Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 89192
Bails on startup because it cannot find '/etc/xinetd.d/(null)'
Last modified: 2007-04-18 12:53:09 EDT
From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.3) Gecko/20030312 Description of problem: When I run redhat-config-services, it asks me for root password, flashes the GUI, then exits with the following error message: /etc/xinetd.d/(null) [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/etc/xinetd.d/(null)' I upgraded from modified RH 7.1 to RH 9, so I'm sure my system is this is a configuration problem. However, I also think that this is a bug in redhat-config-services for two reasons: 1) It might be calling sprintf with a "%s" argument that is NULL. While glibc will convert NULL strings as "(null)", the behavior is undefined by the ANSI specification. (I haven't looked at the source code, so this is just a guess) 2) The error message is not helpful. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. log into an xterm 2. run redhat-config-services 3. Actual Results: redhat-config-services asks me for root password. I enter it. Then it flashes the GUI for 1/10th of a second and exits with the following error message: /etc/xinetd.d/(null) [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/etc/xinetd.d/(null)' Expected Results: The GUI should come up. Additional info: I updated from a modified RH 7.1 to RH 9 distribution. I'm is just a bad reaction to an erronous configuration. Unfortunatly, I do not know what is wrong with my configuration. Hopefully, this will be easy for the developer to spot by inspection.
Run a chkconfig --list and see if this has a problem. Check for a bad link in the /etc/rc3.d directory. Dan
Running "chkconfig --list" prints out a bunch of services, then crashes (seg faults) just after printing the header for "xinetd based services". Running "symlinks /etc/rc3.d" outputs: absolute: /etc/rc3.d/S90ntpd -> /etc/rc.d/init.d/ntpd absolute: /etc/rc3.d/S60smb -> /etc/init.d/smb absolute: /etc/rc3.d/S90amd -> /etc/rc.d/init.d/amd absolute: /etc/rc3.d/S60nfs -> /etc/rc.d/init.d/nfs absolute: /etc/rc3.d/S90rstatd -> /etc/rc.d/init.d/rstatd absolute: /etc/rc3.d/S90rusersd -> /etc/rc.d/init.d/rusersd Notice there are no dangling links.
chkconfig is the problem. Redhat-config-services execs chkconfig to get it's data. Is there anything wierd in the /etc/xinet.d directory? Dan
I can see that chkconfig crashing would cause problems, but I would still expect the GUI to present a more informative error message. I don't see anything strange about the contents of my /etc/xinet.d directory, but I don't know what I'm looking for. There are no dangling symbolic links. I downloaded the 1.3.8 source code for chkconfig, built it, and ran it with the "--list" option. It does not crash. However, the first entry under the xinetd looks strange. It's: E+ on There is no file called E+ (or anything like it) in my /etc/xinet.d directory. I don't know where the E+ is coming from. I replaced my chkconfig with the one I just built (I kept the older version around for the sake of reproducing the bug). Now when I run redhat-config-services it bails with a different error: /etc/xinetd.d/¤» [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/etc/xinetd.d/\xa4\xbb' I presume that the "star double-greaterthan" is the unescaped from of 0xA4 0xBB in whatever font I'm using. I'm sure there's some connection between this an "E+", but it's not obvious to me.
Does chkconfig --list list all the files in the /etc/xinit.d directory? Could you send me a listing. Dan
I have appended the requested listing to the end of this post. I have also done an "ls -fl /etc/xinetd.d" for comparison. You will notice that the single discrepency between the two listings is that the I have a directory called "unused" in my /etc/xinetd.d". I have verified that if I remove this directory, the "E+" entry (and the entire problem) goes away. However, if I change the name to of the directory from "unused" to anything else, the directory is (correctly) ignored. Also, just having a directory called "unused" causes problems, even if it is empty. This "unused" directory has been around since 2000, back when my machine was running RH 7.1 and had a different sys admin. I don't know who created the "unused" directory, why it was created, or why it is special. > /sbin/chkconfig --list syslog 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off crond 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off netfs 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off network 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off random 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off rawdevices 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off xfs 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off amd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:off 5:on 6:off xinetd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off dhcrelay 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off anacron 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off httpd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off arpwatch 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off atd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off autofs 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off mysqld 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off nscd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off snmptrapd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off keytable 0:off 1:on 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off dhcpd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off sshd 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off gpm 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off nfs 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off ipchains 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off rhnsd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off kadmin 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off kprop 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off krb524 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off krb5kdc 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off kudzu 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off saslauthd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off nfslock 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off ntpd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off lisa 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off psacct 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off winbind 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off ups 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off ldap 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off iptables 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off apmd 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off portmap 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off postgresql 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off vsftpd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off rarpd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off routed 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off privoxy 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off rstatd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off rusersd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off rwalld 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off rwhod 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off smb 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:off 5:on 6:off sendmail 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off squid 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off ypxfrd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off ypbind 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off yppasswdd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off ypserv 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off pcmcia 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off irda 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off isdn 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off cups 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off canna 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off xinetd based services: E+: on chargen-udp: off finger: off ntalk: off talk: off rsync: off chargen: off daytime-udp: off daytime: off echo-udp: off echo: off services: off servers: off time-udp: off time: off amandaidx: off sgi_fam: on amanda: off comsat: off amidxtape: off eklogin: off gssftp: off klogin: off krb5-telnet: off kshell: off ktalk: off cups-lpd: off > ls -fl /etc/xinetd.d total 120 drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Apr 19 13:03 ./ drwxr-xr-x 77 root root 8192 Apr 21 04:04 ../ drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 17 2000 unused/ -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 580 Feb 24 16:10 chargen-udp -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 318 Jan 24 15:52 finger -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 275 Feb 4 08:04 ntalk -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 263 Feb 4 08:04 talk -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 317 Jan 24 23:04 rsync -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 563 Feb 24 16:10 chargen -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 438 Feb 24 16:10 daytime-udp -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 419 Feb 24 16:10 daytime -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 360 Feb 24 16:10 echo-udp -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 341 Feb 24 16:10 echo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 314 Feb 24 16:10 services -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 312 Feb 24 16:10 servers -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 518 Feb 24 16:10 time-udp -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 497 Feb 24 16:10 time -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 230 Feb 13 08:15 amandaidx -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 392 Jan 31 07:22 sgi_fam -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 321 Feb 13 08:15 amanda -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 233 Jan 24 15:08 comsat -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 233 Feb 13 08:15 amidxtape -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 323 Mar 6 15:09 eklogin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 326 Mar 6 15:09 gssftp -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 310 Mar 6 15:09 klogin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 323 Mar 6 15:09 krb5-telnet -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 308 Mar 6 15:09 kshell -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 267 Feb 24 15:20 ktalk -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 239 Feb 12 09:51 cups-lpd*
I made a fix to chkconfig that should ignore the directory. Check it out at ftp://people.redhat.com/dwalsh/chkconfig I will attempt to get this change into the next release. Dan
Created attachment 91577 [details] listService read/prints uninitialized buffer Because I couldn't see the changes you made, I got nervous that you might have made a change based on incomplete information that I had given you. I ended stepping through the code in the debugging and found the problem. Hopefully, you arrived at the same conclusion, but I am submitting this patch just in case. The problem is that listService does not check the return value of readXinetdServiceInfo(). When readXinetdServiceInfo() encounters a directory, it returns -1 and leaves the service parameter untouched. In short, the "E+" was coming from This means that In other words the "E+" was coming from reading uninitialized memory on the stack. This patch makes listService check the return value.
The latest kit on RawHide handles errors in chkconfig better redhat-config-services-0.8.5-* Also I have implimented your suggested changes plus some others in chkconfig chkconfig-1.3.8-* which also should be on rawhide.