Bug#1077962: libsoup-3.0-0: makes gnome-calculator hang during startup

[Simon McVittie]

Control: retitle -1 libsoup-3.0-0: makes gnome-calculator hang during startup
Control: forwarded -1 https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libsoup/-/issues/361
Control: affects -1 + gnome-calculator src:gnome-calculator
Control: block 1059773 1052551 1098315 1099119 1100509 1104456 1101922 1102471 by -1
Control: tags -1 bookworm upstream fixed-upstream patch
Control: found -1 3.2.2-1
Control: fixed -1 3.4.3-1

On Mon, 05 Aug 2024 at 06:45:18 +0000, Jace wrote:
>libsoup package is outdated on debian packages

All packages in a stable Debian release are always "outdated", almost by 
definition - that's what it means to be using a stable release. That is 
not an actionable bug. But...

>gnome-calculator freezes when using a Debian system behind mullvadVPN due to a
>bug in libsoup that was patched in version 3.4.3

... that *is* a potentially actionable bug. It seems that it doesn't 
necessarily affect all systems, but it seems to be reproducible here 
without using a VPN at the moment (I don't know what specific network 
condition triggers it).

In case this becomes unreproducible again in future, the error messages 
that I get in a Debian 12 virtual machine are:

** (gnome-calculator:2615): WARNING **: 19:30:02.857: currency-provider.vala:161: Couldn't download IMF currency rate file: HTTP/2 Error: INTERNAL_ERROR

(gnome-calculator:2615): libsoup-WARNING **: 19:30:02.857: (../libsoup/soup-session.c:334):soup_session_dispose: runtime check failed: (soup_connection_manager_get_num_conns (priv->conn_manager) == 0)

(gnome-calculator:2615): libsoup-WARNING **: 19:30:02.857: (../libsoup/soup-connection-manager.c:78):soup_host_free: runtime check failed: (host->conns == NULL)

>relevant links with error description: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-calculator/-/issues/359#note_2184526

Probably a more relevant reference for the libsoup side is 
<https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libsoup/-/issues/361>, which was apparently 
fixed by <https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libsoup/-/merge_requests/374>. 
The original issue report and merge request talk about crashes, but 
these are memory management/object lifetime issues that could equally 
well cause a hang.

On Sat, 22 Mar 2025 at 12:46:25 -0700, Mike Swanson wrote:
>Cherry picking commits cad8cc385338bf5681e62b82979c4442bc64319b and
>31d415ca44349fe8c4d2e0b2fb56f84501ec9524 from upstream master is at
>least enough to prevent gnome-calculator from hanging, though it still
>reports errors coming from libsoup.

I don't know whether those error reports would indicate bugs in libsoup, 
gnome-calculator, or something else. Please report them separately, with 
a suitably lower severity, if they are a concern to you.

The version in Debian 13 'trixie' prereleases seems to be OK, with all 
of the warnings (after I delete ~/.cache/gnome-calculator to force a 
refresh) being harmless-looking:

** (gnome-calculator:131325): WARNING **: 19:13:58.823: currency-provider.vala:295: Failed to read exchange rates: Failed to open file “/home/.../.cache/gnome-calculator/rms_five.xls”: No such file or directory

** (gnome-calculator:131325): WARNING **: 19:13:58.823: currency-provider.vala:97: Cannot use United Nations Treasury rates as we don't have USD rate yet, retrying

** (gnome-calculator:131325): WARNING **: 19:13:58.823: currency-provider.vala:97: Cannot use European Central Bank rates as we don't have EUR rate yet, retrying

** (gnome-calculator:131325): WARNING **: 19:13:58.823: currency-provider.vala:97: Cannot use Bank of Canada rates as we don't have CAD rate yet, retrying

On Thu, 05 Jun 2025 at 02:46:03 +0000, Jace wrote:
>What debian version was that commit applied to?

There is no version of libsoup available in Debian 12 that has had those 
commits added. Mike presumably compiled and tested a locally-modified 
copy of libsoup, but did not upload it to Debian (and probably *can't* 
upload it - they don't seem to be a Debian Developer).

There is an increasingly large pile of low-severity CVEs queued up to be 
fixed in Debian 12's version of libsoup, so hopefully the commits 
referenced above can be included in the same stable update as some or 
all of those. Maintaining libsoup in Debian 12 is not anyone's full-time 
job or even anyone's main volunteer work, so please be patient: in 
stable releases like Debian 12 we have to balance the importance of bug 
fixes against the likelihood that they will cause regressions (that's 
the purpose of stable releases).

This is fixed in the upcoming Debian 13 release.

     smcv