disable a.out support

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. While running an Ubuntu kernel (not a mainline or third-party kernel) please enter the following command in a terminal window:

apport-collect 1818552

and then change the status of the bug to 'Confirmed'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

Setting to confirmed to placate the bot. Thanks.

This thread sheds more light on why it is a good idea to disable a.out support:

  https://lore.kernel<email address hidden>/

Specifically, the coredump support is broken/buggy and that's addressed in this patch:

  https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=08300f4402abc0eb3bc9c91b27a529836710d32d

a.out support, in general, is now deprecated and will likely be removed in a few upstream releases:

  https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=eac616557050737a8d6ef6fe0322d0980ff0ffde

Since we only had a.out enabled in i386 and armhf configs, I think we're better off simply disabling the config option, rather than backporting the patch that rips out coredumping. We'll do this for Xenial and newer releases.

The output from Seth's grep (in the bug description) is a little misleading because the archival of kernel configs on kernel.ubuntu.com is buggy. It is including kernel configs of the generic, lowlatency, etc., kernels in the directories of the derivative kernels. For example, these config files should not exist because the linux-kvm source package does not produce an i386 generic or lowlatency binary package:

 cosmic/linux-kvm/4.15.0-1008.8/i386-config.flavour.generic
 cosmic/linux-kvm/4.15.0-1008.8/i386-config.flavour.lowlatency

If we inspect the directory contents while logged into kernel.ubuntu.com, we see this:

 $ ls -1 ~kernel-ppa/public_html/config/cosmic/linux-kvm/4.15.0-1008.8/
 amd64-config.flavour.generic
 amd64-config.flavour.kvm
 amd64-config.flavour.lowlatency
 arm64-config.flavour.generic
 arm64-config.flavour.snapdragon
 armhf-config.flavour.generic
 armhf-config.flavour.generic-lpae
 i386-config.flavour.generic
 i386-config.flavour.lowlatency
 ppc64el-config.flavour.generic
 s390x-config.flavour.generic

Of those files, only amd64-config.flavour.kvm is valid for linux-kvm and it does not contain CONFIG_BINFMT_AOUT=m because it is a 64 bit kernel.

Another thing to note is that CONFIG_HAVE_AOUT=y does not indicate that the a.out binfmt handler is enabled but the grep output in the bug description does include those matches. For example, the file xenial/linux-flo/3.4.0-5.23/armhf-config.flavour.flo has these lines:

 CONFIG_HAVE_AOUT=y
 # CONFIG_BINFMT_AOUT is not set

That means that linux-flo for Xenial is not affected by this bug report.

Adjusting the grep a little to focus on Cosmic, Bionic, and Xenial and to only match CONFIG_BINFMT_AOUT, I get this:

 $ grep -rl BINFMT_AOUT=[ym] {cosmic,bionic,xenial} | grep -v -e lowlatency -e generic
 xenial/linux-hwe/4.8.0-49.52~16.04.1/armel-config.flavour.omap4
 xenial/linux-hwe/4.8.0-49.52~16.04.1/armhf-config.flavour.omap4
 xenial/linux-mako/3.4.0-7.44/i386-config.flavour.virtual
 xenial/linux-hwe-edge/4.10.0-20.22~16.04.1/armel-config.flavour.omap4

I've excluded lowlatency and generic search results because of the bug mentioned above in comment #4 (we know that the i386 generic kernels need to be fixed in all releases).

Mako and omap4 HWE kernels are not supported so I don't think there's anything additional to do outside of updating the i386 generic kernels in Cosmic, Bionic, and Xenial.

This bug was fixed in the package linux - 5.0.0-11.12

---------------
linux (5.0.0-11.12) disco; urgency=medium

  * linux: 5.0.0-11.12 -proposed tracker (LP: #1824383)

  * hns3: PPU_PF_ABNORMAL_INT_ST over_8bd_no_fe found [error status=0x1]
    (LP: #1824194)
    - net: hns3: fix for not calculating tx bd num correctly

  * disco: unable to use iptables/enable ufw under -virtual kernel
    (LP: #1823862)
    - [Packaging] add bpfilter to linux-modules

  * Make shiftfs a module rather than built-in (LP: #1824354)
    - [Config] CONFIG_SHIFT_FS=m

  * shiftfs: chown sets untranslated ids in lower fs (LP: #1824350)
    - SAUCE: shiftfs: use translated ids when chaning lower fs attrs

  * [Hyper-V] KVP daemon fails to start on first boot of disco VM (LP: #1820063)
    - [Packaging] bind hv_kvp_daemon startup to hv_kvp device

linux (5.0.0-10.11) disco; urgency=medium

  * linux: 5.0.0-10.11 -proposed tracker (LP: #1823936)

  * Apparmor enforcement failure in lxc selftests (LP: #1823379)
    - SAUCE: apparmor: Restore Y/N in /sys for apparmor's "enabled"

  * systemd cause kernel trace "BUG: unable to handle kernel paging request at
    6db23a14" on Cosmic i386 (LP: #1813244)
    - openvswitch: fix flow actions reallocation

linux (5.0.0-9.10) disco; urgency=medium

  * linux: 5.0.0-9.10 -proposed tracker (LP: #1823228)

  * Packaging resync (LP: #1786013)
    - [Packaging] resync git-ubuntu-log
    - [Packaging] update helper scripts
    - [Packaging] resync retpoline extraction

  * Huawei Hi1822 NIC has poor performance (LP: #1820187)
    - net-next/hinic: replace disable_irq_nosync/enable_irq

  * Add uid shifting overlay filesystem (shiftfs) (LP: #1823186)
    - shiftfs: uid/gid shifting bind mount
    - shiftfs: rework and extend
    - shiftfs: support some btrfs ioctls
    - [Config] enable shiftfs

  * Cannot boot or install - have to use nomodeset (LP: #1821820)
    - Revert "drm/i915/fbdev: Actually configure untiled displays"

  * Disco update: v5.0.6 upstream stable release (LP: #1823060)
    - netfilter: nf_tables: fix set double-free in abort path
    - dccp: do not use ipv6 header for ipv4 flow
    - genetlink: Fix a memory leak on error path
    - gtp: change NET_UDP_TUNNEL dependency to select
    - ipv6: make ip6_create_rt_rcu return ip6_null_entry instead of NULL
    - mac8390: Fix mmio access size probe
    - mISDN: hfcpci: Test both vendor & device ID for Digium HFC4S
    - net: aquantia: fix rx checksum offload for UDP/TCP over IPv6
    - net: datagram: fix unbounded loop in __skb_try_recv_datagram()
    - net/packet: Set __GFP_NOWARN upon allocation in alloc_pg_vec
    - net: phy: meson-gxl: fix interrupt support
    - net: rose: fix a possible stack overflow
    - net: stmmac: fix memory corruption with large MTUs
    - net-sysfs: call dev_hold if kobject_init_and_add success
    - net: usb: aqc111: Extend HWID table by QNAP device
    - packets: Always register packet sk in the same order
    - rhashtable: Still do rehash when we get EEXIST
    - sctp: get sctphdr by offset in sctp_compute_cksum
    - sctp: use memdup_user instead of vmemdup_user
    - tcp: do not use ipv6 header for ipv4 flow
    - tipc: allow servic...

This bug is awaiting verification that the kernel in -proposed solves the problem. Please test the kernel and update this bug with the results. If the problem is solved, change the tag 'verification-needed-xenial' to 'verification-done-xenial'. If the problem still exists, change the tag 'verification-needed-xenial' to 'verification-failed-xenial'.

If verification is not done by 5 working days from today, this fix will be dropped from the source code, and this bug will be closed.

See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you!

This bug is awaiting verification that the kernel in -proposed solves the problem. Please test the kernel and update this bug with the results. If the problem is solved, change the tag 'verification-needed-bionic' to 'verification-done-bionic'. If the problem still exists, change the tag 'verification-needed-bionic' to 'verification-failed-bionic'.

If verification is not done by 5 working days from today, this fix will be dropped from the source code, and this bug will be closed.

See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you!

Xenial:

$ grep AOUT !$
grep AOUT /boot/config-4.4.0-149-generic
# CONFIG_HAVE_AOUT is not set
# CONFIG_IA32_AOUT is not set

Bionic:

$ grep AOUT /boot/config-4.15.0-51-generic
# CONFIG_HAVE_AOUT is not set
# CONFIG_IA32_AOUT is not set

Sorry to say I don't have an a.out file to test with.

Thanks

This bug is awaiting verification that the kernel in -proposed solves the problem. Please test the kernel and update this bug with the results. If the problem is solved, change the tag 'verification-needed-cosmic' to 'verification-done-cosmic'. If the problem still exists, change the tag 'verification-needed-cosmic' to 'verification-failed-cosmic'.

If verification is not done by 5 working days from today, this fix will be dropped from the source code, and this bug will be closed.

See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you!

$ grep BINFMT_AOUT /boot/config-4.18.0-2[01]-generic
/boot/config-4.18.0-20-generic:CONFIG_BINFMT_AOUT=m
/boot/config-4.18.0-21-generic:# CONFIG_BINFMT_AOUT is not set

Marking cosmic as verification-done.

This bug was fixed in the package linux - 4.4.0-150.176

---------------
linux (4.4.0-150.176) xenial; urgency=medium

  * linux: 4.4.0-150.176 -proposed tracker (LP: #1830941)

  * glibc 2.23-0ubuntu11 ADT test failure with linux 4.4.0-149.175
    (LP: #1830890)
    - x86/vdso: Pass --eh-frame-hdr to the linker

linux (4.4.0-149.175) xenial; urgency=medium

  * linux: 4.4.0-149.175 -proposed tracker (LP: #1829209)

  * disable a.out support (LP: #1818552)
    - [Config] Disable a.out support

  * autopkgtests run too often, too much and don't skip enough (LP: #1823056)
    - [Debian] Set +x on rebuild testcase.
    - [Debian] Skip rebuild test, for regression-suite deps.
    - [Debian] Make ubuntu-regression-suite skippable on unbootable kernels.
    - [Debian] make rebuild use skippable error codes when skipping.
    - [Debian] Only run regression-suite, if requested to.

  * Xenial update: 4.4.179 upstream stable release (LP: #1828420)
    - arm64: debug: Don't propagate UNKNOWN FAR into si_code for debug signals
    - arm64: debug: Ensure debug handlers check triggering exception level
    - ext4: cleanup bh release code in ext4_ind_remove_space()
    - lib/int_sqrt: optimize initial value compute
    - tty/serial: atmel: Add is_half_duplex helper
    - mm: mempolicy: make mbind() return -EIO when MPOL_MF_STRICT is specified
    - i2c: core-smbus: prevent stack corruption on read I2C_BLOCK_DATA
    - Bluetooth: Fix decrementing reference count twice in releasing socket
    - tty/serial: atmel: RS485 HD w/DMA: enable RX after TX is stopped
    - CIFS: fix POSIX lock leak and invalid ptr deref
    - h8300: use cc-cross-prefix instead of hardcoding h8300-unknown-linux-
    - tracing: kdb: Fix ftdump to not sleep
    - gpio: gpio-omap: fix level interrupt idling
    - sysctl: handle overflow for file-max
    - enic: fix build warning without CONFIG_CPUMASK_OFFSTACK
    - mm/cma.c: cma_declare_contiguous: correct err handling
    - mm/page_ext.c: fix an imbalance with kmemleak
    - mm/vmalloc.c: fix kernel BUG at mm/vmalloc.c:512!
    - mm/slab.c: kmemleak no scan alien caches
    - ocfs2: fix a panic problem caused by o2cb_ctl
    - f2fs: do not use mutex lock in atomic context
    - fs/file.c: initialize init_files.resize_wait
    - cifs: use correct format characters
    - dm thin: add sanity checks to thin-pool and external snapshot creation
    - cifs: Fix NULL pointer dereference of devname
    - fs: fix guard_bio_eod to check for real EOD errors
    - tools lib traceevent: Fix buffer overflow in arg_eval
    - usb: chipidea: Grab the (legacy) USB PHY by phandle first
    - scsi: core: replace GFP_ATOMIC with GFP_KERNEL in scsi_scan.c
    - coresight: etm4x: Add support to enable ETMv4.2
    - ARM: 8840/1: use a raw_spinlock_t in unwind
    - mmc: omap: fix the maximum timeout setting
    - e1000e: Fix -Wformat-truncation warnings
    - IB/mlx4: Increase the timeout for CM cache
    - scsi: megaraid_sas: return error when create DMA pool failed
    - perf test: Fix failure of 'evsel-tp-sched' test on s390
    - SoC: imx-sgtl5000: add missing put_device()
    - media: sh_veu: Correct return type for mem2mem buffer helpers
    - media: s5...

This bug was fixed in the package linux - 4.15.0-51.55

---------------
linux (4.15.0-51.55) bionic; urgency=medium

  * linux: 4.15.0-51.55 -proposed tracker (LP: #1829219)

  * disable a.out support (LP: #1818552)
    - [Config] Disable a.out support

  * [UBUNTU] qdio: clear intparm during shutdown (LP: #1828394)
    - s390/qdio: clear intparm during shutdown

  * ftrace in ubuntu_kernel_selftests hang with Cosmic kernel (LP: #1826385)
    - kprobes/x86: Fix instruction patching corruption when copying more than one
      RIP-relative instruction

  * touchpad not working on lenovo yoga 530 (LP: #1787775)
    - Revert "UBUNTU: SAUCE: i2c:amd Depends on ACPI"
    - Revert "UBUNTU: SAUCE: i2c:amd move out pointer in union i2c_event_base"
    - Revert "UBUNTU: SAUCE: i2c:amd I2C Driver based on PCI Interface for
      upcoming platform"
    - i2c: add helpers to ease DMA handling
    - i2c: add a message flag for DMA safe buffers
    - i2c: add extra check to safe DMA buffer helper
    - i2c: Add drivers for the AMD PCIe MP2 I2C controller
    - [Config] Update config for AMD MP2 I2C driver
    - [Config] Update I2C_AMD_MP2 annotations

  * tm-unavailable in powerpc/tm failed on Bionic Power9 (LP: #1813129)
    - selftests/powerpc: Check for pthread errors in tm-unavailable
    - selftests/powerpc: Skip tm-unavailable if TM is not enabled

  * cp_abort in powerpc/context_switch from ubunut_kernel_selftests failed on
    Bionic P9 (LP: #1813134)
    - selftests/powerpc: Remove redundant cp_abort test

  * bionic/linux: completely remove snapdragon files from sources (LP: #1827880)
    - [Packaging] remove snapdragon dead files
    - [Config] update configs after snapdragon removal

  * The noise keeps occurring when Headset is plugged in on a Dell machine
    (LP: #1827972)
    - ALSA: hda/realtek - Fixed Dell AIO speaker noise

  * Geneve tunnels don't work when ipv6 is disabled (LP: #1794232)
    - geneve: correctly handle ipv6.disable module parameter

  * There are 4 HDMI/Displayport audio output listed in sound setting without
    attach any HDMI/DP monitor (LP: #1827967)
    - ALSA: hda/hdmi - Read the pin sense from register when repolling
    - ALSA: hda/hdmi - Consider eld_valid when reporting jack event

  * Headphone jack switch sense is inverted: plugging in headphones disables
    headphone output (LP: #1824259)
    - ASoC: rt5645: Headphone Jack sense inverts on the LattePanda board

  * CTAUTO:DevOps:860.50:devops4fp1:Error occurred during LINUX Dmesg error
    Checking for all LINUX clients for devops4p10 (LP: #1766201)
    - SAUCE: integrity: downgrade error to warning

  * Screen freeze after resume from S3 when HDMI monitor plugged on Dell
    Precision 7740 (LP: #1825958)
    - PCI: Restore resized BAR state on resume

  * potential memory corruption on arm64 on dev release (LP: #1827437)
    - driver core: Postpone DMA tear-down until after devres release

  * powerpc/pmu/ebb test in ubuntu_kernel_selftest failed with "error while
    loading shared libraries" on Bionic/Cosmic PowerPC (LP: #1812805)
    - selftests/powerpc/pmu: Link ebb tests with -no-pie

  * unnecessary request_queue freeze (LP: #1815733)
    - block: av...

This bug was fixed in the package linux - 4.18.0-21.22

---------------
linux (4.18.0-21.22) cosmic; urgency=medium

  * linux: 4.18.0-21.22 -proposed tracker (LP: #1829186)

  * disable a.out support (LP: #1818552)
    - [Config] Turn off a.out support

  * ftrace in ubuntu_kernel_selftests hang with Cosmic kernel (LP: #1826385)
    - kprobes/x86: Fix instruction patching corruption when copying more than one
      RIP-relative instruction

  * touchpad not working on lenovo yoga 530 (LP: #1787775)
    - Revert "UBUNTU: SAUCE: i2c:amd Depends on ACPI"
    - Revert "UBUNTU: SAUCE: i2c:amd move out pointer in union i2c_event_base"
    - Revert "UBUNTU: SAUCE: i2c:amd I2C Driver based on PCI Interface for
      upcoming platform"
    - i2c: add extra check to safe DMA buffer helper
    - i2c: Add drivers for the AMD PCIe MP2 I2C controller
    - [Config] Update config for AMD MP2 I2C driver
    - [Config] Update I2C_AMD_MP2 annotations

  * Geneve tunnels don't work when ipv6 is disabled (LP: #1794232)
    - geneve: correctly handle ipv6.disable module parameter

  * There are 4 HDMI/Displayport audio output listed in sound setting without
    attach any HDMI/DP monitor (LP: #1827967)
    - ALSA: hda/hdmi - Read the pin sense from register when repolling
    - ALSA: hda/hdmi - Consider eld_valid when reporting jack event

  * Headphone jack switch sense is inverted: plugging in headphones disables
    headphone output (LP: #1824259)
    - ASoC: rt5645: Headphone Jack sense inverts on the LattePanda board

  * CTAUTO:DevOps:860.50:devops4fp1:Error occurred during LINUX Dmesg error
    Checking for all LINUX clients for devops4p10 (LP: #1766201)
    - SAUCE: integrity: downgrade error to warning

  * potential memory corruption on arm64 on dev release (LP: #1827437)
    - driver core: Postpone DMA tear-down until after devres release

  * powerpc/pmu/ebb test in ubuntu_kernel_selftest failed with "error while
    loading shared libraries" on Bionic/Cosmic PowerPC (LP: #1812805)
    - selftests/powerpc/pmu: Link ebb tests with -no-pie

  * unnecessary request_queue freeze (LP: #1815733)
    - block: avoid setting nr_requests to current value
    - block: avoid setting none scheduler if it's already none

  * Kprobe event string type argument failed in ftrace from
    ubuntu_kernel_selftests on B/C i386 (LP: #1825780)
    - selftests/ftrace: Fix kprobe string testcase to not probe notrace function

  * False positive test result in run_netsocktests from net in
    ubuntu_kernel_selftest (LP: #1825777)
    - selftests/net: correct the return value for run_netsocktests

 -- Stefan Bader <email address hidden> Wed, 15 May 2019 13:18:36 +0200