Control: retitle -1 libsoup-3.0-0: makes gnome-calculator hang during startup
Control: forwarded -1 https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libsoup/-/issues/361
Control: affects -1 + gnome-calculator src:gnome-calculator
Control: block 1059773 1052551 1098315 1099119 1100509 1104456 1101922 1102471
by -1
Control: tags -1 bookworm upstream fixed-upstream patch
Control: found -1 3.2.2-1
Control: fixed -1 3.4.3-1
On Mon, 05 Aug 2024 at 06:45:18 +0000, Jace wrote:
libsoup package is outdated on debian packages
All packages in a stable Debian release are always "outdated", almost by
definition - that's what it means to be using a stable release. That is
not an actionable bug. But...
gnome-calculator freezes when using a Debian system behind mullvadVPN due to a
bug in libsoup that was patched in version 3.4.3
... that *is* a potentially actionable bug. It seems that it doesn't
necessarily affect all systems, but it seems to be reproducible here
without using a VPN at the moment (I don't know what specific network
condition triggers it).
In case this becomes unreproducible again in future, the error messages
that I get in a Debian 12 virtual machine are:
** (gnome-calculator:2615): WARNING **: 19:30:02.857:
currency-provider.vala:161: Couldn't download IMF currency rate file: HTTP/2
Error: INTERNAL_ERROR
(gnome-calculator:2615): libsoup-WARNING **: 19:30:02.857:
(../libsoup/soup-session.c:334):soup_session_dispose: runtime check failed:
(soup_connection_manager_get_num_conns (priv->conn_manager) == 0)
(gnome-calculator:2615): libsoup-WARNING **: 19:30:02.857:
(../libsoup/soup-connection-manager.c:78):soup_host_free: runtime check failed:
(host->conns == NULL)
relevant links with error description:
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-calculator/-/issues/359#note_2184526
Probably a more relevant reference for the libsoup side is
<https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libsoup/-/issues/361>, which was apparently
fixed by <https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libsoup/-/merge_requests/374>.
The original issue report and merge request talk about crashes, but
these are memory management/object lifetime issues that could equally
well cause a hang.
On Sat, 22 Mar 2025 at 12:46:25 -0700, Mike Swanson wrote:
Cherry picking commits cad8cc385338bf5681e62b82979c4442bc64319b and
31d415ca44349fe8c4d2e0b2fb56f84501ec9524 from upstream master is at
least enough to prevent gnome-calculator from hanging, though it still
reports errors coming from libsoup.
I don't know whether those error reports would indicate bugs in libsoup,
gnome-calculator, or something else. Please report them separately, with
a suitably lower severity, if they are a concern to you.
The version in Debian 13 'trixie' prereleases seems to be OK, with all
of the warnings (after I delete ~/.cache/gnome-calculator to force a
refresh) being harmless-looking:
** (gnome-calculator:131325): WARNING **: 19:13:58.823:
currency-provider.vala:295: Failed to read exchange rates: Failed to open file
“/home/.../.cache/gnome-calculator/rms_five.xls”: No such file or directory
** (gnome-calculator:131325): WARNING **: 19:13:58.823:
currency-provider.vala:97: Cannot use United Nations Treasury rates as we don't
have USD rate yet, retrying
** (gnome-calculator:131325): WARNING **: 19:13:58.823:
currency-provider.vala:97: Cannot use European Central Bank rates as we don't
have EUR rate yet, retrying
** (gnome-calculator:131325): WARNING **: 19:13:58.823:
currency-provider.vala:97: Cannot use Bank of Canada rates as we don't have CAD
rate yet, retrying
On Thu, 05 Jun 2025 at 02:46:03 +0000, Jace wrote:
What debian version was that commit applied to?
There is no version of libsoup available in Debian 12 that has had those
commits added. Mike presumably compiled and tested a locally-modified
copy of libsoup, but did not upload it to Debian (and probably *can't*
upload it - they don't seem to be a Debian Developer).
There is an increasingly large pile of low-severity CVEs queued up to be
fixed in Debian 12's version of libsoup, so hopefully the commits
referenced above can be included in the same stable update as some or
all of those. Maintaining libsoup in Debian 12 is not anyone's full-time
job or even anyone's main volunteer work, so please be patient: in
stable releases like Debian 12 we have to balance the importance of bug
fixes against the likelihood that they will cause regressions (that's
the purpose of stable releases).
This is fixed in the upcoming Debian 13 release.
smcv
