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I have two laptops, both with Ubuntu 19.04 installed. One of them is a couple of years older and has had the Ubuntu version upgraded a few times. The other one is newer and got 19.04 installed from the beginning, not upgraded from any previous Ubuntu version.

On my older laptop I sometimes get error messages looking like this:

Error message window on old laptop

which is nice because it allows me to click the "Show details" button to see lots of details about what happened.

On the newer laptop there are sometimes messages looking like this:

Error message window on new laptop

Unfortunately, clicking the "Report problem..." button above just makes the window disappear, no further details are shown. The "..." on the button makes it look like the intention was that something more should be shown when clicking that button, but nothing comes up, it just closes the window.

I suspect that it may be the same kind of problem but for some reason handled differently by Ubuntu despite the fact that both are running Ubuntu 19.04.

Do these messages mean the same thing?

If not, what is the difference between "application ... closed unexpectedly" and "system program problem detected" and how can I get more details in the latter case? (the "system program problem detected" leaves no file in /var/crash/ unfortunately)

One theory I have about this is that the older laptop, having originally run older Ubuntu versions and then been upgraded, has some settings in a config file somewhere left from a previous Ubuntu version telling it to use the older, more detailed (and in my opinion much better) way of showing errors. Could this theory be correct? If so, which config file would I need to modify in order to get the behavior I want, allowing me to show details about the error?

Edit to explain why this is not a duplicate of how to read and use crash reports? -- that issue is about how to make use of files located in /var/crash/ but in my case, when the "system program problem detected" window pops up, there is no file generated in /var/crash/. So, that question and the answers there unfirtunately do not help much for my question.

Elias
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    Just theory too, I don't have an accessible Ubuntu installation. (1st) seems from ubuntu-bug and it is against a GUI app that have a .desktop file. (2nd) from ubuntu-bug (or unbranded apport) against a background tool/daemon/service that doesn't have GUI/.desktop file clicking "report problem" should launch apport and bring detailed report like "show details" in 1st case. – user.dz Oct 13 '19 at 12:40
  • @user.dz Thanks, but unfortunately clicking the "report problem" button gives no further info. I edited above to add that. About a .desktop file, Idonät know how that works. On my older laptop (1st case) there is a file called examples.desktop sitting in my home directory -- is that what you mean, or are you talking about a file called exactly .desktop rather than examples.desktop? Doing ls -a shows no file called only .desktop. – Elias Oct 13 '19 at 14:30
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    Possible duplicate of how to read and use crash reports? – mikewhatever Oct 13 '19 at 14:48
  • Well, for 2nd case, it needs more research like session logs, startup logs like dmesg. 1st, No, I meat different one, a file in /usr/share/applications contain Name=Passwords and Keys as mentioned in specification here https://developer.gnome.org/integration-guide/stable/desktop-files.html.en – user.dz Oct 13 '19 at 14:54
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    Reviewers: This is not a duplicate, for the reasons @Elias explained. In addition, even if files were generated in /var/crash, this would still be asking a specific and useful question that is not answered there (and that probably would not be reasonable to answer there). – Eliah Kagan Oct 26 '19 at 14:56

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