usrmerge breaks update from 20.04 to 22.04 - FATAL ERROR: Both /bin/egrep and /usr/bin/egrep exist.

[HugoHirsch]

A system update from 20.04 to 22.04 stopped in the middle with the following error:

$ sudo apt -f install
Paketlisten werden gelesen… Fertig
Abhängigkeitsbaum wird aufgebaut… Fertig
Statusinformationen werden eingelesen… Fertig
Die folgenden Pakete wurden automatisch installiert und werden nicht mehr benötigt:
  cryptsetup-run dh-elpa-helper elpa-dash elpa-ghub elpa-git-commit elpa-let-alist elpa-magit elpa-magit-popup elpa-magit-section elpa-transient elpa-treepy elpa-with-editor emacs fonts-mathjax gcc-10-base
  gir1.2-clutter-1.0 gir1.2-clutter-gst-3.0 gir1.2-cogl-1.0 gir1.2-coglpango-1.0 gir1.2-gnomebluetooth-1.0 gir1.2-gtkclutter-1.0 ippusbxd libamtk-5-0 libamtk-5-common libaom0 libappstream-glib8
  libart-2.0-2 libbasicusageenvironment1 libboost-date-time1.71.0 libboost-filesystem1.71.0 libboost-iostreams1.71.0 libboost-locale1.71.0 libboost-log1.71.0 libboost-program-options1.71.0
  libboost-regex1.71.0 libboost-thread1.71.0 libbrlapi0.7 libcamel-1.2-62 libcbor0.6 libcdio18 libclass-accessor-perl libcmis-0.5-5v5 libcodec2-0.9 libcpp-hocon0.1.7 libcroco3 libdc1394-22 libdcmtk14
  libdirectfb-1.7-7 libdns-export1109 libdvdread7 libebml4v5 libedataserver-1.2-24 libedataserverui-1.2-2 libextutils-pkgconfig-perl libfacter3.11.0 libfl2 libfluidsynth2 libfreehep-export-java
  libfreehep-graphicsio-tests-java libfreehep-swing-java libfreehep-util-java libfreehep-xml-java libgdk-pixbuf-xlib-2.0-0 libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 libgl1-mesa-glx libglew2.1 libgloox17 libgroupsock8
  libgtkmm-2.4-1v5 libgtkspell0 libgupnp-1.2-0 libhandy-0.0-0 libhogweed5 libidn11 libigdgmm11 libilmbase24 libio-string-perl libjas-plotter-java libjaxen-java libjdom1-java libjs-mathjax libjson-c4
  libjuh-java libjurt-java libkf5crash5 libleatherman1.4.2 liblibreoffice-java liblivemedia77 libllvm12 libmatroska6v5 libmms0 libmozjs-68-0 libnb-org-openide-util-java libnb-org-openide-util-lookup-java
  libneon27-gnutls libnettle7 libntfs-3g883 libofa0 libopenexr24 liborcus-0.15-0 libotf0 libparse-debianchangelog-perl libperl5.30 libpgm-5.2-0 libphonenumber7 libplacebo7 libpodofo0.9.6 libpoppler73
  libpoppler97 libprotobuf-lite17 libprotobuf17 libpython3.8 libpython3.8-minimal libpython3.8-stdlib libqpdf26 libraw19 libre2-5 libreoffice-style-tango libridl-java libsane libsensors4-dev libsnmp35
  libsrt1 libtablelayout-java libtepl-4-0 libtracker-control-2.0-0 libtracker-miner-2.0-0 libtracker-sparql-2.0-0 libunoloader-java liburcu6 libusageenvironment3 libusrsctp1 libvpx6 libx264-155 libx265-179
  libxml-simple-perl libxmlb1 libyaml-cpp0.6 linux-image-5.4.0-105-generic linux-image-5.4.0-107-generic linux-modules-5.4.0-105-generic linux-modules-5.4.0-107-generic
  linux-modules-extra-5.4.0-107-generic lz4 perl-modules-5.30 postgresql-client-12 postgresql-doc-12 python-backports.functools-lru-cache python-bs4 python-cairo python-gobject-2 python-html5lib
  python-lxml python-numpy python-olefile python-pil python-pkg-resources python-six python-soupsieve python-webencodings python3-entrypoints python3-nose python3.8 python3.8-minimal ruby-connection-pool
  ruby-molinillo ruby-net-http-persistent ruby-sync ruby-thor ruby2.7 ruby2.7-dev ruby2.7-doc scour syslinux syslinux-common syslinux-legacy transfig ure-java
Verwenden Sie »sudo apt autoremove«, um sie zu entfernen.
0 aktualisiert, 0 neu installiert, 0 zu entfernen und 0 nicht aktualisiert.
1 nicht vollständig installiert oder entfernt.
Nach dieser Operation werden 0 B Plattenplatz zusätzlich benutzt.
usrmerge (25ubuntu2) wird eingerichtet ...
Smartmatch is experimental at /usr/lib/usrmerge/convert-usrmerge line 172.

FATAL ERROR:
Both /bin/egrep and /usr/bin/egrep exist.

You can try correcting the errors reported and running again
/usr/lib/usrmerge/convert-usrmerge until it will complete without errors.
Do not install or update other Debian packages until the program
has been run successfully.

dpkg: Fehler beim Bearbeiten des Paketes usrmerge (--configure):
 »installiertes usrmerge-Skript des Paketes post-installation«-Unterprozess gab den Fehlerwert 1 zurück
Fehler traten auf beim Bearbeiten von:
 usrmerge
libdvd-pkg: Checking orig.tar integrity...
/usr/src/libdvd-pkg/libdvdcss_1.4.3.orig.tar.bz2: OK
libdvd-pkg: `apt-get check` failed, you may have broken packages. Aborting...
[ Rootkit Hunter version 1.4.6 ]
File updated: searched for 182 files, found 164
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 22.04
Package: usrmerge 25ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-109.123-generic 5.4.178
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-109-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu82
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Fri Apr 22 01:30:21 2022
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-09-18 (946 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 18.04.3 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20190805)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
RebootRequiredPkgs: Error: path contained symlinks.
SourcePackage: usrmerge
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to jammy on 2022-04-21 (0 days ago)

[HugoHirsch (ubuntubugs-aiki-it)]

After diffing egrep and fgrep in /bin and /usr/bin,
spotting no difference and removing the /bin version I was able to continue my installation.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Natasja Dymphina van der Pluijm (natasjadymphina)]

Affected me also with libgcc, but my versions are actually different:

pkg: fout bij verwerken van pakket usrmerge (--configure):
 subproces van pakket usrmerge werd script post-installation geïnstalleerd gaf de foutwaarde 1 terug
Fouten gevonden tijdens verwerken van:
 usrmerge
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
Een pakket kon niet geïnstalleerd worden. Aan het proberen om te herstellen:
Instellen van usrmerge (25ubuntu2) ...
Smartmatch is experimental at /usr/lib/usrmerge/convert-usrmerge line 172.

FATAL ERROR:
Both /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 and /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 exist.

You can try correcting the errors reported and running again
/usr/lib/usrmerge/convert-usrmerge until it will complete without errors.
Do not install or update other Debian packages until the program
has been run successfully.

dpkg: fout bij verwerken van pakket usrmerge (--configure):
 subproces van pakket usrmerge werd script post-installation geïnstalleerd gaf de foutwaarde 1 terug
Fouten gevonden tijdens verwerken van:
 usrmerge

With sha256sum giving:
-d7e80cc8ff050f6942d3f42c3429b6fffb3115c5487af47849cf1c6b2d1deb64 /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1
- 090c81993b36907590003a92be2e587185be79e69d49f25ef8e4b1c1a873f7b0 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1

And realpath giving:

natasja@Spinoza:~$ realpath /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1
natasja@Spinoza:~$ realpath /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1

[frank (franknfurter)]

Hello,

I also run into it after a broken release upgrade from 20.04 to 22.04 in a Rock Pi 4. The release upgrade first was broken, because my monitor screen was suddenly black/switched off/suspended and there was no way to get into the screen. With screendump I could see, that one has to push the ok button in the info box about firefox snap install, but there was no way to do this. I had not screen installed and so logged in via ssh I could not change to the screen.

So I killed the upgrade processes and run apt install --fix-broken and... lucky me, get back to 20.04.
So I tried do-release-upgrade via ssh (You normally should not do this because ob possible network error) and get the message to do a full upgrade first before running do-release-upgrade.
So I did apt update and apt upgrade using sudo and could see, that all the 22.04 packages are beeing installed.

But: The process ended with usrmerge error (german). Here is the last output
----------------------
gkbd-capplet (3.26.1-2) wird eingerichtet ...
nautilus-share (0.7.3-2ubuntu6) wird eingerichtet ...
Trigger für sgml-base (1.30) werden verarbeitet ...
docbook-xml (4.5-11) wird eingerichtet ...
Trigger für dictionaries-common (1.28.14) werden verarbeitet ...
Trigger für ufw (0.36.1-4build1) werden verarbeitet ...
Trigger für libc-bin (2.35-0ubuntu3.1) werden verarbeitet ...
Trigger für sgml-base (1.30) werden verarbeitet ...
Fehler traten auf beim Bearbeiten von:
 usrmerge
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
-------------------------------------
I tried sudo dpkg --configure -a and the output was

usrmerge (25ubuntu2) wird eingerichtet ...
Smartmatch is experimental at /usr/lib/usrmerge/convert-usrmerge line 172.

FATAL ERROR:
Both /lib/systemd/system/serial-getty@.service and /usr/lib/systemd/system/serial-getty@.service exist.

You can try correcting the errors reported and running again
/usr/lib/usrmerge/convert-usrmerge until it will complete without errors.
Do not install or update other Debian packages until the program
has been run successfully.

dpkg: Fehler beim Bearbeiten des Paketes usrmerge (--configure):
 »installiertes usrmerge-Skript des Paketes post-installation«-Unterprozess gab den Fehlerwert 1 zurück
Fehler traten auf beim Bearbeiten von:
 usrmerge
-------------------------------------

Do not know how to fix. Any idea how to fix?