially contain such information to be automatically processed and removed (at which point the bot doing the processing and removing marks it public), or (3) for them to be examined by a member of the Bug Squad for data that looks like passwords or credit card numbers (at which point the Bug Squad member marks the bug public).

On the other hand, if you are complaining that bots on Launchpad sometimes automatically mark a new bug report as a duplicate of a bug that is still private (sometimes even when the bug report marked as a duplicate is itself public and has multiple non-bot subscribers), that *is* arguably a problem. Since most private bugs become public, it is also arguably not a problem. See bug 396406, bug 157899, and bug 434733. You might also find more related bug reports / feature requests by s...

[georgz (georgz)]

Installing natty-desktop-amd64.iso from just right now in VMware/Virtualbox. Ubiquity installer does not finish, after setting the timezone and configuring the user it just disappears and installation does not finish.

Running the installer from the LiveCD session shows the same problem. Ubiquity crashes and this bug is reported.