package ubuntu-docs 15.04.2 failed to install/upgrade: package ubuntu-docs is not ready for configuration cannot configure (current status `half-installed')

[Paul Carter]

This package install may have failed previously and was raised during another apt-get install.

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.04
Package: ubuntu-docs 15.04.2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.19.0-21.21-generic 3.19.8
Uname: Linux 3.19.0-21-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.17.2-0ubuntu1.1
Architecture: i386
Date: Fri Jun 19 12:03:57 2015
DuplicateSignature: package:ubuntu-docs:15.04.2:package ubuntu-docs is not ready for configuration cannot configure (current status `half-installed')
ErrorMessage: package ubuntu-docs is not ready for configuration cannot configure (current status `half-installed')
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-06-15 (3 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.10 "Utopic Unicorn" - Release i386 (20141022.1)
PackageArchitecture: all
RelatedPackageVersions:
 dpkg 1.17.25ubuntu1
 apt 1.0.9.7ubuntu4
SourcePackage: ubuntu-docs
Title: package ubuntu-docs 15.04.2 failed to install/upgrade: package ubuntu-docs is not ready for configuration cannot configure (current status `half-installed')
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

Hi Paul!

We think there is a dpkg bug which causes this kind of failure once in a while - see bug #1364642. But this was a new variant...

Can you please run:

sudo apt-get purge ubuntu-docs
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-docs

and let us know if it fixes it?

[Paul Carter (pauleg-carter)]

Gunnar,

Thanks for the quick response. There were quite a few other crashes
while attempting to fix incomplete installs manually with apt-get and
dpkg. There were several file-system breakages as well and it was all
getting quite painful.

Apport was also failing to deliver crash reports and there must have
been somewhere between 40 and 50 in all!

It was being installed on a 2004 laptop with 1GB RAM and a 3GHz single
core 32bit CPU and after all the chaos, I decided to go for Xububtu
instead, much more responsive. The slowness of the unity UI was
unacceptable and I couldn't turn off the fading and moving around of the
windows.

I was impressed that the recipe for conversion to Xubuntu went fairly
smoothly. Still a half dozen crashes but it looks stable now!

So, sadly, no I can't reinstall the packages as you suggest.

Best regards.

Paul

On 20/06/15 09:25, Gunnar Hjalmarsson wrote:
> Hi Paul!
>
> We think there is a dpkg bug which causes this kind of failure once in a
> while - see bug #1364642. But this was a new variant...
>
> Can you please run:
>
> sudo apt-get purge ubuntu-docs
> sudo apt-get install ubuntu-docs
>
> and let us know if it fixes it?
>
> ** Changed in: ubuntu-docs (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

Well, 1 GB RAM is not sufficient for Unity, so you indeed made a good decision.

Closing this bug report then.

[FrankW (frankw)]

It did also apply to a fresh Ubuntu 16.04 installation.