method mirror broken at 1.3

[Ivan Borzenkov]

[Impact]
The mirror method always dies with a SEGV. It does not initialize _system but calls a function that sometimes uses it.

[Test case]
Use a mirror sources.list entry like

deb mirror://mirrors.ubuntu.com/mirrors.txt zesty main restricted universe multiverse

[Regression potential]
The fix is small, and simply avoids using _system if _system is NULL in the called method. There should not be any regressions due to this.

https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/apt/apt.git/commit/?id=cba5c5a26a9bf00724f8ea647ac61b30e32734ba

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

Confirmed. Seems to crash in pkgSystem::ArchitecturesSupported(), called transitively from pkgSourceList::Type::ParseLine()

[Pieter (diepes)]

temporary workaround is to downgrade to 1.2

# dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/apt-transport-https_1.2.15ubuntu0.2_amd64.deb

repeat dpkg -i for

/var/cache/apt/archives/apt-transport-https_1.2.15ubuntu0.2_amd64.deb
/var/cache/apt/archives/apt-utils_1.2.15ubuntu0.2_amd64.deb
/var/cache/apt/archives/libapt-inst2.0_1.2.15ubuntu0.2_amd64.deb
/var/cache/apt/archives/libapt-pkg5.0_1.2.15ubuntu0.2_amd64.deb

[Pieter (diepes)]

synaptic pop-up error message.

Method mirror has died unexpectedly!Sub-process mirror received a segmentation fault.

[Pieter (diepes)]

Permanent fix, avoid mirror in apt source file

#Replaced
deb mirror://mirrors.ubuntu.com/mirrors.txt yakkety main restricted

#with

deb http://nz.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ yakkety main restricted

[Bortnyák Roland (antivirtel)]

@diepes don't forget to downgrade also APT, since it will not be installed without that

[Ivan Borzenkov (ivan1986)]

Pieter, great fix! :)

strange
if install from zesty by apt - segmentation fault
if download dsc from zesty and build package - works fine

[Bortnyák Roland (antivirtel)]

@ivan1986 I've tried on 17.04 (Zesty), but it didn't work:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install apt-src
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list # enable deb-src lines
sudo apt-src update
sudo apt-src install apt-transport-https apt-utils libapt-inst2.0 libapt-pkg5.0
sudo apt-src build apt apt-transport-https apt-utils libapt-inst2.0 libapt-pkg5.0

How did you fix it?

[elichai2 (elichai2)]

Same problem in Zesty.

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

Fix at https://github.com/julian-klode/apt/compare/master...julian-klode:bugfix/mirror-crash?expand=1 - currently waiting for some feedback.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package apt - 1.5~rc2

---------------
apt (1.5~rc2) unstable; urgency=medium

  [ Julian Andres Klode ]
  * Actually install apt_auth.conf manual page (Closes: #873934)
  * test: Workaround gpgv warning
  * apt-daily: Wait for network before daily updates.
    Introduce a new helper, apt-helper wait-online that uses
    NetworkManager and/or systemd-networkd to wait for them
    reporting online, with a time out of 30 seconds; and run
    that helper before running the daily update script. (LP: #1699850)
  * apt-daily: Pull in network-online.target in service, not timer
  * Do not warn about duplicate "legacy" targets (Closes: #839259)
    (LP: #1697120)
  * cdrom: Don't hardcode "Files" field for copying source files
  * ftparchive: Do not pass through disabled hashes in Sources (Closes: #872963)
  * Directly link against libudev on Linux systems - this does not affect
    public API and ABI, but protected pkgUdevCdromDevices function pointers
    were renamed and are now always NULL, even if Dlopen returns true.

  [ Christos Trochalakis ]
  * doc: correct '--allow-releaseinfo-change-*' typos (Closes: #873914)

  [ Frans Spiesschaert ]
  * Dutch program translation update (Closes: #874285)
  * Dutch manpage translation update (Closes: #874293)

  [ David Kalnischkies ]
  * don't write & chmod /dev/null log files
  * don't ask an uninit _system for supported archs (LP: #1613184)

 -- Julian Andres Klode <email address hidden> Sat, 09 Sep 2017 21:47:14 +0200

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Hello Ivan, or anyone else affected,

Accepted apt into zesty-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt/1.4.8 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 and change the tag from verification-needed-zesty to verification-done-zesty. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-zesty. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

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

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Hello Ivan, or anyone else affected,

Accepted apt into xenial-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt/1.2.25 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 and change the tag from verification-needed-xenial to verification-done-xenial. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-xenial. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

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

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

As a part of the Stable Release Updates quality process a search for Launchpad bug reports using the version of apt from xenial-proposed was performed and bug 1728596 was found. Please investigate this bug report to ensure that a regression will not be created by this SRU. In the event that this is not a regression remove the "verification-failed" tag from this bug report and add the tag "bot-stop-nagging" to bug 1728596 (not this bug). Thanks!

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

Hmm, this bug is not actually triggered in xenial, but the fix is still a good thing. I think we should keep it, but it's not really verifiable on its own, and just mark it as verified-done.

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

Verified on zesty:

root@d5c73dbb41a2:/# apt-cache policy libapt-pkg5.0
libapt-pkg5.0:
  Installed: 1.4.6~17.04.1
  Candidate: 1.4.8
  Version table:
     1.4.8 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty-proposed/main amd64 Packages
 *** 1.4.6~17.04.1 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty-updates/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1.4 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty/main amd64 Packages
root@d5c73dbb41a2:/# apt update
Hit:1 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty-security InRelease
Hit:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty InRelease
Hit:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty-updates InRelease
Get:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty-backports InRelease [89.2 kB]
Reading package lists... Done
E: Method mirror has died unexpectedly!
E: Sub-process mirror received a segmentation fault.
root@d5c73dbb41a2:/# apt install -q -y libapt-pkg5.0
Reading package lists...
Building dependency tree...
Reading state information...
The following packages will be upgraded:
  libapt-pkg5.0
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 6 not upgraded.
Need to get 784 kB of archives.
After this operation, 1024 B of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty-proposed/main amd64 libapt-pkg5.0 amd64 1.4.8 [784 kB]
Fetched 784 kB in 1s (550 kB/s)
debconf: delaying package configuration, since apt-utils is not installed
(Reading database ... 4078 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../libapt-pkg5.0_1.4.8_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libapt-pkg5.0:amd64 (1.4.8) over (1.4.6~17.04.1) ...
Setting up libapt-pkg5.0:amd64 (1.4.8) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.24-9ubuntu2.2) ...
root@d5c73dbb41a2:/# apt update
Hit:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty InRelease
Hit:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty-security InRelease
Hit:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty-updates InRelease
Get:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty-backports InRelease [89.2 kB]
Get:5 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty-proposed InRelease [240 kB]
Get:6 mirror://mirrors.ubuntu.com/mirrors.txt zesty InRelease [243 kB]
Get:7 mirror://mirrors.ubuntu.com/mirrors.txt zesty/main amd64 Packages [1574 kB]
Fetched 2147 kB in 2s (733 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
6 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.

[Jarl (jarl-dk)]

Confirmed Verified on zesty using version 1.4.8

Jarl

[Jarl (jarl-dk)]

Note that this bug is a blocker for standard upgrade path from Zesty to Artful.

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

Marked xenial as verified, because, while the problem itself does not exist, it still fixes the same underlying bug from an API perspective.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package apt - 1.2.25

---------------
apt (1.2.25) xenial; urgency=medium

  * Microrelease covering 1.4.7 (LP: #1702326) and 1.4.8

  [ Robert Luberda ]
  * fix a "critical" typo in old changelog entry (Closes: 866358)

  [ David Kalnischkies ]
  * use port from SRV record instead of initial port
  * don't ask an uninit _system for supported archs (LP: #1613184)

  [ Julian Andres Klode ]
  * Reset failure reason when connection was successful
  * http: A response with Content-Length: 0 has no content
  * apt-daily: Pull in network-online.target in service, not timer
    (LP: #1716973)

  [ Balint Reczey ]
  * Gracefully terminate process when stopping apt-daily-upgrade (LP: #1690980)

 -- Julian Andres Klode <email address hidden> Tue, 26 Sep 2017 16:14:54 +0200

[Chris Halse Rogers (raof)]

The verification of the Stable Release Update for apt has completed successfully and the package has now been 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.

[Bojan Markovic (bmarkovic)]

I am still having this error if I select mirror method on Zesty with apt 1.4.6

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

@Bojan The fix would have been in 1.4.8, but zesty is not supported anymore - please upgrade to artful.