package-data-downloader crashed with ValueError in command(): invalid literal for int() with base 10: ''

[Le Minh Duc]

I have no idea about it

ProblemType: Crash
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: update-notifier-common 0.119ubuntu7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-23.36-generic-pae 3.2.14
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-23-generic-pae i686
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu3
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Apr 17 07:33:16 2012
ExecutablePath: /usr/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloader
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Beta i386 (20120328)
InterpreterPath: /usr/bin/python2.7
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcCmdline: /usr/bin/python /usr/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloader
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 TERM=xterm
 SHELL=/bin/bash
PythonArgs: ['/usr/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloader']
SourcePackage: update-notifier
Title: package-data-downloader crashed with ValueError in command(): invalid literal for int() with base 10: ''
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups:

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Benjamin (nailartcenter)]

Occured while I had open Synaptic and in the moment while deinstall complete any configs of the last removed packages.

[Rada (ldrada)]

I upgraded 11.10 to 12.04 and now I get this error, my computer crashed halfway and I had to do "sudo dpkg --configure -a" to fix it. I have no idea how this affects me.

[Martin Marmolejo (martinianomarmolejo)]

The same thing happened to me. Upgraded, crashed halfway, "sudo dpkg --configure -a".

[Michael Heyns (mike-bean-heyns)]

Happens to me when installing dependencies for tv-maxe (ppa:venerix/blug) on 12.04. Replicated on desktop and laptop. Not sure if it's related.

[Bob Filipiak (bfilipiak)]

Include me as someone who has been hit by this.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Hey Michael, that bug is one of the most reported ones on errors.ubuntu.com, could you have a look to it?

[TJ (tj)]

I've been doing some analysis of this bug. It's difficult to follow for a debconf outsider since it encompasses Python and PERL modules and inter-process pipes and so on, but from the reading the source-code and looking at our tracebacks it seems that the debconf "version" command is returning an empty string:

  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/debconf.py", line 81, in command
    status = int(status)
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: ''

The '' at the end of the ValueError line indicates that

status = ''

It is set in one of two ways based reading the inter-process pipe to debconf-communicate (/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/debconf.py):

        if ' ' in resp:
            status, data = resp.split(' ', 1)
        else:
            status, data = resp, ''

This gives two possibilities for the contents of the 'resp' list returned from debconf-communicate:

1. a single space
2. an empy string

After reading the Python 2.7 documentation for the subprocess module I suspect this warning might give us some insight into the cause of this bug:

"Warning: Use communicate() rather than .stdin.write, .stdout.read or .stderr.read to avoid deadlocks due to any of the other OS pipe buffers filling up and blocking the child process."

Source: http://docs.python.org/library/subprocess.html#subprocess.Popen.kill

[TJ (tj)]

I'm attaching a patch I've installed locally that might capture useful information about the process. As it doesn't seem to be predictable I shall leave the patch in place until (hopefully) the next time the bug strikes.

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

The attachment "Debugging patch for debconf" of this bug report has been identified as being a patch. The ubuntu-reviewers team has been subscribed to the bug report so that they can review the patch. In the event that this is in fact not a patch you can resolve this situation by removing the tag 'patch' from the bug report and editing the attachment so that it is not flagged as a patch. Additionally, if you are member of the ubuntu-reviewers team please also unsubscribe the team from this bug report.

[This is an automated message performed by a Launchpad user owned by Brian Murray. Please contact him regarding any issues with the action taken in this bug report.]

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

This error from debconf.py generally means that the backend process died unexpectedly. If you can manage to reproduce it, I suggest running with DEBCONF_DEBUG=developer set in the environment to get a better trace.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Also, this isn't a deadlock, so I think you're on the wrong track with that bit of the subprocess documentation. If it were a deadlock, the process would hang, not raise an exception.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

As the patch attachment attached to this bug is for debugging and doesn't resolve the issue I am going to unflag the patch attachment and unsubscribe the Ubuntu patch reviewers team.

[Vincent Gerris (vgerris)]

Happens to me on 14.04 LTS with todays updates for 64 bit on Lenovo Yoga 11 2.