Brave (browser) snap on Ubuntu 14.04 won't launch

[popey]

I was testing a few snaps on 14.04 today and had some quirky behaviour I’d not seen before.

I installed brave on 14.04 under VirtualBox 5.2 with snap install brave --beta. On first launch it fell over with a bizarre chromium error I sadly didn’t capture. I thought I’d update everything (virtualbox extensions, apt updates etc) and try again. When I rebooted, brave was now ‘broken’ such that I got “internal error, please report” that brave snap was not found. Never seen that before and didn’t know where it came from.

Snap info show the snap is indeed broken.

alan@alan-VirtualBox:~$ snap info brave
name:      brave
summary:   Browse faster and safer with Brave.
publisher: brave
description: |
  The new Brave browser automatically blocks ads and trackers, making it
  faster and safer than your current browser. Start supporting publishers
  today with our new Brave Payments system.
snap-id: uE3hSmGE91m9MpbDEnUWi2vpeumH6gmv
commands:
  - brave
tracking:    edge
installed:     (8) 0B broken
refreshed:   2017-11-10 12:23:30.05401 +0000 UTC
channels:                    
  stable:    –                     
  candidate: –                     
  beta:      v0.19.66dev (8) 162MB -
  edge:      v0.19.66dev (8) 162MB -

I refreshed to try and ‘fix’ it. (surely it shouldn’t get in this state?)

alan@alan-VirtualBox:~$ snap info brave
name:      brave
summary:   Browse faster and safer with Brave.
publisher: brave
description: |
  The new Brave browser automatically blocks ads and trackers, making it
  faster and safer than your current browser. Start supporting publishers
  today with our new Brave Payments system.
snap-id: uE3hSmGE91m9MpbDEnUWi2vpeumH6gmv
commands:
  - brave
tracking:    edge
installed:     (8) 0B broken
refreshed:   2017-11-10 12:23:30.05401 +0000 UTC
channels:                    
  stable:    –                     
  candidate: –                     
  beta:      v0.19.66dev (8) 162MB -
  edge:      v0.19.66dev (8) 162MB -

Still broken.

So I reinstalled.

alan@alan-VirtualBox:~$ snap remove brave
brave removed
alan@alan-VirtualBox:~$ snap install brave --beta
brave (beta) v0.19.66dev from 'brave' installed
alan@alan-VirtualBox:~$ snap changes
ID   Status  Spawn                 Ready                 Summary
30   Done    2017-11-10T12:15:13Z  2017-11-10T12:17:20Z  Install "nextcloud" snap
31   Done    2017-11-10T12:15:14Z  2017-11-10T12:17:00Z  Auto-refresh 6 snaps
32   Done    2017-11-10T12:23:03Z  2017-11-10T12:23:32Z  Install "brave" snap from "edge" channel
33   Done    2017-11-10T12:24:06Z  2017-11-10T12:24:39Z  Install "pycharm-community" snap
34   Done    2017-11-10T12:27:23Z  2017-11-10T12:27:33Z  Install "snapcraft" snap from "edge" channel
35   Done    2017-11-10T12:55:32Z  2017-11-10T12:55:32Z  Refresh "brave" snap from "beta" channel
36   Done    2017-11-10T12:55:55Z  2017-11-10T12:55:56Z  Remove "brave" snap
37   Done    2017-11-10T12:56:06Z  2017-11-10T12:56:34Z  Install "brave" snap from "beta" channel

Now it’s installed, but I get a new and interesting error.

alan@alan-VirtualBox:~$ brave
cannot perform operation: mount --rbind /dev /tmp/snap.rootfs_JHMoLN//dev: No such file or directory

Wat.

[zyga]

Can you please add snap version?

[popey]

alan@alan-VirtualBox:~$ snap version
snap    2.28.5~14.04
snapd   2.28.5~14.04
series  16
ubuntu  14.04
kernel  4.4.0-98-generic

[zyga]

This is curious. I will look at it.

[Jacalz]

Same issue on Solus, Arch and never versions of Ubuntu Also please update to 0.19.88 that is the latest version

[mborzecki]

FWIW snap debug log from running brave successfully on Arch is right here: https://paste.ubuntu.com/25952347/

[zyga]

I did some more digging and I found that Arch starts on my Thinkpad W510 running Ubuntu 17.10 (natively) and so does when virtualized in gnome-boxes (qemu+qxl) on Fedora 26, Arch and Debian 9 (Debian Sid is not working because apparmor was recently enabled by default there and we need to adjust a few things, see this thread: Snapd 2.27.6-2 in Debian sid blocked on apparmor in kernel 4.13.0-1)

On Ubuntu 14.04 I don’t have much luck though. I’m investigating what (may) be going on there.
On Ubuntu 16.04 it works OK, since it is a a strictly confined snap whatever is causing the issue is interesting, to say the least.

I also saw some reporters say the application failed with invalid opcode, perhaps it was compiled for newer instruction set and those running with a recent-enough CPU just don’t see this?

[popey]

Here’s the cpuinfo from the vm.

[alan@antergos-amd64 ~]$ cat /proc/cpuinfo 
processor	: 0
vendor_id	: GenuineIntel
cpu family	: 6
model		: 94
model name	: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6820HK CPU @ 2.70GHz
stepping	: 3
cpu MHz		: 2712.016
cache size	: 8192 KB
physical id	: 0
siblings	: 1
core id		: 0
cpu cores	: 1
apicid		: 0
initial apicid	: 0
fpu		: yes
fpu_exception	: yes
cpuid level	: 22
wp		: yes
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc cpuid pni pclmulqdq monitor ssse3 cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 movbe popcnt aes xsave avx rdrand hypervisor lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch avx2 rdseed clflushopt
bugs		:
bogomips	: 5426.03
clflush size	: 64
cache_alignment	: 64
address sizes	: 39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

…and from the host…

alan@hal:~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo 
processor	: 0
vendor_id	: GenuineIntel
cpu family	: 6
model		: 94
model name	: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6820HK CPU @ 2.70GHz
stepping	: 3
microcode	: 0xba
cpu MHz		: 921.368
cache size	: 8192 KB
physical id	: 0
siblings	: 8
core id		: 0
cpu cores	: 4
apicid		: 0
initial apicid	: 0
fpu		: yes
fpu_exception	: yes
cpuid level	: 22
wp		: yes
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf tsc_known_freq pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch epb intel_pt tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 hle avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid rtm mpx rdseed adx smap clflushopt xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp hwp_notify hwp_act_window hwp_epp
bugs		:
bogomips	: 5424.00
clflush size	: 64
cache_alignment	: 64
address sizes	: 39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor	: 1
vendor_id	: GenuineIntel
cpu family	: 6
model		: 94
model name	: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6820HK CPU @ 2.70GHz
stepping	: 3
microcode	: 0xba
cpu MHz		: 899.780
cache size	: 8192 KB
physical id	: 0
siblings	: 8
core id		: 1
cpu cores	: 4
apicid		: 2
initial apicid	: 2
fpu		: yes
fpu_exception	: yes
cpuid level	: 22
wp		: yes
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf tsc_known_freq pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch epb intel_pt tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 hle avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid rtm mpx rdseed adx smap clflushopt xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp hwp_notify hwp_act_window hwp_epp
bugs		:
bogomips	: 5424.00
clflush size	: 64
cache_alignment	: 64
address sizes	: 39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor	: 2
vendor_id	: GenuineIntel
cpu family	: 6
model		: 94
model name	: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6820HK CPU @ 2.70GHz
stepping	: 3
microcode	: 0xba
cpu MHz		: 899.780
cache size	: 8192 KB
physical id	: 0
siblings	: 8
core id		: 2
cpu cores	: 4
apicid		: 4
initial apicid	: 4
fpu		: yes
fpu_exception	: yes
cpuid level	: 22
wp		: yes
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf tsc_known_freq pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch epb intel_pt tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 hle avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid rtm mpx rdseed adx smap clflushopt xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp hwp_notify hwp_act_window hwp_epp
bugs		:
bogomips	: 5424.00
clflush size	: 64
cache_alignment	: 64
address sizes	: 39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor	: 3
vendor_id	: GenuineIntel
cpu family	: 6
model		: 94
model name	: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6820HK CPU @ 2.70GHz
stepping	: 3
microcode	: 0xba
cpu MHz		: 980.529
cache size	: 8192 KB
physical id	: 0
siblings	: 8
core id		: 3
cpu cores	: 4
apicid		: 6
initial apicid	: 6
fpu		: yes
fpu_exception	: yes
cpuid level	: 22
wp		: yes
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf tsc_known_freq pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch epb intel_pt tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 hle avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid rtm mpx rdseed adx smap clflushopt xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp hwp_notify hwp_act_window hwp_epp
bugs		:
bogomips	: 5424.00
clflush size	: 64
cache_alignment	: 64
address sizes	: 39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor	: 4
vendor_id	: GenuineIntel
cpu family	: 6
model		: 94
model name	: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6820HK CPU @ 2.70GHz
stepping	: 3
microcode	: 0xba
cpu MHz		: 1016.290
cache size	: 8192 KB
physical id	: 0
siblings	: 8
core id		: 0
cpu cores	: 4
apicid		: 1
initial apicid	: 1
fpu		: yes
fpu_exception	: yes
cpuid level	: 22
wp		: yes
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf tsc_known_freq pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch epb intel_pt tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 hle avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid rtm mpx rdseed adx smap clflushopt xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp hwp_notify hwp_act_window hwp_epp
bugs		:
bogomips	: 5424.00
clflush size	: 64
cache_alignment	: 64
address sizes	: 39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor	: 5
vendor_id	: GenuineIntel
cpu family	: 6
model		: 94
model name	: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6820HK CPU @ 2.70GHz
stepping	: 3
microcode	: 0xba
cpu MHz		: 899.945
cache size	: 8192 KB
physical id	: 0
siblings	: 8
core id		: 1
cpu cores	: 4
apicid		: 3
initial apicid	: 3
fpu		: yes
fpu_exception	: yes
cpuid level	: 22
wp		: yes
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf tsc_known_freq pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch epb intel_pt tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 hle avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid rtm mpx rdseed adx smap clflushopt xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp hwp_notify hwp_act_window hwp_epp
bugs		:
bogomips	: 5424.00
clflush size	: 64
cache_alignment	: 64
address sizes	: 39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor	: 6
vendor_id	: GenuineIntel
cpu family	: 6
model		: 94
model name	: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6820HK CPU @ 2.70GHz
stepping	: 3
microcode	: 0xba
cpu MHz		: 899.945
cache size	: 8192 KB
physical id	: 0
siblings	: 8
core id		: 2
cpu cores	: 4
apicid		: 5
initial apicid	: 5
fpu		: yes
fpu_exception	: yes
cpuid level	: 22
wp		: yes
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf tsc_known_freq pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch epb intel_pt tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 hle avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid rtm mpx rdseed adx smap clflushopt xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp hwp_notify hwp_act_window hwp_epp
bugs		:
bogomips	: 5424.00
clflush size	: 64
cache_alignment	: 64
address sizes	: 39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor	: 7
vendor_id	: GenuineIntel
cpu family	: 6
model		: 94
model name	: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6820HK CPU @ 2.70GHz
stepping	: 3
microcode	: 0xba
cpu MHz		: 899.780
cache size	: 8192 KB
physical id	: 0
siblings	: 8
core id		: 3
cpu cores	: 4
apicid		: 7
initial apicid	: 7
fpu		: yes
fpu_exception	: yes
cpuid level	: 22
wp		: yes
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf tsc_known_freq pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch epb intel_pt tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 hle avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid rtm mpx rdseed adx smap clflushopt xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp hwp_notify hwp_act_window hwp_epp
bugs		:
bogomips	: 5424.00
clflush size	: 64
cache_alignment	: 64
address sizes	: 39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

[zyga]

I’m not sure what the issue is TBH. I cannot work on this now as there are some high-priority issues I need to address first.