File system re-created existing files/directories over existing file/directories. Original directories were hidden instead of removed.

Bug #952622 reported by Ed Hennis
8
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
ecryptfs-utils (Ubuntu)
Expired
High
Unassigned
Lucid
Invalid
High
Unassigned
Maverick
Invalid
High
Unassigned
Natty
Invalid
High
Unassigned
Oneiric
Invalid
High
Unassigned
Precise
Expired
High
Unassigned

Bug Description

I have to apologize in advance, because I don't know the exact steps that caused this problem. This is also the first time I've filed a bug report like this. I did a round of upgrades a few days ago using the update-manager. One of the updates was to kernel "2.6.32-39-generic". I let it sit for a day or so before rebooting.

After finally rebooting, I logged in, and most of my "common" files were missing (Documents, Pictures, .local, etc). My account was acting like it was newly created. Default menus, no Desktop icons, etc. It's worth mentioning that I also use ecryptfs.

After freaking out, starting to restore from backups, etc, I realized that when I rmdir'd ~/Documents, ~/Documents still existed, and the old/new ~/Documents had all my missing stuff. I cleared up a few more directories that way and magically "recovered" those missing files. I'm stopping before cleaning everything up, so I can file this report.

Here's an example problematic directory.

eah@spike:~$ ls -d .xine
.xine
eah@spike:~$ ls -d .xine*
.xine .xine
eah@spike:~$ ls -dq .xine*
.xine .xine
eah@spike:~$ ls -dql .xine*
drwxr-xr-x 2 eah eah 4096 2012-03-08 20:27 .xine
drwxr-xr-x 2 eah eah 4096 2012-03-08 20:27 .xine
eah@spike:~$ ls -dql .xine* -i
40632959 drwxr-xr-x 2 eah eah 4096 2012-03-08 20:27 .xine
40632959 drwxr-xr-x 2 eah eah 4096 2012-03-08 20:27 .xine
eah@spike:~$ ls -qlif .xine*
.xine:
40633015 catalog.cache 40632959 . 23724036 ..
.xine:
40633015 catalog.cache 40632959 . 23724036 ..
eah@spike:~$ mkdir wtf
eah@spike:~$ mv -v .xine wtf
`.xine' -> `wtf/.xine'
eah@spike:~$ ls -dql .xine* -i
25691024 drwxr-xr-x 3 eah eah 4096 2012-03-07 11:54 .xine
eah@spike:~$ ls -la wtf
total 48
drwxr-xr-x 3 eah eah 4096 2012-03-11 19:05 .
drwx--x--x 101 eah eah 36864 2012-03-11 19:05 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 eah eah 4096 2012-03-08 20:27 .xine
eah@spike:~$ ls -lai wtf
total 48
24515780 drwxr-xr-x 3 eah eah 4096 2012-03-11 19:05 .
23724036 drwx--x--x 101 eah eah 36864 2012-03-11 19:05 ..
40632959 drwxr-xr-x 2 eah eah 4096 2012-03-08 20:27 .xine

Using "find | sort | uniq -cd", I can easily find all the other problematic directories. I've attached that as "duplicate_inodes".

Revision history for this message
Ed Hennis (i-launchpad-net-ed-hennis-org) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Ed Hennis (i-launchpad-net-ed-hennis-org) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Ed Hennis (i-launchpad-net-ed-hennis-org) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton) wrote :

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It seems that your bug report is not filed about a specific source package though, rather it is just filed against Ubuntu in general. It is important that bug reports be filed about source packages so that people interested in the package can find the bugs about it. You can find some hints about determining what package your bug might be about at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. You might also ask for help in the #ubuntu-bugs irc channel on Freenode.

To change the source package that this bug is filed about visit https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/952622/+editstatus and add the package name in the text box next to the word Package.

[This is an automated message. I apologize if it reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

tags: added: bot-comment
affects: ubuntu → ecryptfs-utils (Ubuntu)
tags: added: lucid
Revision history for this message
Dustin Kirkland  (kirkland) wrote :

Breaking this bug up into a task for each series. The reporter is experiencing this against 2.6.32, which is Lucid.

Revision history for this message
Dustin Kirkland  (kirkland) wrote :

Something in Gnome is recreating the base home directory configuration from a skeleton. Possibly a race condition with the mount in eCryptfs?

Changed in ecryptfs-utils (Ubuntu Lucid):
importance: Undecided → High
Changed in ecryptfs-utils (Ubuntu Natty):
importance: Undecided → High
Changed in ecryptfs-utils (Ubuntu Oneiric):
importance: Undecided → High
Changed in ecryptfs-utils (Ubuntu Maverick):
importance: Undecided → High
Changed in ecryptfs-utils (Ubuntu Precise):
importance: Undecided → High
tags: added: lucid2precise rls-mgr-p-tracking
Revision history for this message
Hendrick Musche (hmu) wrote :

Hi there, just had the same thing happen to me. But with me, it was that there were no files left in my home directory, only a lot of long files with filenames starting like ECRYPTANDALOTOFGARBAGEAFTERTHAT. So i went back to console, umounted my home directory, logged back into Gnome and had the same effect described above. There were no major updates as far as I can see.

Revision history for this message
JC Hulce (soaringsky) wrote :

This bug affects Ubuntu 10.10, Maverick Meerkat. Maverick has reached end-of-life and is no longer supported, so I am closing the bugtask for Maverick. Please upgrade to a newer version of Ubuntu.
More information here: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-announce/2012-April/000158.html

Changed in ecryptfs-utils (Ubuntu Maverick):
status: New → Invalid
Revision history for this message
dino99 (9d9) wrote :
Changed in ecryptfs-utils (Ubuntu Natty):
status: New → Invalid
Changed in ecryptfs-utils (Ubuntu Oneiric):
status: New → Invalid
Revision history for this message
dino99 (9d9) wrote :

is it still an issue ? cant be reproduced here.

Changed in ecryptfs-utils (Ubuntu Lucid):
status: New → Invalid
Changed in ecryptfs-utils (Ubuntu Precise):
status: New → Incomplete
Changed in ecryptfs-utils (Ubuntu):
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

[Expired for ecryptfs-utils (Ubuntu Precise) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

Changed in ecryptfs-utils (Ubuntu Precise):
status: Incomplete → Expired
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

[Expired for ecryptfs-utils (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

Changed in ecryptfs-utils (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Expired
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