Modem-manager-gui won´t start any more

Applications
1

Hi altogether,

All of a sudden modem-manager-gui doesn´t open up any more. When trying to get it running from the command-line I get the following error-message:

rosika@rosika-Lenovo-H520e ~> modem-manager-gui 
Connection manager: Network Manager >= 0.9.0
Modem manager: Modem Manager >= 0.7.0
double free or corruption (out)
fish: 'modem-manager-gui' durch Signal SIGABRT (Abbruch) beendet
rosika@rosika-Lenovo-H520e ~> echo $status 
134

It´s really odd as it used to work just fine - until now.

Does anyone have a clue as to what´s going on?

Thanks a lot in advance.

Greetings
Rosika :neutral_face:

P.S.: my system: Lubuntu 18.04 LTS, 64 bit

2

did you install from the repo?

3

Hi cordx,

yes, I did.

4

This seems like a bug to me, as the program tries to access unallocated memory. If it does that naturally it will crash. You should probably file this as a bug report on the Bitbucket repository.

However, if you’re not using the latest version, first download the source and compile it for your system and try again to see if the bug persists.

5

Hi Akito,

Yeah, I was also thinking along the lines of a possible bug.
Yet the thing is: it used to work until a few days ago.
I don´t know whether it could have something to do with ModemManager itself.

Because as part of routine updates ModemManager got a new version and was updated to version 1.10.0-1 on 2019-05-17. That´s pretty much the exact point in time when modem-manger-gui stopped working…

BTW: My modem-manager-gui version is 0.0.19.1-1. I think it´s the latest one.

Greetings.
Rosika

1 Like
6

those both appear to be the latest and correct versions:

https://packages.ubuntu.com/bionic/modem-manager-gui
https://packages.ubuntu.com/bionic-updates/modemmanager

have you checked dmesg --level=warn or dmesg --level=err to see if they provide any further info?

7

@01101111:

Tnx for the hint,
I´ve just looked into those dmesg-messages. Nothing to be found there.

I´ve also checked the respective versions. Thanks also for the links.
I definitively have got the latest versions of both programmes.

It´s a bit of a puzzler…

Cheers.
Rosika

1 Like
8

any chance you have synaptic package manager installed and can check to see if it is a known broken package?

9

Yes, I´ve got synaptic installed.

Not quite sure how to do that.
What I was able to do is looking at the changelog:

modem-manager-gui (0.0.19.1-1) unstable; urgency=medium

  • New upstream release
    • Fix linker errors (Closes: #893901)
    • Expand SMS folders on first messages
    • Fix spelling errors reported by Lintian
    • Fix polkit preventing module loading without systemd
    • Use generic term ‘connection manager’ instead of
      ‘network manager’ in warning
    • Fix typo in Russian translation
    • Add Slovak localization

– Graham Inggs ginggs@debian.org Sat, 07 Apr 2018 10:12:18 +0000

10

it has been a while since i have had one, but you would have noticed a red box or some other indicator in front of the package i believe.

11

I think I know hat you meant by “broken packages”.
I set the filter to it and it doesn´t show anything.
And modem-manager-gui itself doesn´t show any signs like a red box.

So I´d have to say: No, it´s not a broken package.

But thanks a lot anyway.

Rosika

1 Like
12

Just install the previously working version. Then, when an even newer version is released, you may install that one. Since you’re apparently using the newest version, you can file a bug report on Bitbucket.

13

@Akito:

Tnx for the suggestion.
BUT: I´m not sure what to re-install.

As far as modem-manager-gui is concerned (v. 0.0.19.1-1): this one doesn´t seem to have changed recently. This version did work.
What has changed is ModemManager (2019-05-17). So it would seem I´d have to look for the previous version of that one, right?

Cheers
Rosika

14

modem-manager-gui is just the graphical user interface for modem-manager. Described as an analogy, modem-manager is your computer and modem-manager-gui is your display connected to the computer. So when you upgrade your computer, no need to upgrade your display. Same goes with this program. Just revert to an older version of modem-manager.

15

@Akito:

Thanks for the explanation.
In the meantime I contacted the developer of ModemManager via e-mail.
Perhaps I´ll get a response. It would be interesting to see what he has to say…

Anyway reverting to an older version of ModemManager seems the way to go.
I´ll have to investigate where to obtain one.

Greetings
Rosika

1 Like
16

this link shows how to install (sudo apt install package=version_number) an older version (with the caveat that there may be dependency issues) and the link below lists a version of modemmanager (1.6.8-2ubuntu1) that should still be in the bionic repo:
https://packages.ubuntu.com/bionic/modemmanager

17

@01101111:

Thank a lot for the explanation and the links. This saved me a lot of time invetigating. :slightly_smiling_face:

By the way:
After an incredibly short time (only 4 minutes later) I received an answer to my e-mail from
Till Kamppeter, the maintainer of ModemManager.
After describing the problem my final question and his answer was:

My question is: Is it possible that the new version of ModemManager could be responsible for this? Might there be any incompatibilities?

This is possible. We need to investigate this.
Please post a bug report on modem-manager for that. Thanks/
Till

So ModemManager might be the culprit after all …

Thanks you so much for your help.

Greetings
Rosika :slightly_smiling_face:

2 Likes
18

i’m glad you were able to get a helpful response. hopefully (if you decide to go that route) an older version will get you back up and running :slight_smile:

19

@01101111:

Yes, thank you.
I´d like to revert to an older version, but as you already said

[…]with the caveat that there may be dependency issues[…]

I hope I won´t get into further difficulties. :anguished:

Cheers
Rosika

20

any chance you have timeshift or some other form of backup installed to keep a marker for you just in case?