usb-creator-gtk errors during app startup

[cchuey01]

I upgraded my Ubuntu 14.04 installation today with the latest patches. I consistently receive the following error when I attempt to startup the "Startup Disk Creator" utility. This issue is not related to similar issues I read related to a particular mounted USB device... I did not have any USB devices mounted when I receive this error.

Error message:

An unhandled exception occured:
first argument must be the method signature string: GLib.Variant('a{sv}', {})
---
ApportVersion: 2.14-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-04-04 (0 days ago)
InstallationMedia:

Package: usb-creator (not installed)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-20.42-generic 3.13.7
Tags: trusty
UDisksDump: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-20-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups:

_MarkForUpload: True
---
ApportVersion: 2.14-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-04-04 (0 days ago)
InstallationMedia:

Package: usb-creator (not installed)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-20.42-generic 3.13.7
Tags: trusty
UDisksDump: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-20-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups:

_MarkForUpload: True

[cchuey01 (c2huey)]

apport information

[cchuey01 (c2huey)]

apport information

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Zaris (zaris)]

It gives this error on Virtualbox guest Ubunut 14.04.

[Niclas Lockner (niclasl)]

This happens only with one of my two USB sticks.
I don't know if it's relevant, but the stick that causes the crash also has a fake CD that is mounted to /dev/sr0, while the one that works only has a single device.

[sunweb (sunweb)]

As Niclas Lockner (niclasl) said it occures when there is a fake cd on it(like in mypassport hdd). With other flash drives everything is ok.

[Michisteiner (michisteiner)]

The problem seems triggered by the fake cdroms on SanDisk Cruzers

Following the stack trace ...

 /usr/lib/python3.4/bdb.py(431)run()
-> exec(cmd, globals, locals)
  <string>(1)<module>()
  /usr/bin/usb-creator-gtk(74)<module>()
-> allow_system_internal=options.allow_system_internal)
  /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/usbcreator/frontends/gtk/frontend.py(185)__init__()
-> self.backend.detect_devices()
  /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/usbcreator/backends/udisks/backend.py(73)detect_devices()
-> self._udisks_obj_added(obj)
  /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/usbcreator/backends/udisks/backend.py(92)_udisks_obj_added()
-> self._udisks_cdrom_added(obj, block, drive, path)
  /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/usbcreator/backends/udisks/backend.py(111)_udisks_cdrom_added()
-> mount = fs.mount_sync(no_options, None)
> /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/gi/overrides/Gio.py(152)__call__()
-> raise TypeError('first argument must be the method signature string: %r' % signature)

.. of the exception which is trigered by

      if not isinstance(signature, str):

on line 151 on /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/gi/overrides/Gio.py

prints in pdb3 give following values for the arguments:

  p signature
  GLib.Variant('a{sv}', {})

  p str
  <class 'str'>

Unfortunately, my knowledge of glib/dbus is zilch and python minimal
so i gave up and simply commented out lines 91-92 of

   /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/usbcreator/backends/udisks/backend.py

the lines

       if drive and drive.get_cached_property('Optical').get_boolean():
            self._udisks_cdrom_added(obj, block, drive, path)

Obviously that hack wouldn't work if you want to clone an actual cd in
the cdrom drive but works perfectly for .iso images

btw: Bug #1279987 seems a duplicate of this

[Alroger Filho (alroger-cafe-ti)]

Well, thank you Michisteiner, commenting those 2 lines makes it work. Xubuntu 14.04 here.
Each new version, usb creator has a new problem... impressive.

[Jan Rathmann (kaiserclaudius)]

This bug happened on my system when my DVD drive contained a Video-DVD while starting USB creator. When I ejected the DVD, USB creator came up again properly.

Kind regards,
Jan

[Hallvard Nygård (hnygard)]

I had this problem when opening USB creator with 2 external hard drives and a memory card . After some trail and error I found that disconnecting the 2 external hard drives fixed the problem. They where connected via docking station. Using Xubuntu 14.04.

A little note on the hard drives. One of them sets up a fake CD in addition to the partition.

[Randy Olive (randy-jr-olive)]

I also experience this issue, and as Hallvard Nygård (hnygard) pointed out, if I remove my external hardrive, the error goes aways as well. My external harddrive has a split "fake" cd on it as well.

[Charles McColm (chaslinux)]

As Jan Rathmann mentioned this issue went away for me when I removed a video DVD (not mounted). Interestingly the issue popped up whether I had a USB key in or not. Some drives were on my desktop, but not mounted. In my case I have a blueray player (not DVD player).

[Yu Ning (yuningdodo)]

This bug should be a duplicate of bug #1302295, which is already fixed.