New/old problem - Audacity crashes on startup

First - is this the right place to post a bug report?

This seems to be a new / old bug. I have a customer who is using Audacity 2.4.2 on Linux - Fedora 33 with all current updates. This version of audacity.x86_64 2.4.2-4.fc33 was installed from the Fedora repo.

The problem is that my customer started having crashes after a couple minutes of recording. The time intervals kept getting smaller until it now crashes when she launches Audacity. She does not even need to start recording. At first I though it was a RAM or disk shortage but the data below indicates that is not the problem as lots of each are available.

The data below should give you an idea of the host environment plus an example of the core dump. There are many more core dumps I can send if necessary. The host is a Dell Inspiron 5594 laptop. Please let me know if you need more details or I need to report this some other place.

Thanks!


More details:

Memory:

             total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:        7985876     1346220     4466220      214056     2173436     6117944
Swap:      12381176           0    12381176

Disk:

Filesystem             Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
devtmpfs               3.8G   12K  3.8G   1% /dev
tmpfs                  3.9G  272K  3.9G   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs                  1.6G  1.8M  1.6G   1% /run
/dev/mapper/VG01-root  9.8G  378M  8.9G   4% /
/dev/mapper/VG01-usr    35G  8.7G   24G  27% /usr
/dev/mapper/VG01-tmp    15G   47M   14G   1% /tmp
/dev/nvme0n1p2         4.9G  493M  4.2G  11% /boot
/dev/mapper/VG01-home   74G   14G   57G  20% /home
/dev/mapper/VG01-var    25G  2.8G   21G  12% /var
/dev/nvme0n1p1         5.0G   21M  5.0G   1% /boot/efi
tmpfs                  780M  112K  780M   1% /run/user/1000

Journal data:

Mar 01 16:00:42 cyndi audit[1011075]: ANOM_ABEND auid=1000 uid=1000 gid=1000 ses=1 pid=1011075 comm="audacity" exe="/usr/bin/audacity" sig=11 res=1
Mar 01 16:00:42 cyndi systemd[1]: Starting system activity accounting tool...
Mar 01 16:00:42 cyndi audit: BPF prog-id=141 op=LOAD
Mar 01 16:00:42 cyndi audit: BPF prog-id=142 op=LOAD
Mar 01 16:00:42 cyndi audit: BPF prog-id=143 op=LOAD
Mar 01 16:00:42 cyndi systemd[1]: Started Process Core Dump (PID 1011545/UID 0).
Mar 01 16:00:42 cyndi audit[1]: SERVICE_START pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='unit=systemd-coredump@2-1011545-0 comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/sy
stemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
Mar 01 16:00:42 cyndi systemd[1]: sysstat-collect.service: Succeeded.
Mar 01 16:00:42 cyndi systemd[1]: Finished system activity accounting tool.
Mar 01 16:00:42 cyndi audit[1]: SERVICE_START pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='unit=sysstat-collect comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostna
me=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
Mar 01 16:00:42 cyndi audit[1]: SERVICE_STOP pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='unit=sysstat-collect comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostnam
e=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
Mar 01 16:00:43 cyndi systemd-coredump[1011547]: Process 1011075 (audacity) of user 1000 dumped core.
                                                 
                                                 Stack trace of thread 1011075:
                                                 #0  0x00007f23029c6474 _ZN12wxEvtHandler18SafelyProcessEventER7wxEvent (libwx_baseu-3.0.so.0 + 0x177474)
                                                 #1  0x00007f2302d4be68 gtk_frame_focus_out_callback (libwx_gtk3u_core-3.0.so.0 + 0x295e68)
                                                 #2  0x00007f23021f159b _gtk_marshal_BOOLEAN__BOXED (libgtk-3.so.0 + 0x3de59b)
                                                 #3  0x00007f2301ca1e2a g_closure_invoke (libgobject-2.0.so.0 + 0x13e2a)
                                                 #4  0x00007f2301ccb462 signal_emit_unlocked_R.isra.0 (libgobject-2.0.so.0 + 0x3d462)
                                                 #5  0x00007f2301cbeaee g_signal_emit_valist (libgobject-2.0.so.0 + 0x30aee)
                                                 #6  0x00007f2301cbf1a3 g_signal_emit (libgobject-2.0.so.0 + 0x311a3)
                                                 #7  0x00007f23021b8184 gtk_widget_event_internal.part.0.lto_priv.0 (libgtk-3.so.0 + 0x3a5184)
                                                 #8  0x00007f230205b4ba gtk_main_do_event (libgtk-3.so.0 + 0x2484ba)
                                                 #9  0x00007f2301d48043 _gdk_event_emit (libgdk-3.so.0 + 0x35043)
                                                 #10 0x00007f2301d7efc2 gdk_event_source_dispatch (libgdk-3.so.0 + 0x6bfc2)
                                                 #11 0x00007f2301bb07ef g_main_context_dispatch (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0x537ef)
                                                 #12 0x00007f2301c025d8 g_main_context_iterate.constprop.0 (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0xa55d8)
                                                 #13 0x00007f2301bafeb3 g_main_loop_run (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0x52eb3)
                                                 #14 0x00007f230205720d gtk_main (libgtk-3.so.0 + 0x24420d)
                                                 #15 0x00007f2302d3c835 _ZN14wxGUIEventLoop5DoRunEv (libwx_gtk3u_core-3.0.so.0 + 0x286835)
                                                 #16 0x00007f23028f81bd _ZN15wxEventLoopBase3RunEv (libwx_baseu-3.0.so.0 + 0xa91bd)
                                                 #17 0x00007f2302d9769a _ZN8wxDialog9ShowModalEv (libwx_gtk3u_core-3.0.so.0 + 0x2e169a)
                                                 #18 0x00007f2303285aef _ZNK23wxDebugReportPreviewStd4ShowER13wxDebugReport (libwx_gtk3u_qa-3.0.so.0 + 0x1faef)
                                                 #19 0x0000556db01edd8f _ZN11CrashReport8GenerateEN13wxDebugReport7ContextE (audacity + 0x521d8f)
                                                 #20 0x0000556db019f234 _ZN11AudacityApp16OnFatalExceptionEv (audacity + 0x4d3234)
                                                 #21 0x00007f23029b16f2 wxFatalSignalHandler (libwx_baseu-3.0.so.0 + 0x1626f2)
                                                 #22 0x00007f23034441e0 .annobin_sigaction.c (libpthread.so.0 + 0x141e0)
                                                 
                                                 Stack trace of thread 1011077:
                                                 #0  0x00007f23015ee80f __poll (libc.so.6 + 0xf680f)
                                                 #1  0x00007f2301c02576 g_main_context_iterate.constprop.0 (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0xa5576)
                                                 #2  0x00007f2301bafeb3 g_main_loop_run (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0x52eb3)
                                                 #3  0x00007f2300c55d1a gdbus_shared_thread_func.lto_priv.0 (libgio-2.0.so.0 + 0x10fd1a)
                                                 #4  0x00007f2301bde132 g_thread_proxy (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0x81132)
                                                 #5  0x00007f23034393f9 start_thread (libpthread.so.0 + 0x93f9)
                                                 #6  0x00007f23015f9903 __clone (libc.so.6 + 0x101903)
                                                 
                                                 Stack trace of thread 1011085:
                                                 #0  0x00007f23015c0831 clock_nanosleep@@GLIBC_2.17 (libc.so.6 + 0xc8831)
                                                 #1  0x00007f23015c5d57 __nanosleep (libc.so.6 + 0xcdd57)
                                                 #2  0x00007f23029b18cc _Z12wxMicroSleepm (libwx_baseu-3.0.so.0 + 0x1628cc)
                                                 #3  0x0000556db01a7fcd _ZN11AudioThread5EntryEv (audacity + 0x4dbfcd)
                                                 #4  0x00007f23029b201a _ZN8wxThread9CallEntryEv (libwx_baseu-3.0.so.0 + 0x16301a)
                                                 #5  0x00007f23029acedb _ZN16wxThreadInternal12PthreadStartEP8wxThread (libwx_baseu-3.0.so.0 + 0x15dedb)
                                                 #6  0x00007f23034393f9 start_thread (libpthread.so.0 + 0x93f9)
                                                 #7  0x00007f23015f9903 __clone (libc.so.6 + 0x101903)
                                                 
                                                 Stack trace of thread 1011540:
                                                 #0  0x00007f23015f430d syscall (libc.so.6 + 0xfc30d)
                                                 #1  0x00007f2301bfd16c g_cond_wait_until (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0xa016c)
                                                 #2  0x00007f2301b81381 g_async_queue_pop_intern_unlocked (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0x24381)
                                                 #3  0x00007f2301be0e2a g_thread_pool_thread_proxy.lto_priv.0 (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0x83e2a)
                                                 #4  0x00007f2301bde132 g_thread_proxy (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0x81132)
                                                 #5  0x00007f23034393f9 start_thread (libpthread.so.0 + 0x93f9)
                                                 #6  0x00007f23015f9903 __clone (libc.so.6 + 0x101903)
                                                 
                                                 Stack trace of thread 1011544:
                                                 #0  0x00007f23015f430d syscall (libc.so.6 + 0xfc30d)
                                                 #1  0x00007f2301bfd16c g_cond_wait_until (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0xa016c)
                                                 #2  0x00007f2301b81381 g_async_queue_pop_intern_unlocked (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0x24381)
                                                 #3  0x00007f2301be0e2a g_thread_pool_thread_proxy.lto_priv.0 (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0x83e2a)
                                                 #4  0x00007f2301bde132 g_thread_proxy (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0x81132)
                                                 #5  0x00007f23034393f9 start_thread (libpthread.so.0 + 0x93f9)
                                                 #6  0x00007f23015f9903 __clone (libc.so.6 + 0x101903)
                                                 
                                                 Stack trace of thread 1011084:
                                                 #0  0x00007f23015c0831 clock_nanosleep@@GLIBC_2.17 (libc.so.6 + 0xc8831)
                                                 #1  0x00007f23015c5d57 __nanosleep (libc.so.6 + 0xcdd57)
                                                 #2  0x00007f23029b18cc _Z12wxMicroSleepm (libwx_baseu-3.0.so.0 + 0x1628cc)
                                                 #3  0x0000556db01a7441 _ZN10MidiThread5EntryEv (audacity + 0x4db441)
                                                 #4  0x00007f23029b201a _ZN8wxThread9CallEntryEv (libwx_baseu-3.0.so.0 + 0x16301a)
                                                 #5  0x00007f23029acedb _ZN16wxThreadInternal12PthreadStartEP8wxThread (libwx_baseu-3.0.so.0 + 0x15dedb)
                                                 #6  0x00007f23034393f9 start_thread (libpthread.so.0 + 0x93f9)
                                                 #7  0x00007f23015f9903 __clone (libc.so.6 + 0x101903)
                                                 
                                                 Stack trace of thread 1011076:
                                                 #0  0x00007f23015ee80f __poll (libc.so.6 + 0xf680f)
                                                 #1  0x00007f2301c02576 g_main_context_iterate.constprop.0 (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0xa5576)
                                                 #2  0x00007f2301badbc3 g_main_context_iteration (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0x50bc3)
                                                 #3  0x00007f2301baf7e1 glib_worker_main (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0x527e1)
                                                 #4  0x00007f2301bde132 g_thread_proxy (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0x81132)
                                                 #5  0x00007f23034393f9 start_thread (libpthread.so.0 + 0x93f9)
                                                 #6  0x00007f23015f9903 __clone (libc.so.6 + 0x101903)
Mar 01 16:00:43 cyndi systemd[1]: systemd-coredump@2-1011545-0.service: Succeeded.
Mar 01 16:00:43 cyndi audit[1]: SERVICE_STOP pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='unit=systemd-coredump@2-1011545-0 comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/sys
temd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'

Yes, here is fine.

Please be aware that it is difficult for us to advise on problems that affect specific builds of Audacity. We are a very small team and do not have the resources to test on every Linux distro. Most of our testing for Linux is with Ubuntu / Debian.

I don’t see any obvious reason for the crash.
Please be aware that Audacity does not yet fully support Wayland. If they use Wayland, ask them to log in with an xorg session and see if the problem still occurs.

I have a near identical installation. We both use the Xfce spin and desktop. Audacity works fine on my host. I am thinking there may be some config file that has gotten borked in ~/.audacity-data. Would it make sense to rename that directory and start over?

That’s quite possible.
The three most likely files in that folder are:
audacity.cfg (Audacity’s main configuration file)
pluginregistry.cfg
pluginsettings.cfg

Audacity 2.4.2 now has a “Reset Configuration” option in the “Tools” menu. This provides a quick and easy way to reset “most” of Audacity’s settings, but removing the ~/.audacity-data folder will reset Audacity completely back to factory defaults.

I had my customer rename the .audacity-data directory and that has resolved the problem. So it seems that a borked config is definitely the culprit.

Thanks!

Thanks for the update.