Getting free() invalid pointer issue when installing / using python3. Could be dpkg issue as well !
When I did sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade, it happened and hence I tried to reinstall.
This issue occurs when trying to manage it with ansible as well. I think something might be wrong with the latest python.

Board: Helios64 (I know, I know CSC)
Chipset: RK3399

 

 

Apt install logs:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 reinstalled, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/472 kB of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
(Reading database ... 44574 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../python3-pkg-resources_59.6.0-1.2ubuntu0.22.04.1_all.deb ...
double free or corruption (out)
Aborted
dpkg: warning: old python3-pkg-resources package pre-removal script subprocess returned error exit status 134
dpkg: trying script from the new package instead ...
dpkg: ... it looks like that went OK
Unpacking python3-pkg-resources (59.6.0-1.2ubuntu0.22.04.1) over (59.6.0-1.2ubuntu0.22.04.1) ...
Preparing to unpack .../python3-setuptools_59.6.0-1.2ubuntu0.22.04.1_all.deb ...
Unpacking python3-setuptools (59.6.0-1.2ubuntu0.22.04.1) over (59.6.0-1.2ubuntu0.22.04.1) ...
Setting up python3-pkg-resources (59.6.0-1.2ubuntu0.22.04.1) ...
Setting up python3-setuptools (59.6.0-1.2ubuntu0.22.04.1) ...
free(): invalid pointer
Aborted
dpkg: error processing package python3-setuptools (--configure):
 installed python3-setuptools package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 134
Errors were encountered while processing:
 python3-setuptools
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

 

Ansible logs:

  ansible_facts: {}
  failed_modules:
    ansible.legacy.setup:
      ansible_facts:
        discovered_interpreter_python: /usr/bin/python3
      failed: true
      module_stderr: |-
        free(): invalid pointer
        Aborted
      module_stdout: ''
      msg: |-
        MODULE FAILURE
        See stdout/stderr for the exact error
      rc: 134
  msg: |-
    The following modules failed to execute: ansible.legacy.setup

 

 

Cross linking to the github issue - https://github.com/armbian/build/issues/4761

Edited January 29, 20233 yr by BHM

I bet next step is to rebuild our kernel with KASAN turned on in the kernel config.

Do you also get kernel error messages in the kernel log (journalctl -b -k, or dmesg output)?

Made a test case that reproduces the issue:
 

$ cat test-pkg_resources.py
import pkg_resources

print(pkg_resources.parse_version("2.3"))


$ for i in $(seq 1 100);do python3 test-pkg_resources.py ;done
2.3
2.3
2.3
double free or corruption (out)
Abandon (core dumped)
2.3

 

The kernel error I had where from failure to allocate (but as those errors stack trace shows it is a failure to allocate memory of a high order (big chunks) for the core dump generation).