Upgrade Tool crashes during removal of redundant packages

[elvum]

Binary package hint: update-manager

During the process of running the Upgrade Tool (upgrading from Edgy to Feisty), it crashed with an OOM error. Other applications were running at a time, but at the point of running out of memory, python was using about 2GB of RAM, 548MB of which was resident, which surely seems excessive. The tool had most recently asked me to approve a list of redundant packages to be removed.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/tmp/kde-root/adept_updaterE14Crc.tmp-extract/dist-upgrade.py", line 56, in ?
    app.run()
  File "/tmp/kde-root/adept_updaterE14Crc.tmp-extract/DistUpgradeControler.py", line 1025, in run
    self.fullUpgrade()
  File "/tmp/kde-root/adept_updaterE14Crc.tmp-extract/DistUpgradeControler.py", line 1014, in fullUpgrade
    self.doPostUpgrade()
  File "/tmp/kde-root/adept_updaterE14Crc.tmp-extract/DistUpgradeControler.py", line 740, in doPostUpgrade
    res = self.cache.commit(fprogress,iprogress)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/apt/cache.py", line 204, in commit
    if res == pm.ResultCompleted:
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/apt/cache.py", line 179, in installArchives
    installProgress.finishUpdate()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/apt/progress.py", line 206, in run
    select.select([self.statusfd],[],[], self.selectTimeout)
  File "/tmp/kde-root/adept_updaterE14Crc.tmp-extract/DistUpgradeViewKDE.py", line 227, in fork
    self.child_pid = os.fork()
OSError: [Errno 12] Cannot allocate memory

[SageMassa (jedd.bissegger)]

Thanks for taking the time to report this issue...it makes ubuntu better for everyone.

Can you please tell me how much memory (physical and swap) you have on this system
also can you tell me the last line of the output from
pmap <PID number of update-manager>

I.E. pmap 7297

This may be related to a previously reported issue, however we will need more information to confirm.

Thanks so much

[SageMassa (jedd.bissegger)]

may be related to Bug #115510 in update-manager

[elvum (launchpad-net-round)]

768MB physical RAM, 1.5GB swap. I can't give the pmap information you request, I'm afraid, because I had to close update-manager in order to free up enough memory to launch a web browser and report the bug.

[SageMassa (jedd.bissegger)]

Thats quite alright these things can be frustrating lets see if we cant gather some useful information to debut this problem.

I assume you will want to give this another try...lets try with no other programs running (attempt to work around the issue)
also lets get a back trace when we do this, it will be highly useful in correcting this problem Instructions below.
1. Add the following line to /etc/apt/sources.list:
      deb http://people.ubuntu.com/~pitti/ddebs feisty main universe

2. Import Martin's public key to your keyring:
     wget -q "http://keyserver.ubuntu.com:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x0DE7276D5E0577F2" -O- | sudo apt-key add -

3. Then run
      sudo apt-get update
to update your package list.

4. The debug symbol packages have the '-dbgsym' suffix attached, so to install the debug symbols for the package 'yelp', you run:
      sudo apt-get install yelp-dbgsym

Then please make a Backtrace.

   1. Make sure the GNU Debugger is installed.
      sudo apt-get install gdb

   2. Start the program under control of gdb:
      gdb <program> 2>&1 | tee gdb-<program>.txt
      (gdb) handle SIG33 pass nostop noprint
      (gdb) set pagination 0
      (gdb) run <arguments, if any>

   3. The program will start. Perform any actions necessary to reproduce the crash
   4. Retrieve a backtrace of the crash:
      (gdb) backtrace
      (gdb) info registers
      (gdb) thread apply all backtrace
      (gdb) quit

   5. Attach the complete output from GDB, contained in gdb-<program>.txt, in your bug report.

[SageMassa (jedd.bissegger)]

Sorry, one adjustment please wrong Release specified. Correct my post above as follows
1. Add the following line to /etc/apt/sources.list:
deb http://people.ubuntu.com/~pitti/ddebs edgy main universe

Thanks

[elvum (launchpad-net-round)]

Please could you clarify what "<program>" I should be running in stage 4 of the backtrace creation? I don't have the update-manager installed. Please note that the upgrade to Feisty itself was successful - the update manager crashed after the actual upgrade, while performing the optional removal of redundant packages.

[Sebastian Heinlein (glatzor)]

No need to follow the steps outlined by SagaMassa, since the dist upgrade tool is written in python.

[elvum (launchpad-net-round)]

I can confirm that the python process I referred to earlier in this thread was indeed the dist upgrade tool, because the process disappeared and the memory freed as soon as I allowed the tool to close.