Bug #12489

Tails Server may get stuck in the "Installing" state

Added by anonym 2017-04-28 10:26:18 . Updated 2019-07-19 22:04:59 .

Status:
Confirmed
Priority:
Normal
Assignee:
segfault
Category:
Target version:
Start date:
2017-04-28
Due date:
% Done:

0%

Feature Branch:
Type of work:
Research
Blueprint:

Starter:
Affected tool:
Server
Deliverable for:

Description

The following description is copied from the attached file, which also contains the full Tails Server log:

# 1. I started the Tails Sesrver GUI and told it to install Prosody
#    before Tor had bootstrapped so it showed the expected "Tor has
#    not bootstrapped error"
# 2. Tor actually seemed to have got stuck, so I restarted it
# 3. Tails Server immediately picked up when Tor had bootstrapped and
#    started to install prosody
# 4. However, it got stuck on the "Installing" status, but I did check
#    and prosody *had* been installed
# 5. At some point I tried to remove the stalled Prosody service from
#    Tails Server, and I think that's why the exceptions where thrown
#    below. I believe I clicked the remove button twice, which would
#    explain the *two* identical exceptions.
#
# So here the real issue is 4 -- Tails Server shouldn't ever get stuck
# here. But I also find 5 ugly, that I cannot remove a service that's
# in a broken half-installed state and must solve it by restarting
# Tails Server.

Files

tails-server-stalling.txt (28382 B) anonym, 2017-04-28 10:26:15

Subtasks

History

#1 Updated by segfault 2017-05-07 11:02:04

  • Assignee changed from segfault to anonym
  • QA Check set to Info Needed

It seems like the apt-get install never returned, because the next line in TailsService.install() would have logged 'prosody' installed, which is not in the log.
What did you check to come to the conclusion that Prosody had been installed? Note that we don’t uninstall the APT packages during the service uninstallation.

#2 Updated by anonym 2017-05-08 11:26:56

  • Assignee changed from anonym to segfault

segfault wrote:
> What did you check to come to the conclusion that Prosody had been installed?

dpkg -l prosody listed a version. I am quite sure I did not look at the first column and make sure it was ii, so perhaps the package wasn’t properly installed (e.g. a post install hook failed) and this confused Tails Server?

> Note that we don’t uninstall the APT packages during the service uninstallation.

I know; did I contradict this, some how?

#3 Updated by segfault 2017-05-08 20:39:28

  • QA Check deleted (Info Needed)

> > What did you check to come to the conclusion that Prosody had been installed?
>
> dpkg -l prosody listed a version. I am quite sure I did not look at the first column and make sure it was ii, so perhaps the package wasn’t properly installed (e.g. a post install hook failed) and this confused Tails Server?

This is possible.

> > Note that we don’t uninstall the APT packages during the service uninstallation.
>
> I know; did I contradict this, some how?

No, sorry, I had a thought that didn’t make sense.

I don’t think we can figure this out until someone experiences this again and can look at the logs.

#4 Updated by anonym 2017-05-09 09:11:13

It just happened to me again (this time Tor was bootstrapped, so that part of my original report seems orthogonal) and …

segfault wrote:
> > > What did you check to come to the conclusion that Prosody had been installed?
> >
> > dpkg -l prosody listed a version. I am quite sure I did not look at the first column and make sure it was ii, so perhaps the package wasn’t properly installed (e.g. a post install hook failed) and this confused Tails Server?

… the prosody package was properly installed (ii) but …

> I don’t think we can figure this out until someone experiences this again and can look at the logs.

… unfortinately I only had info level logs since that is the new default. I’ll make sure to always start tails-server with --verbose from now on.

#5 Updated by segfault 2017-05-09 22:06:07

anonym wrote:
> It just happened to me again (this time Tor was bootstrapped, so that part of my original report seems orthogonal) and …
> […]
> > I don’t think we can figure this out until someone experiences this again and can look at the logs.
>
> … unfortinately I only had info level logs since that is the new default. I’ll make sure to always start tails-server with --verbose from now on.

The info level is not a new default, it’s always been the default. But there is also always the /var/log/tails-server.log with debug level messages.

But I guess the Tails Server log would not be of much help, because we already have a log of an occurrance of this bug. According to this log, the apt-get call didn’t return, so I guess the APT log would be more interesting (and checking if the apt-get process is still running).

#6 Updated by segfault 2019-07-19 22:04:59

  • Affected tool set to Server