Problems using apport-chroot for local crash analysis

[Martin Pitt]

Hello Alain,

Alain Kalker [2009-11-27 10:18 +0100]:
> Problem #1: How do I setup apport to send crash reports to a local
> machine and not to Launchpad?
> 
> For the sake of argument, let's suppose the crash reports will simply be
> copied over to <coroner> for analysis.

That's in fact what would be easiest to do. Instead of uploading them
to a bug tracker and downloading them again, just run the Apport GUI
on the client, but then don't upload. Instead, copy the .crash file to
coroner. (This is a little easier with using apport-cli, which has an
explicit command for "keep report in a file").

> Problem #2: The report generated right after a crash happens, doesn't
> include the required field Package in the report. Only when the user
> clicks on "Report Problem", this information is included, including an
> incomplete stack trace (see Problem #3), but I want to be able to do
> unattended crash reporting.
> 
> I reported this problem originally as a bug: LP: #487759 [1], and Martin
> Pitt explained that this info isn't collected right after the crash for
> performance reasons.
> He suggested that I use apport-retrace's -R option to rebuild the crash
> report. The problem is that this requires me to also use the -o option.

I don't understand that. -R and -o are independent from each other?

> Unfortunately, this causes apport-retrace to attempt a retrace. Back to
> square one (well, Problem #3 actually).

I don't understand this either. The entire purpose of apport-retrace
is to regenerate the Stacktrace fields, so why shouldn't it be done
here?

> Problem #3: The backtrace from a crash report (even after retracing on
> <coroner> is incomplete (no function parameters, often even no function
> names at all).

That's why apport-retrace can install the missing debug symbols (.ddeb
packages).

> When I view a crash report on <victim>, it contains an incomplete
> stacktrace. Reasonable, as <victim> doesn't have the necessary debugging
> symbol packages installed.
> But when I analyze a crash on <coroner> using apport-chroot in retrace
> mode, the stack trace is still incomplete. It seems that (still have to
> verify that) apport-chroot/retrace doesn't do a new retrace if the crash
> report already contains one.

No, apport-retrace explicitly refreshes Stacktrace* (that's its
purpose, after all). What is the particular output?

Without further information, my best suggestion is that your retracing
chroot does not have an apt source for ddebs set up?

Martin
-- 
Martin Pitt                        | http://www.piware.de
Ubuntu Developer (www.ubuntu.com)  | Debian Developer  (www.debian.org)