Ubuntu
update-manager package

How can I generate a useful bug report for a crash that happens when update manager launches?

Asked by Sean Fitzpatrick

For the last three days of testing with 11.10 I've been getting a compiz crash when update-manager auto launches. I've tried reporting it (see #858321, #859025) but since the crash occurs *before* update-manager can run, the bug gets marked as invalid. I can't think of any way to reproduce this with all packages up-to-date since if there are no updates to install, update-manager won't auto-launch!
The first couple of times this happened, compiz was not able to recover and I had to reboot the system, so I have an interest in producing a useful bug report - I'd rather not have to rely on a virtual terminal to install updates.

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Sean Fitzpatrick
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Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#1

On both bug numbers I get error page not found bug doesn't exist.
Anyway, what does compiz crash mean, is it reported by apport or how is it indicated, freeze of mouse, keyboard, screen, flickering or what else happens?
compiz --replace didn't help?
No crash report in /var/crash?

> I'd rather not have to rely on a virtual terminal to install updates.

Which is a common requisite particular when testing dev releases.
Sometimes apport refuses to report because of not updated or obsolete packages, reconsidering using vt to upgrade maybe solves the issue, at least it'll display error messages which indicate what needs to be done.

In case everything fails reinstall from daily current.

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Sean Fitzpatrick (sean-fitzpatrick) said : 		#2

Sorry, both bugs are probably still being held as private at the moment.
What was happening for me is update-manager would auto-launch into the Unity panel, and I'd get a dialog popping up telling me not all packages could be installed (this was due to a gnome-shell dependency issue that I think is sorted out now). This would follow by a compiz crash report, but compiz would fail to restart, so the desktop would be basically frozen - no keyboard or mouse input, so no way to run compiz --replace.
I could go to a virtual terminal and kill X to get back to the login screen but Unity would not restart, so I would reboot. There was a crash report in /var/crash; that's was the only way I could report the crash, since the desktop has been freezing every time the crash report appears. However, the crashes are being marked invalid by the retracing service because the updates which caused the crash in the first place had not been applied.

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Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#3

Thanks for more info on the issue. Obviously you need to try the update via vt, otherwise you'll run in circles. In case it says something like packages are holded try dist-upgrade.

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Sean Fitzpatrick (sean-fitzpatrick) said : 		#4

Yeah, I managed to sort out the gnome-shell dependency issue and so far there's no compiz crash if update-manager runs but does not request a partial upgrade.

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Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#5

> there's no compiz crash

Great. Lets hope there won't be any more, just by looking at bug fixes in changelog of unity 4.18 latest updates developers seem to be working 24 hours a day to get it finished.