The apport hook discourages new bug reports

Bug #778758 reported by DavidBriscoe
26
This bug affects 3 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
xorg (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Undecided
Bryce Harrington
Natty
Fix Released
Undecided
Bryce Harrington
Oneiric
Fix Released
Undecided
Bryce Harrington

Bug Description

[Impact]
Message for the apport hook causes some confusion for X and compiz bug reporters that are trying to report bugs post-release.

[Development Fix]
The same change was applied to the ubuntu xorg git tree and will be uploaded shortly.

[Stable Fix]
The user is presented with a choice of three 'yes' options: One to flag regressions, one to flag bugs with patches, and one for everything else. For the last option we simplify the wording to just say 'Yes'. Ideally we'd like people to exhaust technical support options before filing bug reports, but recommending they do so is causing confusion.

[Test Case]
Running 'ubuntu-bug xorg' on natty will show the dialog.

[Regression Potential]
The worst thing that can happen from this change would be that the xorg apport hook no longer works for attaching info to bug reports.

[Original Report]
When I use ubuntu-bug to report bugs on xorg-related packages (unity, compiz, xorg), I'm presented with this question:

Development is completed for the 'natty' version of Ubuntu, so you should use technical support channels unless you know for certain it should be reported here?

If I found a bug that I want to report, the only applicable yes option is "Yes, The problem began after doing a system software update." This implies that the developers are interested in regressions, but not new bugs.

More information on the askubuntu question here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/39358/why-does-ubuntu-bug-imply-that-i-shouldnt-report-bugs-for-compiz-and-unity

Brian Murray said it's due to xorg's apport hook and I was asked to report this bug.

It's frustrating as a user to run ubuntu-bug to report a bug, then be told to go to askubuntu, then be told there that it's a bug and you should report it. However, I also want developers to spend their available time fixing real bugs.

Perhaps if the hook added a "tech-supported" tag to bugs that had already gone through tech support so that those bugs can rise to the top?

Or if you could import an AskUbuntu question into a bug report so it feels like asking on AskUbuntu is an important step in the bug reporting process. (Yes, copy-paste does most of that, but I think psychologically it's very different.)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: xorg 1:7.6+4ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,decor,gnomecompat,snap,mousepoll,vpswitch,regex,extrawm,grid,imgpng,compiztoolbox,text,move,place,resize,wall,session,animation,unitymtgrabhandles,expo,workarounds,ezoom,staticswitcher,fade,scale,unityshell,scaleaddon,scalefilter]
CompositorRunning: compiz
DRM.card0.DP.1:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: Off
 modes:
 edid-base64:
DRM.card0.LVDS.1:
 status: connected
 enabled: enabled
 dpms: On
 modes: 1366x768
 edid-base64: AP///////wAw5AFwAAAAAAASAQOAIhN4Ck6FnltVlSYaUFQAAAABAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBPhxWoFAAFjAwIDUAWMIQAAAZPhxWoFAAFjAwIDUAWMIQAAAZAAAA/gBENjY5SoExNTZXSDIKAAAAAAD//////////wEBCiAgAME=
DRM.card0.VGA.1:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: Off
 modes:
 edid-base64:
Date: Fri May 6 13:57:18 2011
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: natty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus: bcmwl, 5.100.82.38+bdcom, 2.6.38-8-generic, x86_64: installed
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a42] (rev 07) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:02aa]
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:02aa]
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110427.1)
MachineType: Dell Inc. Inspiron 1545
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_CA:en
 LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic root=UUID=19e6b2b5-cf83-4ea1-9103-e65b2b680694 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
Renderer: Unknown
SourcePackage: xorg
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 05/13/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A07
dmi.board.name: 0G848F
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA07:bd05/13/2009:svnDellInc.:pnInspiron1545:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0G848F:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Inspiron 1545
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.4+bzr20110415-0ubuntu2
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs 20090808ubuntu13
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.23-1ubuntu6
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 7.10.2-0ubuntu2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 7.10.2-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg: xserver-xorg 1:7.6+4ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.0-0ubuntu4
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.14.0-4ubuntu7.1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20110107+b795ca6e-0ubuntu7

Revision history for this message
DavidBriscoe (idbrii) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote :

"Perhaps if the hook added a "tech-supported" tag to bugs that had already gone through tech support so that those bugs can rise to the top? Or if you could import an AskUbuntu question into a bug report so it feels like asking on AskUbuntu is an important step in the bug reporting process. (Yes, copy-paste does most of that, but I think psychologically it's very different.)"

I'm not sure how that all would be implemented, but it's not a bad idea.

"It's frustrating as a user to run ubuntu-bug to report a bug, then be told to go to askubuntu, then be told there that it's a bug and you should report it. However, I also want developers to spend their available time fixing real bugs."

Right, this came out of a discussion I had with Jorge in Dallas. A huge proportion of the people filing bugs against X post-release are more motivated to get a quick workaround to get their machine working. Once they have a workaround they're less interested in expending time with the additional testing, git-bisecting, and diagnostics needed to root cause a problem. So... we get into the situation of "fixing" hardware one machine at a time, which doesn't scale that well.

Further, these users get annoyed because pretty much only developers answer X bug reports on launchpad, and there are very few developers and they're very busy so it's common that users report a bug and not get a response for a long time (if ever). By the time a developer does cycle through to them, the user has either found some other way to work around the problem or given up, and so the bug is unworkable. I believe we serve these types of users better by directing them out of launchpad to forums or support sites where they're more likely to get a timely response and guidance to published workarounds... or yeah, it's a bug, file it in launchpad.

If we can leverage askubuntu.com better, we can solve both needs - users get faster replies and quicker help working around problems, and developers don't have to dig through as much noise to find the bugs that really need fixing.

Although, I'll admit I hadn't considered that the compiz folks might prefer to have all bug reports filed, even support requests and such. It would be pretty trivial to conditionalize this dialog to not run for compiz/unity bugs.

Changed in xorg (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → Bryce Harrington (bryce)
bugbot (bugbot)
tags: added: kubuntu
Bryce Harrington (bryce)
Changed in xorg (Ubuntu Natty):
status: New → In Progress
Changed in xorg (Ubuntu Oneiric):
status: New → In Progress
Changed in xorg (Ubuntu Natty):
assignee: nobody → Bryce Harrington (bryce)
Bryce Harrington (bryce)
description: updated
Revision history for this message
Martin Pitt (pitti) wrote : Please test proposed package

Accepted xorg into natty-proposed, the package will build now and be available in a few hours. Please test and give feedback here. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you in advance!

Changed in xorg (Ubuntu Natty):
status: In Progress → Fix Committed
tags: added: verification-needed
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :
Download full text (3.5 KiB)

This bug was fixed in the package xorg - 1:7.6+7ubuntu1

---------------
xorg (1:7.6+7ubuntu1) oneiric; urgency=low

  * Merge from Debian unstable, remaining changes:
    - Add apport hook
    - Demote xfonts-{75DPI,100DPI} to Suggests. Demote xfonts-scalable to
      Recommends.
    - debian/local/Xsession:
      Truncate xsession-errors on startup if too big
    - debian/local/Xsession.d/20x11-common_process-args:
      Add support for session command containing args.
    - debian/local/Xsession.d/60x11-common_localhost:
      Authorise all processes running with the user's credentials to connect
      to the server.
    - debian/rules, debian/control:
      Add dependencies on x11-common, and symlink /usr/share/doc directories
      of all packages to x11-common's.
    - debian/scripts/vars.*:
      + Don't drop wacom from input-all.
      + Add -vmmouse to input-all for amd64 and i386.
      + Add -qxl to video-all for amd64 and i386.
      + Add -geode to video-all for i386.
      + Drop video drivers that are likely irrelevant for ARM.
    - debian/xserver-xorg.postinst.in: Also migrate users from psb → vesa.

  [ Bryce Harrington ]
  * apport/source_xorg.py:
    - Move Failsafe-X out of the xorg package to xdiagnose
      (LP: #480744)
    - Simplify answers for bug reporters filing post-release reports.
      (LP: #778758)
    - Remove attach_drm_info(). This is useful info but we use it very
      infrequently, and it is already available in other log files. But the
      call makes bug reports a bit cluttered since it adds a lot of lines to
      the report itself.

  [ Timo Aaltonen ]
  * rules: A stampfile generation was commented out by mistake, uncomment
    it.
  * Rework the x11-common.{postinst,postrm,preinst} failsafe conffile
    handling, the previous ones added in 1:7.6+4ubuntu1 were wrong too.
  * scripts/vars.{amd64,i386,powerpc}: Remove apm, ark, chips, i128, i740,
    rendition, s3virge, tseng, voodoo from xserver-xorg-video-all
    dependencies. They are unmaintained and obsolete.

xorg (1:7.6+7) unstable; urgency=low

  * Remove long obsolete XF86Config-4 on purge (Closes: #610450). Thanks,
    Bernhard R. Link!
  * Add support for armhf (Closes: #605841), Thanks, Konstantinos
    Margaritis! Keep wacom in Recommends rather than in Depends, though.
  * Set the same permissions on all debian/scripts/vars.* files: no need
    to have them +x.
  * Remove debian/scripts/validate-posix-sh, unused.
  * Address description-synopsis-starts-with-article lintian tag.
  * Bump Standards-Version (no changes needed).
  * Merge xsf-docs up to the f920810e8f commit:
    - Add: reference/experimental
    - Add: reference/git-usage
    - Update: faq/general (firmware for ATI)
    - and other minor updates.

xorg (1:7.6+6) unstable; urgency=low

  * Merge xsf-docs up to the bd39472b0c commit:
    - Conversion from markdown to asciidoc.
  * Tweak the Makefile accordingly to stop trying to build and install PDF
    documents, since wkhtmltopdf fails on several architectures. Let's
    enable them again later, once bugs are fixed.
  * Adjust build system and build-dependencies accordingly:
    - Add asciidoc build-dep.
    - Remove m...

Read more...

Changed in xorg (Ubuntu Oneiric):
status: In Progress → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote :

Any reason not to roll this out? It's an obviously safe fix to non-infrastructure code (just the apport hook; has no effect on X.org itself).

Jorge had requested this change originally; I'd asked him to do the verification testing and provide feedback, but guess it slipped his mind.

Revision history for this message
Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote :

(For clarification I mean roll out to natty, since the natty task is still only at Fix Committed.)

Revision history for this message
Martin Pitt (pitti) wrote :

We didn't get any feedback about "I installed this and it still works", but as this is only an arch:all data package it's probably safe enough.

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package xorg - 1:7.6+4ubuntu3.1

---------------
xorg (1:7.6+4ubuntu3.1) natty-proposed; urgency=low

  * apport/source_xorg.py:
    - Simplify answers for bug reporters filing post-release reports.
      (LP: #778758)
    - Remove attach_drm_info(). This is useful info but we use it very
      infrequently, and it is already available in other log files. But the
      call makes bug reports a bit cluttered since it adds a lot of lines to
      the report itself.
 -- Bryce Harrington <email address hidden> Thu, 07 Apr 2011 14:02:40 -0700

Changed in xorg (Ubuntu Natty):
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
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