Ubuntu
grub package

update-manager bailed out half-way

Bug #277506 reported by Siep Kroonenberg on 2008-10-03

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	grub (Ubuntu)	Fix Released	Medium	Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: update-manager

I updated my ubuntu 8.04 installation with /cdrom/cdromupgrade on the alternate beta installer disk. It broke off prematurely, with a request to file a bug report against update-manager and to attach the contents of /var/log/dist-upgrade. Unfortunately, I failed to write down the exact on-screen messages but maybe those logfiles give you the needed information.
Also, I had to forcibly kill grub.postinst since it was hung. Maybe it got confused because the real, active grub was on a parallel Linux installation?
Anyhow, I could manually run grub-install and update-grub, and complete the installation with synaptic after a reboot.

Related branches

lp://staging/~ubuntu-core-dev/grub/ubuntu

lp://staging/ubuntu/lucid/grub

Revision history for this message

Siep Kroonenberg (siepo) wrote on 2008-10-03:

contents of /var/log/dist-upgrade Edit (93.9 KiB, application/x-tar)

Revision history for this message

Michael Vogt (mvo) wrote on 2008-10-07:

Thanks for your bugreport.

Here is what is causing the error:

Setting up grub (0.97-29ubuntu36) ...

dpkg: error processing grub (--configure):
subprocess post-installation script killed by signal (Terminated)
Setting up policykit (0.9-1ubuntu2) ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/init.d/policykit ...

Setting up hal (0.5.11-3~ubuntu9) ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/init.d/hal ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/hal/fdi/policy/preferences.fdi ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/dbus-1/system.d/hal.conf ...
* Reloading system message bus config... [80G
[74G[ OK ]
* Starting Hardware abstraction layer hald [80G
[74G[ OK ]

Setting up libpq5 (8.3.3-1ubuntu1) ...

Setting up libaprutil1 (1.2.12+dfsg-7) ...

Setting up linux-image-generic (2.6.27.4.4) ...
Setting up samba-common (2:3.2.3-1ubuntu2) ...
debconf: DbDriver "config": /var/cache/debconf/config.dat is locked by another process: Resource temporarily unavailable
dpkg: error processing samba-common (--configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of smbclient:
smbclient depends on samba-common (= 2:3.2.3-1ubuntu2); however:
Package samba-common is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing smbclient (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of samba:
samba depends on samba-common (= 2:3.2.3-1ubuntu2); however:
Package samba-common is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing samba (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
...

Now I wonder in what way the grub postinst was hanging? no terminal acitivity, no terminal output, no (ucf) window somewhere?

Thanks,
michael

Changed in update-manager:
importance:	Undecided → Medium
status:	New → Triaged

Revision history for this message

Siep Kroonenberg (siepo) wrote on 2008-10-08:

No terminal activity. I waited several minutes. I am pretty sure I used a text console rather than an x-terminal so if ucf tried to pop up a window then it would have no place to go.

Revision history for this message

Steve Langasek (vorlon) wrote on 2008-10-10:

This traces to a bug in the kernel-helper command, called from the grub postinst: it redirects stdout from update-grub to /dev/null, which breaks launching the debconf interface but keeps it running indefinitely waiting for user interaction.

I understand that the kernel-helper command is going to be disabled for intrepid in any case, but I'll fix this bug all the same.

Changed in grub:
status:	Triaged → In Progress

Revision history for this message

Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote on 2008-10-11:

This bug was fixed in the package grub - 0.97-29ubuntu39

---------------
grub (0.97-29ubuntu39) intrepid; urgency=low

  * kernel-helper: don't redirect stdout from update-grub, this breaks
    debconf on the console if we need to interact with the user.
    LP: #277506.

-- Steve Langasek <email address hidden> Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:51:03 -0700