# Malloc() error during inventory update **URL:** \ **Category:** General Discussions\ **Tags:** raspberry-pi-3, mender-client, inventory, bug\ **Created:** [March 16, 2026, 1:40pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/malloc-error-during-inventory-update/8210 "2026-03-16T13:40:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rsahlmann](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/rsahlmann/32/2670_2.png) [@rsahlmann](https://hub.mender.io/u/rsahlmann)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2026, 1:40pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/malloc-error-during-inventory-update/8210/1 "2026-03-16T13:40:02Z")
Hi everyone, we use docker-mender-convert (v5.1.0) on an Raspbian(Debian 12, Bookworm) image for a Raspberry Pi 3B which works without any problems. ### Problem During operation the system is executing the service mender-updated and fails during processing the inventory scripts with a C++ “malloc(): unsorted double linked list corrupted“-error: ```shell Mar 16 12:15:03 connector systemd[1]: mender-data-dir.service - Mender persistent data dir was skipped because of an unmet condition check (ConditionPathExists=!/data/mender). Mar 16 12:15:03 connector systemd[1]: Started mender-updated.service - Mender OTA update service. Mar 16 12:15:03 connector systemd[1]: systemquery.service: Deactivated successfully. Mar 16 12:15:03 connector systemd[1]: Finished systemquery.service - systemquery. Mar 16 12:15:03 connector CRON[20999]: pam_unix(cron:session): session closed for user root Mar 16 12:15:03 connector mender-update[21259]: record_id=1 severity=info time="2026-Mar-16 12:15:03.351876" name="Global" msg="Running Mender client 5.0.3" Mar 16 12:15:03 connector mender-update[21259]: record_id=2 severity=info time="2026-Mar-16 12:15:03.352291" name="Global" msg="The update client daemon is now ready to handle incoming deployments" Mar 16 12:15:03 connector mender-update[21259]: record_id=3 severity=info time="2026-Mar-16 12:15:03.361873" name="Global" msg="Running State Script: /etc/mender/scripts/Sync_Enter_01_connection-check" Mar 16 12:15:04 connector mender-update[21259]: malloc(): unsorted double linked list corrupted Mar 16 12:15:04 connector systemd[1]: mender-updated.service: Main process exited, code=killed, status=6/ABRT Mar 16 12:15:04 connector systemd[1]: mender-updated.service: Failed with result 'signal'. Mar 16 12:15:04 connector systemd[1]: mender-updated.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 7. Mar 16 12:15:04 connector systemd[1]: Stopped mender-updated.service - Mender OTA update service. ``` We tested the Mender client 5.0.4 as well as 5.0.3 and the client is never able to connect to the server and the system stops the service for good after 5 restart tries. We used Mender up until now with the same custom inventory scripts and client v3.5.0, but since updating to 5.0.x we get consistently the malloc()-error. Non of our key/value-pairs are excessively large or use protected keys and worked under client v3.5.0. ### What we tested 1. We made sure that non of our custom script failed and restarted the service. ( **failed** ) 2. We cleared the mender-store and restarted the service. ( **failed** ) 3. We moved _all_ inventory scripts (custom and Mender) manually to a backup folder and restarted the mender-updated.service. ( **success** ) Further investigation We copied the the scripts manually one by one back into the folder and restarted the mender-updated.service. We did this for every file and we tried this process multiple times in a different order. The error reappeared **randomly and not after a specific script**. - Once the crash happened after coping the last inventory script. - Once after coping only half of the scripts. - Once crashing after coping the last script, but upon commenting out random key/value-pairs the service was starting again and connecting to the server. Sadly we can not recognize any pattern which would help with the investigation. If anyone could give advice on this issue we would highly appreciate it. ---
**Author:** ![TheYoctoJester](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/theyoctojester/32/1444_2.png) [@TheYoctoJester](https://hub.mender.io/u/TheYoctoJester)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2026, 2:39pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/malloc-error-during-inventory-update/8210/2 "2026-03-16T14:39:35Z")
Hi @rsahlmann, Thanks for reaching out! It’s the first time I hear such an error description and it sure sounds weird to debug. ☹ The one thing which might be worth checking, is: did the problem appear some time after moving to the 4.x/5.x family (the major version bump was for something really unrelated here), or was it always present since moving beyond 3.x? On the platform, it’s a somewhat vanilla RPi3B, I guess? Debian 12, 32bit or 64bit? Any other specialties which might be relevant? Greetz, Josef ---
**Author:** ![rsahlmann](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/rsahlmann/32/2670_2.png) [@rsahlmann](https://hub.mender.io/u/rsahlmann)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2026, 4:34pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/malloc-error-during-inventory-update/8210/3 "2026-03-16T16:34:54Z")
Thx @TheYoctoJester for responding so quick, the problem happened as soon as we changed from 3.5.0 to 5.0.x. Our platform is indeed a normal 3B+, Debian 12 32 bits. We’re really stuck, we haven’t been able to find any additional information or logs about it… We’re considering downgrading to a lower version - would there be any version you’d recommend we could fall back on? ---
**Author:** ![Jerry](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/jerry/32/931_2.png) [@Jerry](https://hub.mender.io/u/Jerry)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2026, 11:26pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/malloc-error-during-inventory-update/8210/4 "2026-03-16T23:26:17Z")
We have the exact same problem with the exact same setup : - from 3.5.0 to 5.0.x - raspberry pi3 Our raspbian version is bookworm ---
**Author:** ![TheYoctoJester](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/theyoctojester/32/1444_2.png) [@TheYoctoJester](https://hub.mender.io/u/TheYoctoJester)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2026, 3:06pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/malloc-error-during-inventory-update/8210/5 "2026-03-17T15:06:23Z")
Hi @rsahlmann and @Jerry, It is probably related to the distribution package cleanup which happened last year and is described here: [New Mender packaging and distribution channels](https://mender.io/blog/new-mender-packaging-and-distribution-channels) The main problem is that Raspberry Pi OS 32bit is the **ONLY** one which does not do **REAL 32bit, a.k.a. armv7** , but in fact is **armv6** in disguise - a platform which has been effectively deprecated many years ago. Even their own kernel is by now 64bit under the 32bit distro (at least on some boards by now, see [https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/linux\_kernel.html#natively-build-a-kernel](https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/linux_kernel.html#natively-build-a-kernel), the red box), and the Pi 5 family is exclusively 64bits. This has caused confusion and problems for other distributions and boards, so this increasingly niche use case has been deprecated now. There should have been a warning during the installation process (see [mender-dist-packages/mender-deb-package at fbd024a9d81e560c167754a9e197993a78d26c6b · mendersoftware/mender-dist-packages · GitHub](https://github.com/mendersoftware/mender-dist-packages/blob/fbd024a9d81e560c167754a9e197993a78d26c6b/mender-deb-package#L191-L211)) if this situation is detected, but sadly it is not easy to detect. I’ll follow up with information on the last RPi-32bit release as soon as possible. Greetz, Josef ---
**Author:** ![Jerry](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/jerry/32/931_2.png) [@Jerry](https://hub.mender.io/u/Jerry)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2026, 3:29pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/malloc-error-during-inventory-update/8210/6 "2026-03-17T15:29:42Z")
@TheYoctoJester : is there any workaround for us to upgrade to last mender version ? Or the only workaround is to stay on previous mender version ? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![TheYoctoJester](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/theyoctojester/32/1444_2.png) [@TheYoctoJester](https://hub.mender.io/u/TheYoctoJester)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2026, 10:44am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/malloc-error-during-inventory-update/8210/7 "2026-03-18T10:44:27Z")
@Jerry the last version built in the “old” way is 5.0.1. So for a quick fix, stick to that version. The obvious possible workaround is recompiling the newer clients for `armv6` manually, which should be quite straightforward. To my understanding the main problem is that both Raspberry Pi OS 32bit (armv6) and Debian 32bit (armv7) use the `armhf` string identifier, which makes it mutually exclusive in a single package repo. On top of that, hosting and maintaining a distinct package repo just for RPi OS 32bit, which does not make too much sense as the platforms relevance is diminishing quickly. Really sorry I do not have a better or more straightforwards answer here at the moment. Greetz, Josef ---
**Author:** ![Jerry](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/jerry/32/931_2.png) [@Jerry](https://hub.mender.io/u/Jerry)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2026, 11:06am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/malloc-error-during-inventory-update/8210/8 "2026-03-18T11:06:29Z")
Thank you very much for this answer. I’ll try to recompile the client. Greetz ---
**Author:** ![TheYoctoJester](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/theyoctojester/32/1444_2.png) [@TheYoctoJester](https://hub.mender.io/u/TheYoctoJester)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2026, 11:10am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/malloc-error-during-inventory-update/8210/9 "2026-03-18T11:10:34Z")
@Jerry Great! If you run into problems, please let me know! I do regular build time testing of the client on RPi 32bit through Yocto, so I’m fairly certain that there should be no hard blockers, but of course there can be complicated bits related to Raspberry Pi OS and I’m happy to help with those as much as I can. Greetz, Josef ---
**Author:** ![Jerry](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/jerry/32/931_2.png) [@Jerry](https://hub.mender.io/u/Jerry)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2026, 2:32pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/malloc-error-during-inventory-update/8210/10 "2026-03-18T14:32:57Z")
If you have any tips to help me build, i would be very pleased 😉 ---
**Author:** ![rsahlmann](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/rsahlmann/32/2670_2.png) [@rsahlmann](https://hub.mender.io/u/rsahlmann)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2026, 4:07pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/malloc-error-during-inventory-update/8210/11 "2026-03-19T16:07:08Z")
Going back to the client version 5.0.1 works for me. I loaded the old debian repository based on the orange box in the [documentation](https://docs.mender.io/downloads/device-components) and installed version 5.0.1. I would say this is a good enough solution for legacy 32bit systems. Thanks, for your help.