[Bug 780602] [NEW] nm-applet leaks memory and stops functioning after a while

[Launchpad Bug Tracker]

You have been subscribed to a public bug by Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton):

The nm-applet embedded in the task bar becomes indeterminestically
unresponsive.  Clicking on the applet will still show the popup menu,
but none of the menu entries respond to mouse clicks.  When this
happens, the "VPN connections" and "Other networks" menus also show up
completely empty (only a small menu stub is displayed).

It is uncertain what causes this behavior. It was originally thought
that the cause was memory leaks in nm-applet: nm-applet leaks memory in
a fresh install of Natty, increasing to over 200 Mb in 6-8 hours.
However, fixes for the memory leaks failed to resolve the occurrence of
the anomalous behavior described above.

dbus-monitor shows errors such as the following when clicking a menu item or attempting to access a submenu:
error sender=:1.14 -> dest=:1.67 error_name=org.gtk.GDBus.UnmappedGError.Quark._LIBDBUSMENU_2dGLIB.Code0 reply_serial=107705
   string "The IDs supplied '[80846]' do not refer to any menu items we have"

The errors are returned by bus_event_group or bus_about_to_show_group in
libdbusmenu-glib/server.c.

--

Stable Release Update Application:

[Impact]
This issue affects most and any users of nm-applet, especially in environments (such as offices) where the detected wireless networks change a lot, and where roaming can occur frequently.

[Test Case]
Run nm-applet for multiple hours:
 - Observe that the VPN Connections submenu still opens and lists connections (if VPN connections are configured)
 - Observe that the "More networks" submenu for additional detected wireless networks still opens and lists networks.

A common failure case is where such a submenu will open but show an
empty list (a piece of menu a few milimeters long).

[Regression Potential]
Minimal, the fixes have been available for a while in the development release (and in other recent releases) with no regressions; furthermore, this corrects "obviously" wrong memory handling without changing the effective behavior of the application.
Possible issues could be introducing new memory leaks with the changes however, and although the risk is minimal, this could cause the same failure behavior as listed above under [Test Case].

--

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: network-manager-gnome 0.8.4~git.20110318t152954.9c4c9a0-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-9.43-generic-pae 2.6.38.4
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-9-generic-pae i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: i386
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Date: Tue May 10 11:53:09 2011
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
IfupdownConfig:
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Beta i386 (20110413)
IpRoute:
 192.168.2.0/24 dev eth0  proto kernel  scope link  src 192.168.2.12  metric 1
 169.254.0.0/16 dev eth0  scope link  metric 1000
 default via 192.168.2.1 dev eth0  proto static
Keyfiles: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
NetworkManager.state:
 [main]
 NetworkingEnabled=true
 WirelessEnabled=true
 WWANEnabled=true
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_CA:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: network-manager-applet
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

** Affects: oem-priority
     Importance: High
     Assignee: James M. Leddy (jm-leddy)
         Status: Fix Committed

** Affects: oem-priority/precise
     Importance: High
     Assignee: James M. Leddy (jm-leddy)
         Status: In Progress

** Affects: oem-priority/quantal
     Importance: High
     Assignee: James M. Leddy (jm-leddy)
         Status: Fix Committed

** Affects: libdbusmenu (Ubuntu)
     Importance: High
     Assignee: Charles Kerr (charlesk)
         Status: Confirmed

** Affects: network-manager-applet (Ubuntu)
     Importance: High
     Assignee: Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (mathieu-tl)
         Status: Fix Released

** Affects: network-manager-applet (Ubuntu Precise)
     Importance: High
     Assignee: Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (mathieu-tl)
         Status: Fix Released

** Affects: network-manager-applet (Ubuntu Quantal)
     Importance: High
     Assignee: Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (mathieu-tl)
         Status: Confirmed


** Tags: apport-bug i386 natty patch regression-release rls-q-incomming verification-done verification-done-precise
-- 
nm-applet leaks memory and stops functioning after a while
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/780602
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