[BUG] Using Chocolatey causes choco.exe process to hang on update check infinitely using CPU cycles.

[DimkaTsv]

Please confirm these before moving forward

• I have searched for my issue and have not found a work-in-progress/duplicate/resolved issue.
• I have tested that this issue has not been fixed in the latest (beta or stable) release.
• I have checked the FAQ section for solutions.
• This issue is about a bug (if it is not, please use the correct template).

UniGetUI Version

3.2.0

Windows version, edition, and architecture

Windows 11 Pro 23H2 22631.5413 // 1000.22700.1106.0 (x64)

Describe your issue

When using UniGetUI Chocolatey manager process, choco.exe can get stuck permanently trying to find updated packages.
Each attempt to find updates during UniGetUI launch spawns two stuck choco.exe threads [list and outdated commands], each using quite a chunk of CPU power. After launch each attempt spawns +1 process.

They won't terminate with time (despite 60 seconds timeout), neither they will terminate if UniGetUI becomes closed. They will unattach from process and continue hanging eating out CPU power.

Issue happens with both UniGetUI own, as well as system wide Chocolatey called via UniGetUI one.

Steps to reproduce the issue

1. Launch UniGetUI
2. Watch task manager (or other system/load monitoring tool)...

Well, that is pretty much all that's needed.
Sometimes it can take one or two tries to start happening for me, but after it starts, it will happen 100% of times.

UniGetUI Log

[01.06.2025 22:28:48] Manager Chocolatey failed to list installed packages with exception TimeoutException: Task _getInstalledPackages for manager Chocolatey did not finish after 60 seconds, aborting.  You may disable timeouts from UniGetUI Advanced Settings
[01.06.2025 22:28:48] Since this was the first attempt, Chocolatey.AttemptFastRepair() will be called and the procedure will be restarted
[01.06.2025 22:28:48] Manager Chocolatey failed to list available updates with exception TimeoutException: Task _getInstalledPackages for manager Chocolatey did not finish after 60 seconds, aborting.  You may disable timeouts from UniGetUI Advanced Settings
[01.06.2025 22:28:48] Since this was the first attempt, Chocolatey.AttemptFastRepair() will be called and the procedure will be restarted
[01.06.2025 22:29:48] Error finding updates on manager Chocolatey
[01.06.2025 22:29:48] Error finding installed packages on manager Chocolatey
[01.06.2025 22:29:48] System.TimeoutException: Task _getInstalledPackages for manager Chocolatey did not finish after 60 seconds, aborting.  You may disable timeouts from UniGetUI Advanced Settings
                         at UniGetUI.PackageEngine.ManagerClasses.Manager.PackageManager._getAvailableUpdates(Boolean SecondAttempt) in C:\SomePrograms\WingetUI-Store\src\UniGetUI.PackageEngine.PackageManagerClasses\Manager\PackageManager.cs:line 206
[01.06.2025 22:29:48] System.TimeoutException: Task _getInstalledPackages for manager Chocolatey did not finish after 60 seconds, aborting.  You may disable timeouts from UniGetUI Advanced Settings
                         at UniGetUI.PackageEngine.ManagerClasses.Manager.PackageManager._getInstalledPackages(Boolean SecondAttempt) in C:\SomePrograms\WingetUI-Store\src\UniGetUI.PackageEngine.PackageManagerClasses\Manager\PackageManager.cs:line 255

Package Managers Logs

Logged subprocess-based task on manager Chocolatey. Task type is ListUpdates
Subprocess executable: "C:\Users\DimkaTsv\AppData\Local\UniGetUI\Chocolatey\choco.exe"
Command-line arguments: " outdated "
Process start time: 01.06.2025 22:31:31
Process end time:   UNFINISHED

-- Process STDOUT
  Chocolatey v2.4.3
  Outdated Packages
   Output is package name | current version | available version | pinned?

Return code: Process has not finished yet

Relevant information

Perhaps issue roots in fact that i have 0 packages installed via Chocolatey. So it cannot find any to update and retries infinitely?
Disabling Chocolatey makes issue disappear (but that's quite obvious...)
Switching to diffetent Chocolatey mode makes issue disappear for one or two attempts, then it returns.

Screenshots and videos

UniGetUI Chocolatey:

System-wide Chocolatey:

[marticliment]

If you run the same commands on a command prompt, dpes chocolatey also hang?

[DimkaTsv]

Not really. At least i cannot just make it hang by doing same exact commands.
It also does not even sweat (in terms of CPU cycles) even when i do both commands at once.
It also seems to use somewhat less memory for some reason.

UPD: Weird... Seems like i cannot reproduce UniGetUI behaviour mentioned in this issue now either. And i did it MANY times when i did tests to make this thread. It was almost 100% consistent to trigger.
Is this one of those "floating bugs"? Meaning that debugging and reproducing it consistently may become an issue due to unknown variable.

[marticliment]

I mean, you are the first one to report this behaviour, I have never seen it, and chocolatey is known to be very reliable... Furthermore, UniGetUI calls chocolatey itself, but does not do weird things like executable injection or anything, it just calls plain choco.exe
Perhaps a one-time bug?

[DimkaTsv]

Perhaps a one-time bug?

More like one-day bug. It just... gone now?
I only noticed it originally because of increased fan speed at idle (by sound).
But i did not even reboot the system since i wrote this report. Which kinda implies that issue can just shift in and out.
When issue worked, i had many instances of UniGetUI opened and completely closed during testing, so that's not it (that is why i am not quite ready to call it "one-time" bug).

Tbh, i am more curious why 60s timeout did not work properly. (and a bit of why chocolatey used 6% of CPU for each process)

[DimkaTsv]

Hmm... I guess i will close it as "won't reproduce" for now.
But if anyone else happen to encounter issue mentioned in this report, they can add information here as precedent now exists.

[marticliment]

Tbh, i am more curious why 60s timeout did not work properly. (and a bit of why chocolatey used 6% of CPU for each process)

It did, but the timeout does not kill the process. The timeout only triggers an error on the log, and the UI to stop loading

[CappuccinoBandit]

I have the same issue and have had to uninstall unigetui from several servers (at several client sites) until the issue is resolved. I can say out of hundreds of servers we have unigetui deployed on I have only observed it happening on Server 2022 Hyper-V Hosts, I have only had to remove it from the hosts (all the guest VM servers do not exhibit the problem, chocolately runs and closes correctly on them). The problem only happens on the hosts, same as the OP chocolately creates multiple processes (that never end) until all the CPU is used on the hosts. I was able to kill all instances of choco with taskkill /f /im choco.exe then uninstall unigetui.

[marticliment]

Server 2022 Hyper-V Hosts

Can you please share more details about the hosts on which chocolatey is crashing, and any differents with the hosts where chocolatey works fine?

[CappuccinoBandit]

Attached is info for 1 host that has an issue, a guest VM on that server that doesn't and another host (different client) that has no issue. All servers are 2022 and I have selected ones that have very little installed and are running the same antivirus.