Ubuntu
xorg package

X configuration fails with NFS root (simple fix)

Bug #65763 reported by Roshan Shariff on 2006-10-12

2

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	xorg (Ubuntu)	Fix Released	Undecided	Kees Cook

Bug Description

"dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg" fails when / is mounted on NFS. This is because:

1. xserver-xorg.postinst runs dexconf, which creates a directory like /tmp/dexconf-xxxx wherein it generates the new xorg.conf.

3. Dexconf deletes the temp file. This is implemented in nfs-kernel-server by creating a dotfile in the same directory, until the fd is closed. (See bug #65003 for a similar problem in ltsp)

4. When dexconf runs rm -rf on the /tmp/dexconf-* directory, it fails producing a "directory not empty" message, because the dotfile cannot be removed while dexconf is running.

5. xserver-xorg.postinst interprets the non-zero return code as a dexconf failure and therefore doesn't update /etc/X11/xorg.conf

The workaround I've been using so far is to run:

# dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
# dexconf -o /etc/X11/xorg.conf
# rm -r /tmp/dexconf-*
# md5sum /etc/X11/xorg.conf > /var/lib/x11/xorg.conf.md5sum

But this is not ideal for obvious reasons. IMHO the solution to bug #65003 should work here.

Revision history for this message

Roshan Shariff (roshan.shariff) wrote on 2006-10-12:

#1

Use the simpler patch below, instead Edit (1.5 KiB, text/plain)

This patch to /usr/bin/dexconf makes sure that each file is closed when it is no longer needed, so that dotfiles aren't left hanging around in /tmp/dexconf-tmp-*/. I've simply added "exec 4>&-" to match every "exec 4>something".

This fixes dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg for me.

Revision history for this message

Roshan Shariff (roshan.shariff) wrote on 2006-10-12: A much simpler patch

#2

Simpler patch to close the file descriptor Edit (252 bytes, text/plain)

This simple patch only adds one line to the file, to close fd 4 before the rm -rf at the end. This is much less intrusive than the previous patch.

Needless to say, it works just fine for me.

Revision history for this message

Kees Cook (kees) wrote on 2006-10-17:

#3

debdiff for fd fix Edit (1.1 KiB, text/plain)

Kees Cook (kees) on 2006-10-17

Changed in xorg:
assignee:	nobody → keescook
status:	Unconfirmed → Fix Committed

Kees Cook (kees) on 2006-10-19

Changed in xorg:
status:	Fix Committed → Fix Released

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