Re: [LAU] amarok crashes

On 24 August 2010 at 12:02, "Gabriel M. Beddingfield" <gabrbedd@email-addr-hidden> wrote:

> On Tue, 24 Aug 2010, Kevin Cosgrove wrote:
> > I've been having trouble with amarok crashes; every 8-10 songs I
> > get a segfault. This is primarily on one of my computers, the
>
> Which audio engine are you using?

Amarok tells me that I'm using PulseAudio with GStreamer.

> > What can I do folk? How can I troubleshoot this? I've already
> > changed out nearly all the hardware (for other reasons) and nearly
> > all the software.
>
> The first thing you need is a backtrace. Unfortunately,
> I've found that getting a half-way decent backtrace on
> modern distros is a big PITA. I usually do it like this:
>
> 0. Install gdb.
>
> 1. Enable core dumps (/etc/security/limits.conf)
> (Log off/on for changes to take effect)
>
> 2. Install some "debug" packages that you think
> may be appropriate. E.g. if amarok has a debug
> package: score!
>
> 3. Start amarok from a command line.
>
> 4. When it crashes, note any messages on the console
> screen.
>
> 5. The core dump will be in your current present
> working directory (`pwd`). It will either be
> named 'core' or 'core.PID' where PID is the
> process ID number for the amarok application
> that crashed.
>
> 6. Get a backtrace like this:
>
> $ gdb --core=/path/to/core $(which amarok)
> (wait for gdb to be "ready")
>
> gdb> bt full
>
> 7. Inspect the back-trace for something obvious.
> (E.g. if you see "PortAudio" or "PA", then
> install the portaudio debug packages and retry.
> If you see "Jack" then try to install jack
> debug packages and retry. "Gst" for Gstreamer...)
>
> 8. Send the back-trace to your distro, this list,
> the developers of amarok, or the devs of the
> audio engine.

Nice recipe!!!

Your email about the backtrace made me think to check some more
things out. I found these:

  Bug Reports to Amarok developers:
  http://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=115&t=67238

  How to create crash reports:
  http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Debugging/How_to_create_useful_crash_reports

I activated these Mandriva repositories in the media manager:

  Main debug
  Contrib debug

That made some packages visible, which I installed:

  amarok-debug-2.2.0-10mdv2010.0
  gstreamer0.10-debug-0.10.25-2mdv2010.0
  kdebase4-debug-4.3.2-3mdv2010.0
  kdelibs4-debug-4.3.2-11mdv2010.0
  kdemultimedia4-debug-4.3.2-2mdv2010.0
  pulseaudio-debug-0.9.19-7mdv2010.0

One of the two webpages above indicates that the crash window that
pops up when Amarok dies is suitable for generating the backtrace
required to aid developers.

Then I just found this thread:

  Amarok crashes after playing couple of tracks
  http://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=115&t=89665&p=167287&hilit=amarok+crash#p167287

That thread says that their bug is fixed in version 2.3.2. I'm
running version 2.2.0. It could be that I'm seeing the same bug,
or maybe not.

Anyway, I think I have enough info to choke on it now. ;-)

Thanks!

--
Kevin
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