gnome-shell crashed with heap corruption in g_strfreev() from g_themed_icon_finalize() ["free(): invalid next size (fast)"]

StacktraceTop:
 __libc_message (do_abort=do_abort@entry=2, fmt=fmt@entry=0x7f7cec07de98 "*** Error in `%s': %s: 0x%s ***\n") at ../sysdeps/posix/libc_fatal.c:175
 malloc_printerr (ar_ptr=<optimized out>, ptr=<optimized out>, str=0x7f7cec07df10 "free(): invalid next size (fast)", action=3) at malloc.c:5006
 _int_free (av=<optimized out>, p=<optimized out>, have_lock=0) at malloc.c:3867
 __GI___libc_free (mem=<optimized out>) at malloc.c:2968
 g_strfreev () from /tmp/apport_sandbox_ptm4r9/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libglib-2.0.so.0

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

I have same problem on my ubuntu 16.04-3 64 bit box.
Crash are randomly during my work, no special operation i do before crash.
After crash, gnome shell resumed automatically and i can continue with my work.
Crash appeared only last 2 months. Before no problem.
Can give some other info or not important ?
Sorry, also posted this comment on bug 1716068.

Having a stacktrace with symbols would be quite improtant, since there are no enough informations here.

That would be great if it happened each and every time I did a software update however the crash is very, very intermittent.

The crash always happens when I enable the Arc Menu extension for Gnome Shell or after opening the app grid. I've created a bug report about it with a symbolic stacktrace here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell/+bug/1716068
I'm guessing that the app icon code in Gnome Shell is causing some sort of error.

I've noticed that the error stops happening if I use Gnome Shell 3.26 (in Ubuntu 17.10+) so perhaps the new Javascript interpreter fixed it. Still would be great to fix the issue in Ubuntu 16.04 since it's an LTS release which will be supported until 2021.

Crash happened again this morning update of:

Commandline: apt-get -y install binutils libpython2.7 libpython2.7-dev libpython2.7-minimal libpython2.7-stdlib python2.7 python2.7-dev python2.7-minimal
Upgrade: python2.7-dev:amd64 (2.7.12-1ubuntu0~16.04.2, 2.7.12-1ubuntu0~16.04.3), python2.7-minimal:amd64 (2.7.12-1ubuntu0~16.04.2, 2.7.12-1ubuntu0~16.04.3), binutils:amd64 (2.26.1-1ubuntu1~16.04.5, 2.26.1-1ubuntu1~16.04.6), libpython2.7:amd64 (2.7.12-1ubuntu0~16.04.2, 2.7.12-1ubuntu0~16.04.3), python2.7:amd64 (2.7.12-1ubuntu0~16.04.2, 2.7.12-1ubuntu0~16.04.3), libpython2.7-dev:amd64 (2.7.12-1ubuntu0~16.04.2, 2.7.12-1ubuntu0~16.04.3), libpython2.7-minimal:amd64 (2.7.12-1ubuntu0~16.04.2, 2.7.12-1ubuntu0~16.04.3), libpython2.7-stdlib:amd64 (2.7.12-1ubuntu0~16.04.2, 2.7.12-1ubuntu0~16.04.3)

Gnome Shell crashed again while installing a package using Ubuntu Software Center.

apt-cache policy gnome-shell
gnome-shell:
  Installed: 3.18.5-0ubuntu0.3
  Candidate: 3.18.5-0ubuntu0.3

lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS
Release: 16.04

Here is a paste of the syslog output - https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/Xxv47SGjhH/

I can't find any reports of this crash on errors.ubuntu.com so it's not very common. Although we have 3 duplicate bugs here...

Similar to comment #10 it might be triggered by one of your non-standard gnome-shell extensions, or by your custom icon theme. That doesn't necessarily put the blame on those other components, but might be a way to work around the crash.

Not sure what you mean by 'non-standard' extensions. All the extensions I run have been installed from the Gnome extension page.

I mean unsupported by Ubuntu and by Gnome development.

But I don't want to use that as an excuse. It sounds like a gnome-shell bug that's only revealed by adding extensions.

Possibly as with comment #10 when an extension was enabled however in my case it happens mostly when updating software or in yesterdays case I installed from Ubuntu Software Center.

I have been able to replicate the issue without installing additional extensions. If I install a copy of Ubuntu Gnome 16.04.2 (with a lot of updates available for it) and keep the app grid (Super+A) open while installing the latest updates (from the Software Updater or Synaptic) I was able to reliably replicate the crashing issue in the middle of installing the updates.

More info here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell/+bug/1716068

I was also able to upload a symbolic stacktrace of the crash with this bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell/+bug/1718268

The good and the bad news is that this crash is still not common enough to show up in the top 100 gnome-shell crashes on errors.ubuntu.com. Not even in the top 100 gnome-shell crashes of 16.04.

But it sounds like the duplicates here contain more useful information, thanks John.

The crash happened again when installing the below with sudo apt install:

Start-Date: 2018-04-10 16:29:03
Commandline: apt install sqlitebrowser
Requested-By: chris (1000)
Install: libqt5scintilla2-l10n:amd64 (2.9.1+dfsg-4build1, automatic), libqt5scintilla2-12v5:amd64 (2.9.1+dfsg-4build1, automatic), libqcustomplot1.3:amd64 (1.3.2+dfsg1-1, automatic), sqlitebrowser:amd64 (3.7.0-1)
End-Date: 2018-04-10 16:31:25

The crash happened again when installing the below with sudo apt install:

Start-Date: 2018-04-10 16:29:03
Commandline: apt install sqlitebrowser
Requested-By: chris (1000)
Install: libqt5scintilla2-l10n:amd64 (2.9.1+dfsg-4build1, automatic), libqt5scintilla2-12v5:amd64 (2.9.1+dfsg-4build1, automatic), libqcustomplot1.3:amd64 (1.3.2+dfsg1-1, automatic), sqlitebrowser:amd64 (3.7.0-1)
End-Date: 2018-04-10 16:31:25

Syslog output of crash:

https://pastebin.com/rna21WiU

I'm guessing the reason why we don't see many reports of this crash is because it's possibly triggered by shell extensions that Ubuntu doesn't normally ship with.

Yours are:
b'org.gnome.shell' b'enabled-extensions' b"['freon@UshakovVasilii_Github.yahoo.com', '<email address hidden>', '<email address hidden>', '<email address hidden>', '<email address hidden>', '<email address hidden>', '<email address hidden>', '<email address hidden>', '<email address hidden>', '<email address hidden>', '<email address hidden>', '<email address hidden>', 'TaskBar@zpydr', '<email address hidden>', '<email address hidden>']"

You might want to try disabling extensions to find which, if any, are causing the crash.

On Fri, 2018-04-27 at 02:15 +0000, Daniel van Vugt wrote:
> I'm guessing the reason why we don't see many reports of this crash
> is
> because it's possibly triggered by shell extensions that Ubuntu
> doesn't
> normally ship with.
>
> Yours are:
> b'org.gnome.shell' b'enabled-extensions' b"['freon@UshakovVasilii_Git
> hub.yahoo.com', '<email address hidden>', 'uptime-indicator@gnio
> urfgniourf.gmail.com', 'screenshot-window-sizer@gnome-shell-extension
> s.gcampax.github.com', '<email address hidden>', 'launch-n
> <email address hidden>', 'native-windo
> <email address hidden>', 'windowsNavig
> <email address hidden>', '<email address hidden>
> rg', '<email address hidden>', 'user-the
> <email address hidden>', 'places-menu@gnome-she
> ll-extensions.gcampax.github.com', 'TaskBar@zpydr', 'drive-menu@gnome
> -shell-extensions.gcampax.github.com', 'window-list@gnome-shell-exten
> sions.gcampax.github.com']"
>
> You might want to try disabling extensions to find which, if any, are
> causing the crash.
>
Good idea Daniel I'll give that a try and see how it goes.

--
Chris
KeyID 0xE372A7DA98E6705C
31.11972; -97.90167 (Elev. 1092 ft)
21:24:07 up 4:14, 1 user, load average: 1.25, 1.18, 1.15
Description: Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS, kernel 4.13.0-39-generic

Please remember to test without extensions. Also...

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 17.10 (artful) reached end-of-life on July 19, 2018.

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We appreciate that this bug may be old and you might not be interested in discussing it any more. But if you are then please upgrade to the latest Ubuntu version and re-test. If you then find the bug is still present in the newer Ubuntu version, please add a comment here telling us which new version it is in and change the bug status to Confirmed.

[Expired for gnome-shell (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]