Unity crashed with unhandled exception from vector::_M_fill_insert

[Maciej Rumianowski]

Unity crashed when using LibreOffice Writer with information (details in log):
CRIT 2013-04-14 19:36:53 unity.glibmm <unknown>:0
unhandled exception (type std::exception) in signal handler:
what: vector::_M_fill_insert

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: unity 7.0.0daily13.04.10-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-18.28-generic 3.8.6
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-18-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8
Architecture: i386
CompizPlugins: [core,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,vpswitch,snap,mousepoll,resize,place,move,wall,grid,regex,imgpng,session,gnomecompat,animation,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,workarounds,scale,expo,ezoom,unityshell]
Date: Sun Apr 14 19:47:20 2013
InstallationDate: Installed on 2011-10-09 (553 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Beta i386 (20111007.1)
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=pl_PL.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to raring on 2013-04-05 (8 days ago)

[Maciej Rumianowski (rumianom)]

$ apt-cache show libreoffice
Package: libreoffice
Priority: optional
Section: universe/editors
Installed-Size: 154
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <email address hidden>
Original-Maintainer: Debian LibreOffice Maintainers <email address hidden>
Architecture: i386
Version: 1:4.0.2-0ubuntu1
Depends: fonts-sil-gentium-basic, libreoffice-base, libreoffice-calc, libreoffice-core (= 1:4.0.2-0ubuntu1), libreoffice-draw, libreoffice-filter-mobiledev, libreoffice-impress, libreoffice-math, libreoffice-report-builder-bin, libreoffice-writer, ttf-dejavu, libreoffice-java-common (>= 1:4.0.2~), python3.3-uno | python3-uno (>= 4.0~) | python-uno

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[arty (me-arty)]

I see this happening often with different LibreOffice applications when they try to show tooltips. Same error also happens sometimes when screensaver is on and I move the mouse. This happens even with Ubuntu 13.10

Some other thread mentioned that it might be related to the graphic card used: NVidia 8800 GT in my case.

[Rickard Westman (rwestman)]

I've seen this bug a lot in the past month with a fully updated 12.04.4, although I mostly saw it triggered by another application in the LibreOffice suite (calc). It got progressively worse and was really bad yesterday, causing several crashes within an hour. Some workarounds I tried:

1. Turned off hardware acceleration in the LibreOffice options - did not help.

2. Restored the compiz configuration to the default - did not help (but reintroduced some rendering bugs, e.g. in LIbreOffice menu items and the tcsh prompt in xterm).

3. Rebooted several times - did not help.

4. Logged into a "Guest" profile instead of my normal one - seemingly DID help.

5. Returned to my normal profile and ran "unity --reset" - seemingly DID help, even after I manually restored the settings afterwards which I cared about (e.g. the compiz settings needed to avoid the rendering bugs mentioned in point 2).

So there seems to be some unity setting or configuration corruption triggering this bug, and a workaround that at least worked for me.