Ubuntu
kdepim package

Installing a network bridge broke kioslaves

Bug #198458 reported by Shai Berger
4
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
kdepim (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: kdepim-kio-plugins

I am trying to use VirtualBox to run a virtual installation of Windows under my Kubuntu (Gutsy). In order for said Windows installation to work properly in our business's local domain, I had to use the "more interesting" networking technique, where we define a (ethernet) bridge between the real interface (eth0) and a virtual, software interface (tap0) erected specifically for this purpose. Using this bridge, the guest machine can get its own IP address on the same physical network adapter, as if it were in independent machine in the network, and so it can do all the things a Windows machine can do in a Windows network.

This worked like a charm for the Windows machine -- it got its separate IP address and connected to the Windows domain just fine.

It also seemed at first not to hurt the Kubuntu host -- I could continue surfing (for which I user Firefox), read IMAP mail (for which I use Thunderbird), and aptitude never complained.

But I noticed something strange -- I started getting error messages from KOrganizer, about accessing remote (google) calendars. I thought it was just some fluke, and just turned the thing off in order to continue working quietly. I thought I'd solve it later.

Then I noticed another weird behavior: KMail, which I use for POP3 mail, stopped checking mail. Every time it checked, it just said "Transmission for account complete. No new messages". Only it said so immediately, and it insisted on saying so even when I made sure it didn't know the password for the account. And of course, there were messages in the account which weren't downloaded.

Only when I started to investigate this, I got the pattern: The kioslaves for kdepim got screwed by a network change, which should have been two levels of abstraction too low for them to notice. I confirmed this by restoring the network settings to "straight eth0" -- suddenly, KMail got the mail, and KOrganizer had no problems with the Google-calendars.

I don't even know how to begin to debug this further.

$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=7.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=gutsy
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 7.10"
$ apt-cache policy kdepim-kio-plugins
kdepim-kio-plugins:
  Installed: 4:3.5.7enterprise20070926-0ubuntu2.1
  Candidate: 4:3.5.7enterprise20070926-0ubuntu2.1
  Version table:
 *** 4:3.5.7enterprise20070926-0ubuntu2.1 0
        500 http://il.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy-updates/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     4:3.5.7enterprise20070926-0ubuntu2 0
        500 http://il.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/main Packages

Revision history for this message
Josip Lazic (josip) wrote :

I can confirm this bug.
VirtualBox installed from .deb downloaded from virtualbox site.

Revision history for this message
Richard Birnie (rbirnie-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Thanks for reporting this bug. Does this problem still occur if you use Hardy as the host, or as the guest OS? There are several things that might cause this. If the bug still occurs what are you current versions of Kubuntu, KDE, Kontact and virtualbox?

If host and guest differ could you give the versions for both please.

thanks

Revision history for this message
Shai Berger (shai-platonix) wrote :

I tried upgrading to Hardy, and only partially succeeded -- the system is the notorious Dell Optiplex 320, and I couldn't get Hardy's 2.6.24 kernel to boot on it; consequently, I'm now using a mostly-Hardy system with Gutsy's 2.6.22 kernel. This affects VirtualBox too, because it needs kernel modules; I couldn't find or compile kernel modules for the new VBox with the old kernel, so I'm using VBox from Gutsy too.

I'm telling you this sordid story, because testing the network-bridge set-up is an effort; given the peculiar state of the system, is it worth it (just to make sure -- this is not a rhetorical question)?

I'm hoping, based on https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/138305, that Intrepid's 2.6.27 kernel will be able to boot here, and then I'll be able to try again.

Oh, and as mentioned above, the host is Kubuntu, the guest is (always) Windows XP. Obviously, the kioslaves problem is only in the host.

Thanks for your attention,

Shai.

Revision history for this message
Richard Birnie (rbirnie-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Shai,

Given the, as you say, unusual state of the system I don't think there is much point persisting with this. It's certainly not a supported use case and I think our chances of debugging the issue in any sensible fashion are slim. You're better off following bug 138305 and trying to get intrepid to boot. Final release is tomorrow so grab a live CD and see if it works.

Changed in kdepim:
status: New → Invalid
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