[Bug 2034986] Re: some text became unreadable during a distribution upgrade

[Steve Langasek]

Hello Brian, or anyone else affected,

Accepted ubuntu-release-upgrader into mantic-proposed. The package will
build now and be available at
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-release-upgrader/1:23.10.11
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, what testing has been
performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-
mantic to verification-done-mantic. If it does not fix the bug for you,
please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-
failed-mantic. In either case, without details of your testing we will
not be able to proceed.

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

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s)
fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in
-proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

** Changed in: ubuntu-release-upgrader (Ubuntu Mantic)
       Status: Fix Released => Fix Committed

** Tags removed: verification-done
** Tags added: verification-needed verification-needed-mantic

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2034986

Title:
  some text became unreadable during a distribution upgrade

Status in Cinnamon:
  New
Status in Ubuntu MATE:
  New
Status in ubuntu-meta package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in ubuntu-release-upgrader package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Committed
Status in ubuntu-release-upgrader source package in Jammy:
  Fix Committed
Status in ubuntu-release-upgrader source package in Lunar:
  Fix Committed
Status in ubuntu-meta source package in Mantic:
  Fix Released
Status in ubuntu-release-upgrader source package in Mantic:
  Fix Committed

Bug description:
  [ Impact ]

   * On Ubuntu Mate with the Lunar series, when running
     ubuntu-release-upgrader, the displayed font of running
     applications (including the upgrader) becomes very corrupted.

   * This is not just a display problem, it is also a functional one.
     The release upgrader will have text corrupted to the point
     where a dialog asks a decision, and displays two buttons, but the
     text is unreadable and one has to guess which button is the one
     that carries out their desired action.

   * In the early parts of the upgrader tool, users are told in bold:
     "To prevent data loss close all open applications and documents."
     This is just before the "Start Upgrade" button is available.
     But they may not do so.  Many applications may have a corrupted
     font.

   * To address this, an additional environment variable is being
     passed along to pkexec, XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP, as this is the
     critical criteria for making the Mate version of the fix work.

   * Also in the change are
     * an update to tests
     * from pre-build.sh
       * an update of the mirrors.cfg, adding and removing several
         mirrors
       * a refresh of the po files

  [ Test Plan ]

   * acquire an Ubuntu Mate environment running Ubuntu Lunar on amd64

   * as user, run "update-manager -d"

   * monitor the "Distribution Upgrade" screen.  During the "Installing
     the upgrades" step (and mind that this step will be long), observe
     the text of the "Distribution Upgrade" screen and verify that the
     font does not corrupt.

   * Repeat the above for Ubuntu Desktop

  [ Where problems could occur ]

   * We are changing, at release time, ubuntu-release upgrader.  If we
     are careless, we could regress upgrades for a wider group of users
     than just Ubuntu Mate.  That said, it is believed that passing the
     additional XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP variable is relatively low risk.

  [ Other Info ]

   * TBD

  ---

  Original description:

  I was upgrading from Lunar to Mantic the other day and left a couple
  of applications open during the upgrade process. During the upgrade
  the text in audacious became unreadable (I'll attach a screenshot) and
  I seem to recall the title bar of Firefox being unreadable but the
  contents of web pages still being readable.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 23.10
  Package: ubuntu-release-upgrader-core 1:23.10.5
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.5.0-4.4-generic 6.5.0
  Uname: Linux 6.5.0-4-generic x86_64
  NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia zfs
  ApportVersion: 2.27.0-0ubuntu2
  Architecture: amd64
  CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
  CrashDB: ubuntu
  CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
  Date: Fri Sep  8 15:39:27 2023
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-08-10 (1855 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 18.04.1 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180725)
  PackageArchitecture: all
  SourcePackage: ubuntu-release-upgrader
  Symptom: ubuntu-release-upgrader
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to mantic on 2023-09-06 (2 days ago)
  VarLogDistupgradeAptclonesystemstate.tar.gz: Error: command ['pkexec', 'cat', '/var/log/dist-upgrade/apt-clone_system_state.tar.gz'] failed with exit code 126: Error executing command as another user: Request dismissed
  VarLogDistupgradeTermlog:

  mtime.conffile..etc.update-manager.meta-release:
  2021-05-27T16:30:16.970490

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