"System program problem" report button does nothing

[Brian Murray]

[Impact]
  * Users, already annoyed that software has crashed and they have an
    unwanted dialog instead, are unable to click the report button to
    let us know about the crash.
  * Two identical-looking dialogs exist - one on the system-crash
    path, and one spawned by the background update-notifier process.
    The system crash one is the failing one, the update-notifier one
    is fine. The system crash one shows first, and users may not
    bother to approve the second one given that the first didn't do
    anything
  * We receive fewer crash reports

[Test Plan]
  * sudo xeyes &
  * sudo kill -11 $PID from above
  * receive crash notification
  * click "Report problem..."
  * We should see the report procedure start

[Where problems could occur]
  * By the nature of the supplied fix, if the report process hangs
    around, the normal systemd cleanup procedures would fail to clean
    it up. This same risk is present for report processes initiated
    on the non-system-crash report code path.
  * Wayland is still affected even with this fix, for different reasons
    (LP: #1947929)

[Other Info]
Q: Systemd says KillMode=process is not recommended
https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.kill.html

In this case, killing the other processes in the control-group is part
of the problem.

The system crash dialog is a relatively simple bit of code that shows
a dialog, then runs a report process. This dialog process is spawned
as part of a chain of processes downstream from
update-notifier-crash.service.

This dialog runs the report process using g_spawn_async(). After
spawning the report process, there isn't any particular reason to keep
the dialog process around, so it exits. This exit is triggering the
KillMode behavior, and because the report process is in the control
group, the report process is killed.

Another possibility for addressing the process management is to run
the report process synchronously - keep the dialog process around
until the report is done and just make the dialog not visible. This
is not a workable answer in this case because with the current gtk
code usage, the dialog sticks around - even after the call to
gtk_widget_destroy()! This appears to be due to usage of
gtk_dialog_run(). Long term I recommend we modernize this code.
My initial fix for this LP was in that direction.
https://git.launchpad.net/~dbungert/update-notifier/commit/?id=06058d5705ed7cd636206c1ee72c376ec903fe74

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Matt Robbins (mtr-w)]

It's happening to me with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Desktop.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package update-notifier - 3.192.35

---------------
update-notifier (3.192.35) hirsute; urgency=medium

  * src/system-crash.c:
    - Wrap pkexec call in /bin/sh to workaround requirement
      that PPID not be 1. (LP: #1821412)
    - Don't use G_SPAWN_DO_NOT_REAP_CHILD in order to avoid
      zombie processes.

 -- Tiago Stürmer Daitx <email address hidden> Wed, 21 Oct 2020 19:55:37 +0000

[Dan Bungert (dbungert)]

Hi Bryan,

I advise against SRUing the current patch to focal, based on the following:
1) I have not been able to reproduce the original problem on focal - but could
see it on disco
2) The changelog for the fix states
  - Wrap pkexec call in /bin/sh to workaround requirement
    that PPID not be 1. (LP: #1821412)
  - Don't use G_SPAWN_DO_NOT_REAP_CHILD in order to avoid
    zombie processes.
3) PPID == 1 is a valid concern, given this code from polkit-1 pkexec.c: /* Figure out the parent process */ pid_of_caller = getppid (); if (pid_of_caller == 1)
    {
      /* getppid() can return 1 if the parent died (meaning that we are reaped
       * by /sbin/init); In that case we simpy bail.
       */
      g_printerr ("Refusing to render service to dead parents.\n");
      goto out;
    }
4) Without the patch, ppid is the systemd pid (not 1)
5) With the patch, ppid is still systemd (and still not 1), which suggests that
the change doesn't make the situation any better - and extracting the
before/after usage of g_spawn_async into a test program provides equivalent
results.
                       ...

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

I was testing this on Hirsute today and was nothing was happening when I clicked the "Report" button. I then ran update-notifier with --debug-misc and discovered the following in the output:

** (update-notifier:2610): DEBUG: 15:44:59.075: crashreport_check
** (update-notifier:2610): DEBUG: 15:44:59.304: crashreport found running apport now
** (update-notifier:2610): DEBUG: 15:44:59.304: fire up the crashreport tool
** (update-notifier:2610): DEBUG: 15:44:59.417: no pkexec for system reports under wayland

So it seems like this may not be working because hirsute is now using wayland. That being said there is weird behavior when not using wayland. After killing xeyes I instantly receive a crash report but clicking "Report" does nothing. However, later on when update-notifier checks for a crash report and a dialog is raised clicking "Report" does behave as expected so perhaps the fix is actually incomplete for Xorg and not working for wayland.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

I think the pkexec wayland bug is https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/backintime/+bug/1713313 but its a long read.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

It's possible that the first dialog is coming from crash.c and system-crash.c.

[Dan Bungert (dbungert)]

Moving the Wayland portion to LP: #1947929

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

 $ dput update-notifier_3.192.46_source.changes
Trying to upload package to ubuntu
Checking signature on .changes
gpg: /home/bdmurray/source-trees/update-notifier/update-notifier_3.192.46_source.changes: Valid signature from 1E918B66765B3E31
Checking signature on .dsc
gpg: /home/bdmurray/source-trees/update-notifier/update-notifier_3.192.46.dsc: Valid signature from 1E918B66765B3E31
Uploading to ubuntu (via ftp to upload.ubuntu.com):
  Uploading update-notifier_3.192.46.dsc: done.
  Uploading update-notifier_3.192.46.tar.xz: done.
  Uploading update-notifier_3.192.46_source.buildinfo: done.
  Uploading update-notifier_3.192.46_source.changes: done.
Successfully uploaded packages.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package update-notifier - 3.192.46

---------------
update-notifier (3.192.46) jammy; urgency=medium

  [ Dan Bungert ]
  * Adjust update-notifier-crash.service so that the report process is not
    killed before it has a chance to act (LP: #1821412)

 -- Brian Murray <email address hidden> Thu, 21 Oct 2021 14:49:48 -0700

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Hello Brian, or anyone else affected,

Accepted update-notifier into impish-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-notifier/3.192.45.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-impish to verification-done-impish. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-impish. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Hello Brian, or anyone else affected,

Accepted update-notifier into hirsute-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-notifier/3.192.40.4 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-hirsute to verification-done-hirsute. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-hirsute. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Hello Brian, or anyone else affected,

Accepted update-notifier into focal-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-notifier/3.192.30.10 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-focal to verification-done-focal. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-focal. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

[Dan Bungert (dbungert)]

I performed SRU verification for focal, hirsute, and impish, and all looks to be working as intended.

[Ubuntu SRU Bot (ubuntu-sru-bot)]

All autopkgtests for the newly accepted update-notifier (3.192.40.4) for hirsute have finished running.
The following regressions have been reported in tests triggered by the package:

update-notifier/3.192.40.4 (armhf)

Please visit the excuses page listed below and investigate the failures, proceeding afterwards as per the StableReleaseUpdates policy regarding autopkgtest regressions [1].

https://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/proposed-migration/hirsute/update_excuses.html#update-notifier

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Autopkgtest_Regressions

Thank you!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package update-notifier - 3.192.45.1

---------------
update-notifier (3.192.45.1) impish; urgency=medium

  * Adjust update-notifier-crash.service so that the report process is not
    killed before it has a chance to act (LP: #1821412)

 -- Dan Bungert <email address hidden> Wed, 20 Oct 2021 19:03:17 -0600

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

The verification of the Stable Release Update for update-notifier has completed successfully and the package is now being released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package update-notifier - 3.192.40.4

---------------
update-notifier (3.192.40.4) hirsute; urgency=medium

  [ Dan Bungert]
  * Adjust update-notifier-crash.service so that the report process is not
    killed before it has a chance to act (LP: #1821412)

 -- Brian Murray <email address hidden> Thu, 02 Dec 2021 16:17:47 -0800

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package update-notifier - 3.192.30.10

---------------
update-notifier (3.192.30.10) focal; urgency=medium

  [ Dan Bungert]
  * Adjust update-notifier-crash.service so that the report process is not
    killed before it has a chance to act (LP: #1821412)

 -- Brian Murray <email address hidden> Thu, 02 Dec 2021 16:19:19 -0800

[R. Diez (rdiezmail-ubuntu)]

I have an old laptop running Ubuntu MATE 22.04.3, and I am getting the same problem described in this bug report.

Package update-notifier is version 3.192.54.6 .

I killed update-notifier with SIGTERM and then restarted it on a normal console with command-line option --debug-misc . When the "System program problem detected" window appeared, and I clicked on the "Report now" button, the window disappeared and nothing else happened. Then I got 2 lines on the console, the first one "invoke_with_pkexec ()", and the second one "Refusing to render service to dead parents."