"The crash belongs to a package that is not installed." ???

[Nicholas Skaggs]

On 09/26/2012 06:02 AM, Brendan Donegan wrote:
> On 25/09/12 15:54, Brian Murray wrote:
>> On Tue, Sep 25, 2012 at 09:44:25AM +0200, Gabor Toth wrote:
>>> Just a question here.
>>>
>>>  From time to time I get a system crash window popping up and saying
>>> that there was a crash.  I click on send the report - of course - and
>>> then it comes up with another window saying "The crash belongs to a
>>> package that is not installed."
>>>
>>> I do not get it.  How can a package crash that is not even installed?
>>> Can anyone light my way in this?
>> Knowing what the contents of /var/crash is would be helpful in
>> determining which application crashed.  For example:
>>
>> /var/crash/_usr_share_apport_apportcheckresume.1000.crash
>>
>> indicates the application /usr/share/apport/apportcheckresume crashed
>> and I know that is a part of apport.  (You could check via dpkg -S
>> /usr/share/apport/apportcheckresume.)  Then I can use apt-cache policy
>> to see if apport is installed:
>>
>> apport:
>>    Installed: 2.5.2-0ubuntu4
>>    Candidate: 2.5.2-0ubuntu4
>>
>> -- 
>> Brian Murray
>> Ubuntu Bug Master
>>
> Something similar happens when the version of the package that crashed 
> does not match the one in the archive. It is intended to stop bugs 
> from being reported on old package versions, but the text is deeply 
> confusing. I wonder is it that?
>
Brendan, afaik, it's there to prevent reporting crashes against old 
package versions (since the new version may have a fix, etc). Makes 
sense of course -- what's confusing about the message?

Nicholas