Ubuntu
checkbox package

Jobs whose commands can't be found or exit with signals result in strange behavior and dead backends

Bug #1024541 reported by Daniel Manrique on 2012-07-13

This bug affects 1 person

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	checkbox (Ubuntu)	Fix Released	High	Daniel Manrique	Ubuntu quantal-alpha-3

Bug Description

This was observed when /usr/share/checkbox/scripts was emptied by accident. In this case, the backend tries to execute a nonexistent command, and then dies silently. However this affects checkbox.job generically, so if a non-root job specifies a non-findable command, it will potentially also fail (albeit with a trace on the log).

The reason was found (by cr3) to be that the Job.execute method could return either bytes (in most cases, the result of the command is returned as bytes), or a string (a generic error message assigned by Job in the case of commands that aren't present or exit with signals). This was confusing the backend, which always tries to decode data returned from jobs.

The fix is to explicitly encode the error strings assigned by Jobs, so that the data received by the backend (and other invokers of Job.execute) is always consistent.

Steps to reproduce:

- Either move /usr/share/checkbox/scripts out of the way, or create a job with a nonexistent command and user: root.
- Launch checkbox

Expected result:
- List of tests to select from
- Backend remains there, awaiting our commands.

Actual result:
- Backend dies silently.
- Frontend stalls forever waiting for backend.

Since the backend dies quite silently, the way to determine what was happening was to add some debugging statements to the backend, so that it reported exceptions other than UnicodeDecodeError after executing the job.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: checkbox 0.14.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.4.0-3.8-generic 3.4.0
Uname: Linux 3.4.0-3-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.1.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: i386
Date: Fri Jul 13 16:26:53 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Alpha i386 (20120601)
ProcEnviron:
LANGUAGE=en_CA:en
TERM=xterm
PATH=(custom, no user)
LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: checkbox
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

Tags:

Related branches

lp:~roadmr/checkbox/fix-backend-crash

Merged into lp:checkbox at revision 1516

Marc Tardif (community): Approve on 2012-07-13

lp:checkbox

lp:~roadmr/ubuntu/quantal/checkbox/0.14.2

Merged into lp:ubuntu/quantal/checkbox at revision 46

Luke Yelavich (community): Approve on 2012-07-18

Ubuntu branches: Pending requested 2012-07-17

Diff: 121705 lines (+24643/-21683)

183 files modified

checkbox/job.py (+18/-4)
checkbox/lib/dmi.py (+16/-0)
checkbox/lib/resolver.py (+6/-4)
checkbox/lib/tests/resolver.py (+3/-1)
checkbox/parsers/dmidecode.py (+4/-1)
checkbox/parsers/efi.py (+52/-0)
checkbox/parsers/submission.py (+29/-12)
checkbox/parsers/tests/efi.py (+63/-0)
checkbox/tests/job.py (+37/-0)
checkbox/tests/message_files.py (+57/-0)
data/websites/html5_video.html (+14/-0)
data/whitelists/default.whitelist (+2/-0)
data/whitelists/smoke.whitelist (+1/-0)
data/whitelists/sniff.whitelist (+1/-0)
debian/changelog (+114/-0)
debian/checkbox-qt.install (+1/-1)
debian/checkbox.config (+0/-2)
debian/checkbox.install (+1/-1)
debian/checkbox.links (+1/-0)
debian/checkbox.templates (+0/-12)
debian/control (+9/-5)
debian/po/ast.po (+19/-50)
debian/po/cs.po (+19/-48)
debian/po/de.po (+19/-54)
debian/po/en_AU.po (+19/-52)
debian/po/en_GB.po (+19/-52)
debian/po/es.po (+21/-54)
debian/po/fr.po (+19/-48)
debian/po/he.po (+19/-48)
debian/po/hu.po (+19/-50)
debian/po/it.po (+19/-52)
debian/po/ja.po (+19/-53)
debian/po/nl.po (+19/-54)
debian/po/oc.po (+19/-48)
debian/po/pl.po (+19/-48)
debian/po/pt_BR.po (+19/-53)
debian/po/ro.po (+19/-48)
debian/po/ru.po (+19/-48)
debian/po/templates.pot (+16/-44)
debian/po/tr.po (+19/-48)
debian/po/uk.po (+19/-48)
debian/po/zh_CN.po (+19/-48)
debian/po/zh_TW.po (+19/-50)
debian/pycompat (+0/-1)
debian/rules (+10/-1)
debian/watch (+0/-3)
install/postinst (+1/-1)
jobs/cpu.txt.in (+8/-2)
jobs/disk.txt.in (+5/-5)
jobs/firewire.txt.in (+6/-0)
jobs/info.txt.in (+9/-8)
jobs/install.txt.in (+4/-2)
jobs/mediacard.txt.in (+48/-0)
jobs/miscellanea.txt.in (+3/-2)
jobs/networking.txt.in (+1/-1)
jobs/power-management.txt.in (+11/-2)
jobs/resource.txt.in (+5/-0)
jobs/usb.txt.in (+22/-10)
jobs/wireless.txt.in (+1/-1)
patches/0.14.2 (+17/-0)
patches/0.4 (+3/-3)
patches/0.5 (+3/-3)
patches/0.8 (+3/-3)
patches/0.9 (+3/-3)
plugins/message_info.py (+0/-2)
po/POTFILES.in (+2/-0)
po/ace.po (+238/-208)
po/af.po (+238/-208)
po/am.po (+238/-208)
po/ar.po (+241/-211)
po/ast.po (+248/-209)
po/az.po (+238/-208)
po/be.po (+238/-208)
po/bg.po (+238/-208)
po/bn.po (+247/-208)
po/bo.po (+238/-208)
po/br.po (+238/-208)
po/bs.po (+247/-208)
po/ca.po (+238/-208)
po/ca@valencia.po (+238/-208)
po/checkbox.pot (+236/-206)
po/ckb.po (+238/-208)
po/cs.po (+246/-207)
po/cy.po (+238/-208)
po/da.po (+238/-208)
po/de.po (+224/-200)
po/dv.po (+238/-208)
po/el.po (+250/-211)
po/en_AU.po (+585/-546)
po/en_CA.po (+238/-208)
po/en_GB.po (+555/-516)
po/eo.po (+238/-208)
po/es.po (+225/-197)
po/et.po (+238/-208)
po/eu.po (+238/-208)
po/fa.po (+238/-208)
po/fi.po (+241/-208)
po/fr.po (+238/-205)
po/ga.po (+238/-208)
po/gd.po (+238/-208)
po/gl.po (+238/-208)
po/he.po (+238/-208)
po/hi.po (+238/-208)
po/hr.po (+238/-208)
po/hu.po (+248/-209)
po/hy.po (+238/-208)
po/id.po (+238/-208)
po/is.po (+238/-208)
po/it.po (+250/-211)
po/ja.po (+241/-208)
po/jbo.po (+238/-208)
po/ka.po (+238/-208)
po/kk.po (+238/-208)
po/km.po (+249/-210)
po/kn.po (+238/-208)
po/ko.po (+238/-208)
po/ku.po (+238/-208)
po/ky.po (+238/-208)
po/lt.po (+238/-208)
po/lv.po (+238/-208)
po/mk.po (+238/-208)
po/ml.po (+238/-208)
po/mr.po (+238/-208)
po/ms.po (+247/-208)
po/my.po (+238/-208)
po/nb.po (+238/-208)
po/nds.po (+238/-208)
po/ne.po (+238/-208)
po/nl.po (+249/-210)
po/nn.po (+238/-208)
po/oc.po (+241/-205)
po/pl.po (+238/-208)
po/ps.po (+238/-208)
po/pt.po (+238/-208)
po/pt_BR.po (+224/-196)
po/ro.po (+249/-210)
po/ru.po (+247/-208)
po/sd.po (+238/-208)
po/shn.po (+238/-208)
po/si.po (+238/-208)
po/sk.po (+238/-208)
po/sl.po (+249/-210)
po/sq.po (+240/-208)
po/sr.po (+238/-208)
po/sv.po (+238/-208)
po/ta.po (+238/-208)
po/te.po (+238/-208)
po/th.po (+238/-208)
po/tr.po (+246/-207)
po/ug.po (+249/-210)
po/uk.po (+343/-277)
po/ur.po (+238/-208)
po/uz.po (+238/-208)
po/vi.po (+238/-208)
po/zh_CN.po (+246/-207)
po/zh_HK.po (+238/-208)
po/zh_TW.po (+238/-208)
qt/checkbox-qt.desktop.in (+1/-1)
qt/com.canonical.QtCheckbox.service (+1/-1)
scripts/cpu_offlining (+13/-15)
scripts/cpu_scaling_test (+0/-630)
scripts/cpu_topology (+18/-10)
scripts/create_connection (+23/-17)
scripts/disk_read_performance_test (+28/-6)
scripts/disk_smart (+20/-5)
scripts/disk_stats_test (+4/-7)
scripts/dmi_resource (+4/-4)
scripts/efi_resource (+54/-0)
scripts/frequency_governors_test (+645/-0)
scripts/fwts_test (+5/-4)
scripts/gpu_test (+9/-23)
scripts/ipmi_test (+9/-2)
scripts/memory_compare (+75/-27)
scripts/memory_test (+38/-21)
scripts/network_bandwidth_test (+16/-11)
scripts/network_device_info (+1/-1)
scripts/network_ntp_test (+24/-20)
scripts/optical_detect (+1/-1)
scripts/optical_read_test (+18/-8)
scripts/process_wait (+3/-2)
scripts/removable_storage_test (+63/-50)
setup.cfg (+1/-0)
setup.py (+1/-1)

Revision history for this message

Daniel Manrique (roadmr) wrote on 2012-07-13:

.home.roadmr..cache.checkbox.checkbox.log.txt Edit (74.2 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
Dependencies.txt Edit (2.1 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")

Changed in checkbox (Ubuntu):
status:	New → In Progress
importance:	Undecided → High
assignee:	nobody → Daniel Manrique (roadmr)
milestone:	none → quantal-alpha-3

Revision history for this message

Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote on 2012-07-18:

Download full text (6.3 KiB)

This bug was fixed in the package checkbox - 0.14.2

---------------
checkbox (0.14.2) quantal; urgency=low

* New upstream release (LP: #1025869)

[Jeff Marcom]
* scripts/gpu_test - Fixed potential thread exiting issue.

[Javier Collado]
* Fixed detection of circular references in resolver.

This bug was fixed in the package checkbox - 0.14.2

---------------
checkbox (0.14.2) quantal; urgency=low

* New upstream release (LP: #1025869)

[Jeff Marcom]
  * scripts/gpu_test - Fixed potential thread exiting issue.

[Javier Collado]
  * Fixed detection of circular references in resolver.

[Jeff Lane]
  * New version 0.14.2 for Quantal Quetzal development.
  * jobs/cpu.txt.in: added cpu_scaling_test log attachment job
  * jobs/disk.txt.in: modified block_device requirements so they'll work right
    jobs/info.txt.in: added block_device resource requirements to hdparm job so
    it won't run on removable stuff where it's not necessary.
  * jobs/info.txt.in: removed extraneous fwts_log job
    jobs/miscellanea.txt.in: modified fwts_results.log job
  * scripts/optical_detect: minor tweak to send error output to stderr
    scripts/optical_read_test: added root user check because this needs to be
    run with root privileges. Added some additional output for stderr for
    failures so we will know WHY a test or the script failed. Replaced
    sys.stdout.write() and flush() calls with simple print statements.
  * scripts/ipmi_test: output tweaks so error messages now go to stderr. No BMC
    message is a little more clear. Module failed to load now generates an
    error rather than a simple exit.
  * scripts/network_device_info: minor change so that the fail message now
    specifies that it was an error and outputs to stderr properly.
  * scripts/disk_smart: Improvements to the logging and output during testing.
  * scripts/cpu_scaling_test: lots of output changes using logging module.
    renamed script to frequency_governors_test to be more descriptive and less
    confusing. Added a --log option to write logs to an actual file
    jobs/cpu.txt.in: added an attachment job to attach the freq_governors log.
    Modified cpu/frequency_governors to write to log file
  * scripts/cpu_offlining: added an extra bit of output in case of failures.
  * scripts/fwts_test: improved console output so that the info displayed in
    submission.xml is more useful.
    jobs/power-management.txt.in: added job to attach fwts_wakealarm.log to
    results.
  * scripts/network_ntp_test: Tweaked output to use log levels more
    appropriately. Added some decoding so that bytes output show up as strings
    properly in output. Converted from optparse to argparse. Added a root
    check because this needs to be root to properly run.
  * scripts/disk_read_performance_test: Added extra targeted output so that
    users can understand what's going on. Moved the exit bits so the test will
    actuall run on multiple drives as originally intended and not exit on the
    first failure.
  * scripts/removable_storage_test: vastly improved the output from that script
    and also introduced some new error handling to cover a couple conditions
    that generated unhelpful tracebacks.
  * scripts/memory_compare: changed the output a little so failures now dump
    data to stderr and success to stdout. Also added a try/except block to
    catch possible ZeroDivisionError cases if dmi or meminfo return 0 (found on
    my local system due to a library issue)
  * jobs/power-management.txt.in: improved rtc and tickless idle tests to
    provide more useful output, even though they are very simple tests.
  * jobs/networking.txt.in: added some output to networking/multi_nic so a
    failure due to unconfigured ifaces generates something beyond a blank line
  * scripts/cpu_topology: Changed it so there is less output on success and
    more useful output on failure. Fixed a bug in the test for Failure that
    caused the False condition to never be met.
  * scripts/network_bandwidth_test: fleshed out the output to make it a little
    more useful in both debug and info levels. Was going to set the
    networking/bandwidth job to debug, but the info output should now be
    sufficient to begin diagnosing test failures.
  * jobs/usb.txt.in: Added output to usb/detect in case no USB controllers are
    found. Added dependencies on the udisks package which may not be installed
    by default.
    debian/control: Added udisks as a suggests for checkbox as it's required
    for the USB tests to function.
  * scripts/memory_test: converted from optparse to argparse. Added some extra
    stderr output that may be useful if this test fails. redirected some
    existing error messages to stderr also
  * scripts/disk_stats_test: some minor changes to output. Also, error output
    now goes to stderr on test failure.

[Marc Tardif]
  * Fixed duplicate jobs appearing in the store when rerunning jobs.
  * Fixed packaging to install scripts under /usr/lib.

[Daniel Manrique]
  * Added a message file format test that does some simplistic checks
    on jobs/* files to ensure they are sane.
  * Fixed two typos in jobs/suspend.txt.in.
  * Merging of translations into job files prior to running message
    file format test, to further ensure that translated strings
    and field descriptions are parsed correctly.
  * Explicit encoding of error strings in Job.execute, so that data returned
    is consistent and invokers of this method don't choke on it. (LP:
    #1024541)

[Brendan Donegan]
  * Make a call to rfkill unblock in the create_connection script, incase
    those nasty Broadcom drivers have left a soft-block on the wireless after
    loading. Also do a bit of refactoring to use check_output and check_call
    instead of Popen (LP: #1019162)
  * Move the call to unblock to before the connection is created
  * Reimplemented memory_compare in python3 and restructured it to put
    things into dictionaries for easy access. Also fixed bug with detecting
    non-RAM devices as RAM. (LP: #960087)
  * Wait longer to get the window handle in gpu_test, so that we don't fall foul
    of timing issues. (LP: #1018563)
  * Catch exception raised in memory_compare by DMI RAM entries with No Module
    Installed in the Size field (LP: #1023220)
  * Also unblock wireless before wireless_scanning test, as I neglected to do
    this before. (LP: #1023619)
  * Replace Flash video playback with HTML5 video playback. This has better
    support in Ubuntu and is more relevant (LP: #1024078)

[Sylvain Pineau]
  * Add the firmware version (BIOS or UEFI) to the XML report.
 -- Daniel Manrique <roadmr@ubuntu.com>   Tue, 17 Jul 2012 16:27:55 -0400

Changed in checkbox (Ubuntu):
status:	In Progress → Fix Released

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