Re: [PLUG] aptitude/apt-get DB issue (fixed, fyi)

[Casey Bralla <MailList@nerdworld.org>]

Thanks for the data for the record, but could you please explain a couple of 
your dpkg options.

What the heck are "no-debsig", "no-triggers", and "update-manager"?

I could not find them in my dpkg man pages, nor could I find them online.




On Sunday October 25, 2009 4:28:22 pm JP Vossen wrote:
> On the ongoing saga with the Jaunty to Karmic upgrade, I ran into an
> aptitude/apt-get DB issue.  I'm posting this here for Google, in case
> anyone else runs into something similar, since Google didn't really help
> me out.
> 
> My symptoms were errors like these:
> 
> # aptitude full-upgrade
> Reading package lists... Done
> [...]
> (Reading database ... 90%dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
>   failed in buffer_read(fd): files list for package `update-manager':
> Input/output error
> E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)
> [...]
> 
> # dpkg -r xserver-xorg-input-all
> (Reading database ... 90%dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
>   failed in buffer_read(fd): files list for package `update-manager':
> Input/output error
> 
> That's annoying, the message is not only not clear, it needs a
> line-break to look like this (I'll file a bug):
> (Reading database ... 90%
> dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
>   failed in buffer_read(fd): files list for package `update-manager':
> Input/output error
> 
> After a lot of unhelpful Googling, I finally found that that
> /var/lib/dpkg/info/update-manager.list was indeed unreadable (maybe
> related to the ATA errors in my previous post?).  I removed the file,
> and then started getting errors like:
> 
> dpkg: warning: files list file for package `update-manager' missing,
> assuming package has no files currently installed.
> 
> 
> To make a long story shorter, all kinds of aptitude, apt-get and dpkg
> remove, install, and reinstall commands failed to clean up the mess and
> kept telling me "Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you
> should reinstall it before attempting a removal."  No?  Ya think?!?
> 
> The following seems to have fixed my problems:
> 
> # dpkg --no-debsig --no-triggers --force-all -r update-manager
> # dpkg --no-debsig --no-triggers --force-all -i
> /var/cache/apt/archives/update-manager_1%3a0.126.6_all.deb
> # aptitude reinstall update-manager
> 
> The latter aptitude command may seem redundant, since the dpkg -i
> already did the work, but the aptitude command did finish up some other
> aptitude stuff, so it was useful.
> 
> 
> I also goofed around with 'dpkg --clear-avail' and also manually removed
> /var/lib/dpkg/available* which caused a bunch of other errors.  But it
> seems that those files are recreated during normal operations and
> messing with them didn't help anyway.  I can't find reference to those
> files at all in my session log now, so I don't know why I was messing
> there, I think they were a red-herring I got sidetracked on from a (bad)
> Google hit.  I note it here to point out that it *is* a red-herring in
> this case.
> 
> 
> Later,
> JP
> ----------------------------|:::======|-------------------------------
> JP Vossen, CISSP            |:::======|      http://bashcookbook.com/
> My Account, My Opinions     |=========|      http://www.jpsdomain.org/
> ----------------------------|=========|-------------------------------
> "Microsoft Tax" = the additional hardware & yearly fees for the add-on
> software required to protect Windows from its own poorly designed and
> implemented self, while the overhead incidentally flattens Moore's Law.
> ___________________________________________________________________________
> Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
> Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
> General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
> 

-- 

Casey Bralla
Chief Nerd in Residence
The NerdWorld Organisation

http://www.NerdWorld.org
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug