Umbreld crashes every ~36h with GPF in libc.so.6 (node process) on amd64 / umbrelOS 1.5.0 — update system also broken

Support and Troubleshooting
1

System info:

  • umbrelOS 1.5.0 (amd64, x86 custom hardware)

  • Debian GNU/Linux 13 (Trixie)

  • Kernel: 6.12.48+deb13-amd64

  • Node.js: v22.13.0

  • Mender client: 3.4.0 (Debian package)

  • Hardware: 16GB RAM, 2TB NVMe SSD, Intel/AMD x86

Problem 1: umbreld (node process) crashes every ~36 hours

The bitcoind container restarts every ~36 hours, resetting the “Running time” counter in the Bitcoin Node app. After investigation via SSH, the root cause is a General Protection Fault in the node process (umbreld):

kernel: traps: node[705652] general protection fault ip:7f525ab4450f sp:7ffc78c40020 error:0 in libc.so.6[2650f,7f525ab44000+156000]

This has happened 10 times since March 22, always at the same instruction offset (+0x50f) inside libc.so.6, with a consistent interval of ~33-40 hours:

Mar 27 22:08:43 - node[2981] GPF in libc.so.6
Mar 30 22:18:32 - node[213523] GPF in libc.so.6
Apr 01 07:34:25 - node[322797] GPF in libc.so.6
Apr 02 16:08:33 - node[372698] GPF in libc.so.6
Apr 04 03:50:37 - node[421644] GPF in libc.so.6
Apr 05 15:37:28 - node[479463] GPF in libc.so.6
Apr 07 00:50:56 - node[532484] GPF in libc.so.6
Apr 08 17:52:40 - node[582162] GPF in libc.so.6
Apr 10 04:12:22 - node[643172] GPF in libc.so.6
Apr 11 17:36:33 - node[705652] GPF in libc.so.6

The crash is reproducible and deterministic — same offset every time, ruling out random hardware failure. RAM health check (EDAC) shows no memory errors. The OS itself stays up (21+ days uptime). Only the node/umbreld process crashes, which Docker detects and restarts the Bitcoin container.

The crash appears to be a memory leak or heap corruption in umbreld that after ~36h triggers a GPF in libc.

Problem 2: Unable to update to 1.6.x — Mender incompatibility

The automatic update system does not offer any update beyond 1.5.0. Manual update via sudo mender install fails with:

ERRO: Reading headers failed: installer: failed to read Artifact: reader: can not read version file: readNext: Failed to get next header: reader: error reading archive: archive/tar: invalid tar header

Investigation revealed that the bootstrap artifact uses **Mender format version 3:
**
{“format”:“mender”,“version”:3}

But the Mender client installed on the system is version 3.4.0 (from Debian Trixie repos), which does not support format v3. Mender 4.x/5.x from Northern.tech requires paid dependencies (403 Forbidden on download). There is no Mender package available for Debian Trixie.

The artifact_info file also had an incomplete entry (artifact_name=umbrelOS without version number), suggesting Mender was never successfully used on this device since initial installation.

What I tried:

  • Enabled umbrelOS Beta Program toggle — no update offered

  • Manual sudo mender install https://download.umbrel.com/release/1.6.1/umbrelos-amd64.update — fails with invalid tar header

  • Corrected artifact_info to artifact_name=umbrelOS-1.5.0 — same error

  • Used --config /data/mender/mender.conf flag — same error

  • Attempted to install mender-client4 (5.0.1) — dependencies blocked with 403 Forbidden

Request:

  1. Is there a fix or workaround for the umbreld GPF crash on Debian Trixie / Node.js v22?

  2. Is there a supported way to update from 1.5.0 to 1.6.x on x86 hardware when Mender is broken?

Thanks in advance!