390604 - IMAP broken on mips-linux but not mipsel-linux - intermittent curly braces, rather than the folder name or corrupted folder name, then segfaults

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(MailNews Core :: Networking: IMAP, defect)

Description

[Stuart Longland]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux mips64; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070716 Firefox/2.0.0.3
Build Identifier: version 2.0.0.5 (20070801)

On big-endian MIPS systems running Linux, Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0 exhibits erratic behaviour and instability when checking folders from a local IMAP server.  The screenshot above shows the kind of error messages one sees when trying to interact with Thunderbird (that screenshot taken on an O2 with TB 2.0.0.0).

The same problem does not appear on little-endian MIPS systems, leading me to believe there is possibly an endianness bug that may be affecting other BE architectures like sparc and ppc.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
Starting with *no* profile (delete .thunderbird directory)

1. Step through the wizard setting up an IMAP account, enter passwords...etc.
2. Wait for system to populate the mail folders
3. Try clicking on some of the nested mail folders
4. Try right-clicking and selecting "Subscribe"
Actual Results:  
At step 2, my Octane running TB 2.0.0.5 was seen displaying numerous "duplicate" folders, with "-1" or "-2" appended to the name of the folder.

At step 3, both my O2 (with TB 2.0.0.0) and my Octane (TB 2.0.0.5) display an error message similar to the one in the screenshot.  Note it displays a number in curly braces, rather than the folder name.  Sometimes it displays a corrupted folder name -- this behaviour is intermittent.

At step 4, Thunderbird often segfaults.

Expected Results:  
I should be able to switch folders and change subscription without problems.

As mentioned above, the problem cannot be reproduced on little-endian MIPS.  I have been using Thunderbird 2.0.0.0 for over 2 months without incident on mipsel (Lemote Fulong MiniPC).

The problem was first sighted in the late Thunderbird 1.5 series, however was believed to be a problem on my machine -- it's only recently that I've tried testing on a freshly rebuilt system with 2.0.

Toolchain and OS details of test machines:
o O2: binutils-2.17, gcc-4.1.1, glibc-2.5 (using NPTL), linux-2.6.19-rc5
o Octane: binutils-2.17, gcc-4.1.1, glibc-2.3 (using linuxthreads), linux-2.6.19.1
o Fulong: binutils-2.17, gcc-4.1.1, glibc-2.5 (using NPTL), linux-2.6.22-rc6

I'll attach the strace dump gathered from the Octane last night.

Comment 1

[Stuart Longland]

Attachment: strace of thunderbird-bin -- part 1/5

This file has been compressed using bzip2... it's a complete strace dump from a cold start, and is about 15MB uncompressed.  I've split the file into fifths due to the size.  I'm not sure which parts of this strace are relevant.

Comment 2

[Stuart Longland]

Attachment: strace of thunderbird-bin -- part 2/5

Comment 3

[Stuart Longland]

Attachment: strace of thunderbird-bin -- part 3/5

Comment 4

[Stuart Longland]

Attachment: strace of thunderbird-bin -- part 4/5

Comment 5

[Stuart Longland]

Attachment: strace of thunderbird-bin -- part 5/5

Comment 6

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Stuart, http://bin.longlandclan.hopto.org/index.cgi/20070629-123039-13166742 didn't work for me. can you identify which item relates to this bug in the list at http://bin.longlandclan.yi.org/index.cgi/20070629-123039-13166742

Comment 7

[Stuart Longland]

Hi,
  Yeah, sadly the post timed out (it had been more than several months since the last hit, thus the script deleted the screenshot).  I'll see if I can reproduce the same issue under a later version of Mozilla Thunderbird and report back.

Regards,
Stuart Longland

Comment 8

[Ryan Hill]

i noticed the thunderbird (icedove :P) packages in Debian lenny and sid are at version 2.0.0.9-3 for both mips and mipsel.  maybe the problem is on our end?

Comment 9

[Stuart Longland]

Maybe... but that package is only recent, compared to the problem.  When I last looked into this bug, Debian only had icedove 1.5.something...

But the fact that Debian seems to have a working package, should be a great starting point. :-)  ( Well... we *think* they've got a working package... if it's in Debian "unstable"/"testing", one cannot be sure. ;-)

Comment 10

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

Stuart: what's the status here? Are there MIPS-specific patches in Debian icedove that need to be sent upstream? 

Without such a system to test on, developers are going to have trouble reproducing this...

Gerv

Comment 11

[Stuart Longland]

Real life has intervened unfortunately and thus I haven't had a chance to get near Thunderbird.  Hopefully next week after my university exams finish. :-)

If developers wish, I could provide access to an O2 I have here (RM5200 300MHz CPU, 128MB RAM), which exhibits the problem.  It's on a slow internet link however (comparatively... we have 512Kbps/128Kbps ADSL), so any GUI will be via VNC or similar protocols.

Certainly I want to do everything I can to ensure Thunderbird and Firefox remain portable, and available on as many platforms as possible.

Comment 12

[Nikolay Shopik]

Stuart, any updates?

Comment 13

[Nikolay Shopik]

Closing Incomplete for lack of answers.

Feel free to reopen if you can provide more information.