mx-packageinstaller not always working

[thomasl]

Been away from PCs, desktops and keyboards for a good while. Now I've updated my system (around ~180 packages) and it still works

There's one exception though: mx-packageinstaller is playing up. After the update it started as usual, queried the password as usual but then the "Enabled Repos" tab remains empty and after a while I get an error that there is no internet available (needless to say, internet was available). Same thing for the other tabs for Test and backports.

So I started the whole thing with

Code: Select all

sudo mx-packageinstaller

and normally mx-packageinstaller now will load and show the repo information... but sometimes it'll still not show anything. If I then press "Refresh list" manually it'll then load and show the list but then it simply hangs. This is not reproducible, it happens every four or five tries.

As it is, that's more an annoyance than a problem but there's clearly something amiss.

Code: Select all

Snapshot created on: 20230928_1658
System:
  Kernel: 6.1.0-10-amd64 [6.1.37-1] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/MX23/vmlinuz quiet checkfs loglevel=0 hostname=makalu from=hd bdir=MX23
    persist=root!,home! toram=min rootdelay=1
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.18.1 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.36 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm v: 4.18.0 vt: 7
    dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: MX-23.2_x64 Libretto September 28  2023 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12
    (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 20U6S3EG00 v: ThinkPad L14 Gen 1
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: LENOVO model: 20U6S3EG00 v: SDK0J40697 WIN serial: <superuser required> UEFI: LENOVO
    v: R19ET36W (1.20 ) date: 07/12/2021
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 43.2 Wh (96.6%) condition: 44.7/45.3 Wh (98.8%) volts: 12.2 min: 11.1
    model: SMP LNV-5B10W13895 type: Li-poly serial: <filter> status: not charging cycles: 8
CPU:
  Info: model: AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4650U with Radeon Graphics bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 2 gen: 3
    level: v3 note: check built: 2020-22 process: TSMC n7 (7nm) family: 0x17 (23) model-id: 0x60 (96)
    stepping: 1 microcode: 0x8600106
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 6 tpc: 2 threads: 12 smt: enabled cache: L1: 384 KiB
    desc: d-6x32 KiB; i-6x32 KiB L2: 3 MiB desc: 6x512 KiB L3: 8 MiB desc: 2x4 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1936 high: 3058 min/max: 1400/2100 boost: enabled scaling:
    driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: ondemand cores: 1: 1497 2: 1492 3: 1544 4: 1774 5: 2146 6: 2061
    7: 1647 8: 1696 9: 1736 10: 1555 11: 3036 12: 3058 bogomips: 50306
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed mitigation: untrained return thunk; SMT enabled with STIBP protection
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, STIBP: always-on, RSB filling,
    PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Renoir vendor: Lenovo driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: GCN-5 code: Vega
    process: GF 14nm built: 2017-20 pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: HDMI-A-1
    off: eDP-1 empty: DP-1,DP-2 bus-ID: 06:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:1636 class-ID: 0300 temp: 42.0 C
  Device-2: Bison Integrated Camera driver: uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
    mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 3-3:3 chip-ID: 5986:212b class-ID: 0e02
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm v: 4.18.0 driver: X: loaded: amdgpu
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1200 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x318mm (20.00x12.52") s-diag: 599mm (23.6")
  Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-A-0 pos: primary model: Idek Iiyama PLE2607WSD
    serial: <filter> built: 2010 res: 1920x1200 hz: 60 dpi: 89 gamma: 1.2
    size: 550x344mm (21.65x13.54") diag: 649mm (25.5") ratio: 16:10 modes: max: 1920x1200
    min: 720x400
  Monitor-2: eDP-1 mapped: eDP note: disabled model: ChiMei InnoLux 0x14d4 built: 2016
    res: 1920x1200 dpi: 158 gamma: 1.2 size: 309x173mm (12.17x6.81") diag: 354mm (13.9") ratio: 16:9
    modes: max: 1920x1080 min: 640x480
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: AMD Radeon Graphics (renoir LLVM 15.0.6 DRM 3.49
    6.1.0-10-amd64) direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Renoir Radeon High Definition Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 06:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:1637 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD ACP/ACP3X/ACP6x Audio Coprocessor vendor: Lenovo driver: N/A
    alternate: snd_pci_acp3x, snd_rn_pci_acp3x, snd_pci_acp5x, snd_pci_acp6x pcie: gen: 4
    speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 06:00.5 chip-ID: 1022:15e2 class-ID: 0480
  Device-3: AMD Family 17h/19h HD Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie:
    gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 06:00.6 chip-ID: 1022:15e3 class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-10-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Lenovo driver: r8169
    v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: 2400 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168
    class-ID: 0200
  IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel pcie: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1
    bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:2723 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: vboxnet0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX200 Bluetooth driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1
    mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 3-4:5 chip-ID: 8087:0029 class-ID: e001
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: down bt-service: N/A rfk-block: hardware: no
    software: no address: <filter>
  Info: acl-mtu: 1021:4 sco-mtu: 96:6 link-policy: rswitch sniff link-mode: peripheral accept
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 989.47 GiB used: 414.89 GiB (41.9%)
  ID-1: /dev/mmcblk0 maj-min: 179:0 vendor: SanDisk model: SD64G size: 57.95 GiB block-size:
    physical: 512 B logical: 512 B tech: SSD serial: <filter> scheme: MBR
  SMART Message: Unknown smartctl error. Unable to generate data.
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-2: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Crucial model: CT1000P3SSD8 size: 931.51 GiB
    block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter>
    fw-rev: P9CR30A temp: 31.9 C scheme: GPT
Partition:
  Message: No partition data found.
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 53.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 40.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): fan-1: 0
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 1890 libs: 962 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude pm: rpm pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak
    pkgs: 0
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vivaldi.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb/ stable main
Info:
  Processes: 320 Uptime: 3h 49m wakeups: 8 Memory: total: 24 GiB note: est. available: 22.84 GiB
  used: 10.07 GiB (44.1%) Init: SysVinit v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical tool: systemctl
  Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12 Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.28
Boot Mode: UEFI

[Charlie Brown]

Normally no need to sudo .

[thomasl]

@Charlie Brown Yeah, I know and so far I've just started mx-packageinstaller normally and then entered the password when prompted. w/o sudo it still asks for the password but can't access the internet (which is understandable as I block most non-root accesses to the net). When started with sudo it has internet access and works... but with those hiccups I described in my OP.

[fehlix]

Would adding "--skip-online-check" change something in rgrd. to the hiccups mentioned.

[thomasl]

@fehlix I'll give that a try but as this is an intermittent problem it may take a while. I'll report back once I think I have somewhat reliable data.

[thomasl]

OK, I've now collected a few data points and if I start MXPI w/o sudo then the "Enabled Repos" appears to work as it should. (Take this with a grain of salt as it's based on a few tests only.)

The "MX Test Repo" and the "Debian Backports" tabs however do not always work as expected as sometimes they simply remain empty although MXPI seems to download the repo information for them.

If started with sudo I've not observed any trouble.

[fehlix]

OK, I've now collected a few data points and if I start MXPI w/o sudo then the "Enabled Repos" appears to work as it should. (Take this with a grain of salt as it's based on a few tests only.)

The "MX Test Repo" and the "Debian Backports" tabs however do not always work as expected as sometimes they simply remain empty although MXPI seems to download the repo information for them.

If started with sudo I've not observed any trouble.

As you block non-root internet access, this would probably be an good indication for test-repo and backports tab are not working properly when running as normal user. B/c for both MXPI loads directly the package lists from the repo-server (not using apt with root-access) in order to populate the list of packages.

[thomasl]

I understand what you're saying but this question remains: MXPI worked w/o any sudo shenanigans before the last update I did (and my non-root internet access block hasn't changed for months if not years), so something within MXPI must be different, methinks?

[Eadwine Rose]

You have not mentioned, that I saw, terminal output? Anything in there?

[dolphin_oracle]

I understand what you're saying but this question remains: MXPI worked w/o any sudo shenanigans before the last update I did (and my non-root internet access block hasn't changed for months if not years), so something within MXPI must be different, methinks?

yeah, not too long ago we made it not run as root, and it does anything it can without elevating privileges, including downloading the package lists from backports and test. been a few months since that change, but if you had just run a bunch of updates, then yeah you probably are now caught up. the "Enabled" tab uses apt as root, so it still works with your setup.

synaptic wouldn't be affected because it runs with full privileges, and doesn't do our test and backports magic anyway. mxpi would be unique in this regard.

we did these kind of changes on all the root-level mx apps. that way the gui all run unprivileged, which is good on X and better on wayland.

so "sudo" works because you elevate the whole thing, so every process run under mxpi run with sudo runs privileged, and your non-root block doesn't apply.