Upgrade to 7.4.4-1ubuntu2.5 hangs

[Ken Sharp]

I've just ran an update+dist-upgrade which pulled 7.4.4-1ubuntu2.5. It's sat there doing nothing. CTRL+C won't kill it. Htop shows that the last process to be created is "stop rsyslog" which follows "invoke-rc.d rsyslog restart".

dpkg.log:

2015-02-02 09:39:10 configure rsyslog:amd64 7.4.4-1ubuntu2.5 <none>
2015-02-02 09:39:10 status unpacked rsyslog:amd64 7.4.4-1ubuntu2.5
2015-02-02 09:39:10 status unpacked rsyslog:amd64 7.4.4-1ubuntu2.5
2015-02-02 09:39:10 status unpacked rsyslog:amd64 7.4.4-1ubuntu2.5
2015-02-02 09:39:10 status unpacked rsyslog:amd64 7.4.4-1ubuntu2.5
2015-02-02 09:39:10 status unpacked rsyslog:amd64 7.4.4-1ubuntu2.5
2015-02-02 09:39:10 status unpacked rsyslog:amd64 7.4.4-1ubuntu2.5
2015-02-02 09:39:10 status unpacked rsyslog:amd64 7.4.4-1ubuntu2.5
2015-02-02 09:39:10 status unpacked rsyslog:amd64 7.4.4-1ubuntu2.5
2015-02-02 09:39:10 status unpacked rsyslog:amd64 7.4.4-1ubuntu2.5
2015-02-02 09:39:10 status half-configured rsyslog:amd64 7.4.4-1ubuntu2.5

I have KILLed "stop rsyslog" which then moves on to "start rsyslog" which I have also had to KILL.

Setting up rsyslog (7.4.4-1ubuntu2.5) ...
The user `syslog' is already a member of `adm'.
Skipping profile in /etc/apparmor.d/disable: usr.sbin.rsyslogd

Terminated
Terminated
invoke-rc.d: initscript rsyslog, action "restart" failed.
dpkg: error processing package rsyslog (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 143
Setting up linux-image-virtual-lts-utopic (3.16.0.30.23) ...
Setting up linux-libc-dev:amd64 (3.13.0-45.74) ...
Setting up python3-software-properties (0.92.37.3) ...
Setting up software-properties-common (0.92.37.3) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 rsyslog
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
W: Operation was interrupted before it could finish

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: rsyslog 7.4.4-1ubuntu2.5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.16.0-29.39~14.04.1-generic 3.16.7-ckt2
Uname: Linux 3.16.0-29-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.6
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Feb 2 09:43:26 2015
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: rsyslog
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Ken Sharp (kennybobs)]

This has the side effect of hanging every package install/upgrade because this package never finishes its installation.

[Ken Sharp (kennybobs)]

$ ps xa | fgrep syslog
 1120 ? Ssl 0:22 rsyslogd
20383 pts/2 Ss+ 0:00 /usr/bin/dpkg --status-fd 38 --configure rsyslog:amd64
20384 pts/2 S+ 0:00 /bin/sh /var/lib/dpkg/info/rsyslog.postinst configure 7.4.4-1ubuntu2.3
20490 pts/2 S+ 0:00 /bin/sh /usr/sbin/invoke-rc.d rsyslog restart
20519 pts/2 S+ 0:00 stop rsyslog

[Ken Sharp (kennybobs)]

This could be a duplicate of Bug #1189322, but I've never seen this happen before.

[Ken Sharp (kennybobs)]

KILLed rsyslog but it doesn't make any difference.

Tried purging rsyslog but that just tries stopping again. Once KILLed it tries starting it again, which makes no sense at all seen as I'm trying to purge it.

I have tried removing /etc/init.d/rsyslog so that invoke-rc.d does nothing but it still gets stuck on "start rsyslog".

rsyslog is thoroughly broken on this server.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Bjön Limell (bjon)]

Im having the same problem. Running 14.04 on GCE.

[Andrei (andreic)]

Try to kill the process:

/bin/sh /var/lib/dpkg/info/rsyslog.postinst configure 7.4.4-1ubuntu2.3

So that the install process can at least finish configuring the other packages.

[Brad Parker (cbparker)]

Same problem here on 14.04.2, Andrei's comment did not help either:

root@user:~# /bin/sh /var/lib/dpkg/info/rsyslog.postinst configure 7.4.4-1ubuntu2.3
The user `syslog' is already a member of `adm'.
/usr/bin/deb-systemd-helper was not called from dpkg. Exiting.
/usr/bin/deb-systemd-helper was not called from dpkg. Exiting.
/usr/bin/deb-systemd-helper was not called from dpkg. Exiting.
Skipping profile in /etc/apparmor.d/disable: usr.sbin.rsyslogd
invoke-rc.d: initscript rsyslog, action "restart" failed.

root@user:~# apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 15 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Setting up rsyslog (7.4.4-1ubuntu2.5) ...
The user `syslog' is already a member of `adm'.
Skipping profile in /etc/apparmor.d/disable: usr.sbin.rsyslogd
invoke-rc.d: initscript rsyslog, action "restart" failed.
dpkg: error processing package rsyslog (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 rsyslog
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

[Brad Parker (cbparker)]

I was able to work around the issue by doing apt-get purge rsyslog and then running dist-upgrade, then reinstalling rsyslog.

[amar (amar)]

It always gets stuck on

> The user `syslog' is already a member of `adm'.

No matter what.