package snmpd failed to upgrade: userdel: user snmp is currently logged in

after closing the above posted error window, the next one came up, telling the upgrade was complete, but there where errors, see attachment

problem seems to be snmpd:

$~> sudo dpkg --configure -a
Setting up snmpd (5.4.2.1~dfsg0ubuntu1-0ubuntu2) ...
userdel: user snmp is currently logged in
/usr/sbin/deluser: `/usr/sbin/userdel snmp' returned error code 8. Exiting.
dpkg: error processing snmpd (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 snmpd

Thanks for your report.

Affecting to net-snmp

I was able to get around it.

Looking for what the user snmp was doing I found

$~> ps auxf|grep [s]nmp
snmp 1129 0.0 0.0 10384 296 ? Ss 14:19 0:00 rpc.statd -L

After

$~> sudo /etc/init.d/statd stop

the process was gone and the user 'snmp' did no longer own any process and

$~> sudo dpkg --configure -a

completet without errors.

Affected code:

if [ ! `getent group snmp >/dev/null` ]; then
   deluser --quiet --system snmp
fi

The upgrade only deletes (and recreates) the user if the group "snmp" doesn't exist on the machine. That leaves a window for a system where user snmp exists, group snmp doesn't, and snmpd is running under that user.

The easy workaround for this problem is just to killall -u snmp before retrying the snmp install. Of course, once you get past that point, you may very well run into bug 589056..

This bug was fixed in the package net-snmp - 5.4.2.1~dfsg0ubuntu1-0ubuntu4

---------------
net-snmp (5.4.2.1~dfsg0ubuntu1-0ubuntu4) maverick; urgency=low

  * debian/snmpd.postinst: source debconf before doing work, LP: #589056
  * debian/snmp.preinst, debian/snmp.prerm: kill any/all processes owned by
    snmp user before install/uninstall, LP: #573391
 -- Dustin Kirkland <email address hidden> Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:04:48 -0500