Upgrade to 19.04 - cannot install 'install-info' (triggers looping)

[Potet]

I got an "could not install 'install-info'" warning at the end of my upgrade, with the details "triggers looping, abandoned". Then a new warning telling me that the upgrades could not be installed, that the system might be broken, and that it was running dpkg --configure -a.

This happened at the very end of my upgrade. Things seem to be working nicely, even after rebooting, so the upgrade appears to have been successful.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 19.04
Package: ubuntu-release-upgrader-core 1:19.04.13
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.0.0-8.9-generic 5.0.1
Uname: Linux 5.0.0-8-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.10-0ubuntu23
Architecture: amd64
CrashDB: ubuntu
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Wed Apr 3 14:42:55 2019
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-05-09 (328 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180426)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=nb_NO:nb:no_NO:no:nn_NO:nn:en
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=nb_NO.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: ubuntu-release-upgrader
Symptom: dist-upgrade
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to disco on 2019-04-03 (0 days ago)
VarLogDistupgradeTermlog:

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

From Apttermlog.txt we can see:

Processing triggers for systemd (240-6ubuntu3) ...
dpkg: cycle found while processing triggers:
 chain of packages whose triggers are or may be responsible:
  gnome-icon-theme -> shared-mime-info
 packages' pending triggers which are or may be unresolvable:
  install-info: /usr/share/info
  sgml-base: /usr/share/xml: /usr/share/sgml
  linux-image-5.0.0-8-generic: linux-update-5.0.0-8-generic
  libvlc-bin:amd64: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/vlc/plugins
  shared-mime-info: /usr/share/mime/packages
  dbus: /etc/dbus-1/system.d
  ca-certificates: update-ca-certificates
  tex-common: texmf-map
  gnome-icon-theme: /usr/share/icons/gnome
  rsyslog: /etc/rsyslog.d
  libc-bin: ldconfig
  dictionaries-common: update-default-ispell: update-default-wordlist: aspell-autobuildhash
  hicolor-icon-theme: /usr/share/icons/hicolor
  initramfs-tools: update-initramfs
  mime-support: /usr/lib/mime/packages: /usr/share/applications
dpkg: error processing package install-info (--configure):
 triggers looping, abandoned

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Alexey (alexeyza)]

Exactly the same issue for me too.

First, it showed a "Could not install 'install-info'" message.
And then, when the upgrade from 18.10 to 19.04 finished it showed the following error message:
"Could not install the upgrades. The upgrade has aborted. Your system could be in unstable state. A recovery will run now (dpkg --configure -a)

@5tein4rne suggests that everything seems to be working fine nonetheless? Is there a way to make sure everything was installed correctly?

Any more details about this issue?

[Alexey (alexeyza)]

More info regarding the bug during my upgrade to 19.04:

By looking at the crash report at
`/var/crash/install-info.0.crash` I can see the following error message:

I get the following:
```
Setting up libdrm-common (2.4.97-1ubuntu1) ...
 Setting up libelf1:amd64 (0.176-1) ...
 Setting up libelf1:i386 (0.176-1) ...
 Setting up libsm6:amd64 (2:1.2.3-1) ...
 Setting up xserver-xorg-legacy (2:1.20.4-1ubuntu3) ...

 (frontend:5421): GdkPixbuf-WARNING **: 17:48:08.642: Cannot open pixbuf loader module file '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gdk-pixbuf-2.0/2.10.0/loaders.cache': No such file or directory

 This likely means that your installation is broken.
 Try running the command
   gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders > /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gdk-pixbuf-2.0/2.10.0/loaders.cache
 to make things work again for the time being.

 (frontend:5419): GdkPixbuf-WARNING **: 17:48:08.699: Cannot open pixbuf loader module file '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gdk-pixbuf-2.0/2.10.0/loaders.cache': No such file or directory

 This likely means that your installation is broken.
 Try running the command
   gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders > /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gdk-pixbuf-2.0/2.10.0/loaders.cache
 to make things work again for the time being.
 setting xserver-xorg-legacy/xwrapper/allowed_users from configuration file
 Setting up libpam-cap:amd64 (1:2.25-2) ...

 (frontend:5441): GdkPixbuf-WARNING **: 17:48:09.095: Cannot open pixbuf loader module file '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gdk-pixbuf-2.0/2.10.0/loaders.cache': No such file or directory

 This likely means that your installation is broken.
 Try running the command
   gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders > /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gdk-pixbuf-2.0/2.10.0/loaders.cache
 to make things work again for the time being.

 (frontend:5439): GdkPixbuf-WARNING **: 17:48:09.152: Cannot open pixbuf loader module file '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gdk-pixbuf-2.0/2.10.0/loaders.cache': No such file or directory

 This likely means that your installation is broken.
 Try running the command
   gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders > /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gdk-pixbuf-2.0/2.10.0/loaders.cache
 to make things work again for the time being.
 Setting up libdns-export1104 (1:9.11.5.P1+dfsg-1ubuntu2) ...
 Setting up libgcr-base-3-1:amd64 (3.28.1-2) ...
 Setting up iputils-ping (3:20180629-2ubuntu2) ...
 Setting up libevdev2:amd64 (1.6.0+dfsg-1) ...
```

From what I can tell, it seems to be related to or caused by this bug
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gdk-pixbuf/+bug/1282294

So, for any end-users out there, it seems like a harmful bug that can be ignored.

[VPablo (villumar)]

I have this error too. The problem is that the upgrader is not continuing with the uninstall of programs and says that there's an error.

I recovered a clonezilla image before the upgrade and will not upgrade until this bug is fixed.

[JOSEPH E CONNER (joeconner2007)]

I have discovered that the desktop context menu no longer contains choices to alphabetize icons, nor to lock into the underlying grid.

I do not know if this is a result of this installation bug or not.

[Route Mean Squared (route-mean-squared)]

This bug also affects me. Unfortunately, the automatic reversion to the previous version is a mess and doesn't seem to leave the system in the previous (working, 18.10) state.

So I'm currently afraid to reboot my machine, for fear it'll never boot again without a fresh install, which will take 4 or 5 days out of my life for configuration and such.

So any progress would be much appreciated.

[Route Mean Squared (route-mean-squared)]

To add to my previous comment, the uninstaller freezes with the following message every 10-30 seconds, uncountable times:

`=== Command terminated with exit status 1 (Tue Apr 23 23:42:55 2019) ===`

In order to get the uninstall to continue I have to hit ENTER and then "r" to "resurrect window", over and over.

[Kósa Lajos (lajos-p)]

See attachment - same error, other package.

[Kósa Lajos (lajos-p)]

Interesting experiences.

Despite the bug I gave a try to update. I have altogether 3 computers.

1. Ubuntu 18.10, 'normal' PC, Nvidia card (I don't know if it adds anything to the issue), CPU is a 6-core AMD
When updating, everything seems normal, then comes the message as seen above. However rebooting the PC everything works fine.

2. Ubuntu 18.10, PC, AMD A8 with integrated graphics card
Here I got the error message as in this bug reported, however the package causing the problem is the package 'menu'. After the error message, the installer intends to run dpkg again in order the system gets back to is original state. By not allowing it but manually rebooting, everything works fine. The only thing wasn't done is removing obsolete packages. This could be done with a simple apt autoremove (some 750MB was removed).

3. Ubuntu 18.10, Dell E5490
No problems reported during update. All work fine.

[Reece (reece)]

I also received this error upgrading from 18.10. As with others, install seemed to nearly finish (as judged by the progress bar).

Dell XPS 13 9360 (i7-7500U, Intel HD 620, Kaby Lake GT2)

Two anomalies:
1) I had postgresql multicorn libraries installed from a ppa. I used ppa-purge to remove them.
2) I noticed two desktop notifications of network interruptions during the install. I assume that these were related to the installation.

[Wal Muhammad Khubaib (vmk0102)]

Anyone lucky enough to find any fixes to this? I faced this issue too yesterday.

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

Seems like this might be related to bug 1825211; seems like roughly the same issue (triggers looping) at about the same point (quite close to shared-mime-info; but that may be a red herring). We've had some discussions before that this may be a bug in dpkg / triggers.

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

Marking trigger bugs as duplicates of 1828639, to have one bug to track the fix in with a clean reproducer.