Your solution to the bug I submitted does not exist.

Well that's fine that you requested that, but I still have the problem of a
crashing computer at every reboot, you have removed all supporting files
that were included in my bug reports, and you still haven't bothered to
send me the solution that is in the "private" answer.
Telling me it is a duplicate of another bug that cannot be seen and then
failing to share the solution or workaround that will correct the issue for
me is not very helpful at all.

On Wed, Dec 10, 2014 at 7:26 PM, William Grant <
<email address hidden>> wrote:
>
> Your question #258912 on Launchpad itself changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/launchpad/+question/258912
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> William Grant proposed the following answer:
> The bug you were linked to was private.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apport/+bug/764414 request
> that Ubuntu's crash reporter not direct people to bugs that they cannot
> see.
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
>
> https://answers.launchpad.net/launchpad/+question/258912/+confirm?answer_id=0
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/launchpad/+question/258912
>
> You received this question notification because you asked the question.
>

Just as an additional information:

1. If a problem that is reported as bug by one person seems to be caused by the same root cause as another already existing bug report, then the new bug report can be marked as "duplicate" of the other report. This is done to avoid duplicate work.
2. There are cases, that the "master" bug (the one where the duplicates are referring to) is marked as "private" to avoid that private information in core dumps is made public. This is done for privacy reasons.
3. You are hitting such situation, and you have now the problem, that your bug report is marked as duplicate of another bug report which you are not allowed to see. Such situation is already recognized as a problem, and bug #764414 has been created to deal with such situation, but without solution so far.
4. The fact that your bug is marked as duplicate of another one does not indicate that there is a solution or workaround provided in that other bug. I doubt that there is already a solution in that other big for your problem (although I cannot see that other bug report either).

"...This is done to avoid duplicate work. ...but without solution so far."

The bug reports I submitted had all of the supporting files deleted, and I received an email telling me they were duplicates of an existing bug, and that I should check out that bug for solutions and workarounds. Since I am unable to see the bug that I was instructed to look at, then I have no way of knowing what kind of workarounds have been suggested to the person who reported this bug first. And since my reports have been neutered, then there is no way for anyone else to have access to some undoubtedly important information in solving the problem.
That nobody has been able to tell me a solution to this leads me to believe that nobody has been able to find one.
But it seems to me that if there are people reporting "Now my computer crashes at every reboot" that is a pretty important problem, and I would think there should be a lot of people working on the solution, or at the very least reporting "the update to xxxxxxx broke the system, here are instructions on how to remove the one broken package that is causing this."
It's just frustrating to see a request to tweak the crash reporter, when there are obviously more important things to be working on.

Any work on this would be appreciated... I updated my laptop at home without thinking about it, and now it is borked as well. Any way at all to fix this crap update would really be helpful. I've got 2 machines down now.

What Ubuntu release are you running, is it 14.10 utopic?
What package is the one that makes trouble, is it tracker-extract?
Which version is the one that makes trouble (you write about an update, which version was there before, and was it working)?
From what source did you install that package version? The data in your bug reports indicate that you might have installed the version from the gnome3-team/gnome3-staging PPA

If that is the case, have you ever read the disclaimer on that PPA:

<quote>
=== *WARNING* ===
 The packages here have been deemed not ready for general use, they have known bugs and/or regressions, sometimes of a critical nature. Mostly things should run smoothly but be prepared to use ppa-purge, when you encounter issues!

If they break your system, you get to keep both halves.
</quote>

Have you tried uninstalling that package and/or reverting to the standard Ubuntu version?
You write about a "crashing computer at every reboot" - what is crashing? Is just a single application not operating the way you expect, or is the whole computer unusable because of that problem?
In case that you cannot log in to the desktop, can you boot into command prompt or recovery mode?

What Ubuntu release are you running, is it 14.10 utopic? yes
What package is the one that makes trouble, is it tracker-extract? I have
no idea. I am guessing that was in the bug reports that were deleted.
Which version is the one that makes trouble (you write about an update,
which version was there before, and was it working)? I don't know. It said
there were updates available, and I hit the "update" button.
>From what source did you install that package version? The data in your
bug reports indicate that you might have installed the version from the
gnome3-team/gnome3-staging PPA I installed the updates that popped up
automatically.
Have you tried uninstalling that package and/or reverting to the standard
Ubuntu version? no, I just submitted the bug reports after the crashes.
You write about a "crashing computer at every reboot" - what is crashing?
Is just a single application not operating the way you expect, or is the
whole computer unusable because of that problem? The computer is crashing.
It boots up and gives a message that the system has crashed. The systems
are completely unusable.
In case that you cannot log in to the desktop, can you boot into command
prompt or recovery mode? yes to both.

On Fri, Dec 19, 2014 at 9:21 AM, Manfred Hampl <
<email address hidden>> wrote:
>
> Your question #258912 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/258912
>
> Status: Open => Needs information
>
> Manfred Hampl requested more information:
> What Ubuntu release are you running, is it 14.10 utopic?
> What package is the one that makes trouble, is it tracker-extract?
> Which version is the one that makes trouble (you write about an update,
> which version was there before, and was it working)?
> >From what source did you install that package version? The data in your
> bug reports indicate that you might have installed the version from the
> gnome3-team/gnome3-staging PPA
>
> If that is the case, have you ever read the disclaimer on that PPA:
>
> <quote>
> === *WARNING* ===
> The packages here have been deemed not ready for general use, they have
> known bugs and/or regressions, sometimes of a critical nature. Mostly
> things should run smoothly but be prepared to use ppa-purge, when you
> encounter issues!
>
> If they break your system, you get to keep both halves.
> </quote>
>
> Have you tried uninstalling that package and/or reverting to the standard
> Ubuntu version?
> You write about a "crashing computer at every reboot" - what is crashing?
> Is just a single application not operating the way you expect, or is the
> whole computer unusable because of that problem?
> In case that you cannot log in to the desktop, can you boot into command
> prompt or recovery mode?
>
> --
> To answer this request for more information, you can either reply to
> this email or enter your reply at the following page:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/258912
>
> You received this question notification because you asked the question.
>

Then try booting into command prompt mode and uninstall the tracker-extract package, e.g. with the command "sudo dpkg --remove tracker-extract" and reboot. Do you see any change?

have to do that with ctrl-alt-f1 on the laptop, no change. will try it on
the desktop tonight.

On Fri, Dec 19, 2014 at 9:51 AM, Manfred Hampl <
<email address hidden>> wrote:
>
> Your question #258912 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/258912
>
> Status: Open => Needs information
>
> Manfred Hampl requested more information:
> Then try booting into command prompt mode and uninstall the tracker-
> extract package, e.g. with the command "sudo dpkg --remove tracker-
> extract" and reboot. Do you see any change?
>
> --
> To answer this request for more information, you can either reply to
> this email or enter your reply at the following page:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/258912
>
> You received this question notification because you asked the question.
>

Look - every few weeks for the past ~5 years, when there is a ubuntu
update, I generally end up spending a weekend trying to get my systems
working again.
Having it take me to a message that lets me automatically create a bug
report and attach some huge file to it just seemed like it was a new way of
handling this problem. Hence my disappointment at being told there is
another identical bug report, only to find out that it is really the same
old thing.
If I am embarking down another hundred cul-de-sacs of "try this, ok try
that, ok how about this..." then i really dont want to waste your time on
that. I can just as easily sit at home all weekend googling things and
following workarounds until I stumble on the correct fix. It's just
frustrating as hell to have my work machine go down; I really need to have
it working so I can get some work done, and I really don't have the time to
spend guessing what went wrong this time. I'm already 3 hours into my day,
and have not actually been able to do anything work related because I've
had to spend my morning playing with linux. So rather than waste any more
of your time, I will just spend my weekend figuring it out.

On Fri, Dec 19, 2014 at 10:01 AM, snurfle <
<email address hidden>> wrote:
>
> Your question #258912 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/258912
>
> Status: Needs information => Open
>
> You gave more information on the question:
> have to do that with ctrl-alt-f1 on the laptop, no change. will try it on
> the desktop tonight.
>
> On Fri, Dec 19, 2014 at 9:51 AM, Manfred Hampl <
> <email address hidden>> wrote:
> >
> > Your question #258912 on Ubuntu changed:
> > https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/258912
> >
> > Status: Open => Needs information
> >
> > Manfred Hampl requested more information:
> > Then try booting into command prompt mode and uninstall the tracker-
> > extract package, e.g. with the command "sudo dpkg --remove tracker-
> > extract" and reboot. Do you see any change?
> >
> > --
> > To answer this request for more information, you can either reply to
> > this email or enter your reply at the following page:
> > https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/258912
> >
> > You received this question notification because you asked the question.
> >
>
> --
> You received this question notification because you asked the question.
>

Original issue solved. Link points to private solution, fix has been requested. No need to continue this thread with unrelated issues.

Thanks William Grant, that solved my question.