Installing Ubuntu 8.10 Caused Several Problems

[Randal Leavitt]

I upgraded from Ubuntu 8.04 to 8.10. Several problems were reported to me during the upgrade:

PAM reported an error - something about not being able to authenticate with a gnome server. However, I seem to be able to log in and do things, so I dont know how serious this is.

The screen size selected for my monitor (neovo 19) was wrong, causing a message about input signal out of range to be permanently displayed. It went away when I manually changed the resolution down to 1280x960.

The package totem-common_2.24.2-0ubuntu4_all.deb would not install and ended up being a broken package. Later attempts to reinstall it also failed. I deleted the package.

The package gnome_icon_theme_2.24.0-0ubuntu1_all.deb would not install. This seemed to stop sounds associated with logging on. Later attempts to reinstall this package also failed.

I tried several times to send this information to you using the automatic problem reporting features, but they got all fouled up and I dont know if you received the information or not. You may have several copies of this information from me. Sorry if this caused problems - I am not familiar with your bug reporting system.

[Randal Leavitt (randal-leavitt)]

The update service told me this morning that five updates were available. Two of these updates are suspect, so I ran the updated without selecting the suspect items. The update seemed to work correctly. I then tried one of the suspect updates, an update for "gnome-icon-theme". It failed, and gave me these error messages:

E: /var/cache/apt/archives/gnome-icon-theme_2.24.0-0ubuntu1_all.deb: unable to make backup symlink for `./usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/mimetypes/spreadsheet.svg'

and later on

Update is Complete
(Reading database ... 243686 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace gnome-icon-theme 2.22.0-1ubuntu2 (using .../gnome-icon-theme_2.24.0-0ubuntu1_all.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement gnome-icon-theme ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/gnome-icon-theme_2.24.0-0ubuntu1_all.deb (--unpack):
 unable to make backup symlink for `./usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/mimetypes/spreadsheet.svg': No such file or directory
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/gnome-icon-theme_2.24.0-0ubuntu1_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install. Trying to recover:

[Randal Leavitt (randal-leavitt)]

I noted yesterday that people who are running 8.04 are still getting updates. One of the updates that I saw was a security update for the kernel for 8.04 which I think is 2.6.24.

I am running the 2.6.24 kernel too because the upgrade to 8.10 did not give me a later kernel. But I did not get a security update for this kernel. I guess the update process thinks that I am running a complete 8.10 with a later kernel, but I am not.

[Ian Weisser (ian-weisser)]

Thanks for your report.

Please add the following information so we can look into these issues:
1. Please include the output of the command "uname -a" in your next response. It should be one, long line of text which includes the exact kernel version you're running, as well as the CPU architecture.
2. Please run the command "dmesg > dmesg.log" after a fresh boot and attach the resulting file "dmesg.log" to this bug report.
3. Please attach all the log files from "/var/log/dist-upgrade/" to this bug report.
4. Please run the command "sudo cat /var/log/apt/term.log > apt.log" and attach the file "apt.log" to this bug report.
Thanks in advance

[Randal Leavitt (randal-leavitt)]

randal@explorer:~$ uname -a
Linux explorer 2.6.24-21-386 #1 Tue Oct 21 23:10:03 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
randal@explorer:~$

[Randal Leavitt (randal-leavitt)]

If I boot this computer and let it follow its default boot sequence, it boots up using the 2.6.25-2-386 kernel. This kernel is problematic since it does not allow any sound to be played. I booted in this default manner to allow me to generate a file from "dmseg" to send to you. The file that I produced is named "dmesg_25.log". It is attached as an attachment here.

[Randal Leavitt (randal-leavitt)]

These days I boot this machine by interrupting "grub" with the esc key and choosing the 2.6.24 kernel to boot with. I do this because this kernel allows me to play sounds when the system is up. I booted the machine in this manner just now and then produced a file named "dmesg_24.log" using dmesg. This file is attached as an attachment here.

[Randal Leavitt (randal-leavitt)]

randal@explorer:~$ ls -la /var/log/dist-upgrade/
total 1394
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 264 2008-11-01 02:56 .
drwxr-xr-x 19 root root 5256 2008-11-08 20:26 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1753 2007-04-20 11:52 apt-autoinst-fixup.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 551167 2008-11-01 01:19 apt.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 389973 2008-11-01 02:52 apt-term.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 41576 2008-11-01 02:56 main.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1375 2007-10-21 20:36 main_pre_req.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 416630 2008-11-01 02:56 term.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2805 2008-11-01 02:56 xorg_fix_intrepid.log
randal@explorer:~$

I am attaching these files to this bug report.

[Randal Leavitt (randal-leavitt)]

randal@explorer:~$ sudo cat /var/log/apt/term.log > apt.log
randal@explorer:~$

[Randal Leavitt (randal-leavitt)]

I have three bugs reported, all related to this issue of an incomplete upgrade to 8.10. They are:

294244
292478
293211

Each one focuses on a different technical problem, but they all have a common origin.....

[Ian Weisser (ian-weisser)]

Assigning to package update-manager. Three possible U-M issues.

1) According to your term.log, the 2.6.27-7 kernel (for 8.10) was installed.
Is it in your /boot/grub/menu.lst?
Is there a file for it in your /boot directory? (If so, you can always edit your menu.lst manually)
As an aside, if you are able to boot to the updated kernel, does your sound work?

2) Unpacking replacement gnome-icon-theme ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/gnome-icon-theme_2.24.0-0ubuntu1_all.deb (--unpack):
 unable to make backup symlink for `./usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/mimetypes/spreadsheet.svg': No such file or directory
(This file does exist in the package)

3) Preparing to replace totem-common 2.22.1-0ubuntu2 (using .../totem-common_2.24.2-0ubuntu4_all.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement totem-common ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/totem-common_2.24.2-0ubuntu4_all.deb (--unpack):
 unable to make backup symlink for `./usr/share/gnome/help/totem/oc/figures/totem_next_button.png': No such file or directory
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
(This file also does exist in the package)

[Randal Leavitt (randal-leavitt)]

There is no reference to the 2.6.27-7 kernel in /boot/grub/menu.lst.

randal@explorer:~$ ls /boot
abi-2.6.15-26-386 grub System.map-2.6.15-27-386
abi-2.6.15-27-386 initrd.img-2.6.15-26-386 System.map-2.6.17-10-386
abi-2.6.17-10-386 initrd.img-2.6.15-27-386 System.map-2.6.17-11-386
abi-2.6.17-11-386 initrd.img-2.6.17-10-386 System.map-2.6.20-16-386
abi-2.6.20-16-386 initrd.img-2.6.17-10-386.bak System.map-2.6.22-14-386
abi-2.6.22-14-386 initrd.img-2.6.17-11-386 System.map-2.6.24-16-386
abi-2.6.24-16-386 initrd.img-2.6.17-11-386.bak System.map-2.6.24-17-386
abi-2.6.24-17-386 initrd.img-2.6.20-16-386 System.map-2.6.24-18-386
abi-2.6.24-18-386 initrd.img-2.6.20-16-386.bak System.map-2.6.24-19-386
abi-2.6.24-19-386 initrd.img-2.6.22-14-386 System.map-2.6.24-21-386
abi-2.6.24-21-386 initrd.img-2.6.22-14-386.bak System.map-2.6.25-2-386
abi-2.6.25-2-386 initrd.img-2.6.24-16-386 vmlinuz-2.6.15-26-386
config-2.6.15-26-386 initrd.img-2.6.24-16-386.bak vmlinuz-2.6.15-27-386
config-2.6.15-27-386 initrd.img-2.6.24-17-386 vmlinuz-2.6.17-10-386
config-2.6.17-10-386 initrd.img-2.6.24-17-386.bak vmlinuz-2.6.17-11-386
config-2.6.17-11-386 initrd.img-2.6.24-18-386 vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-386
config-2.6.20-16-386 initrd.img-2.6.24-18-386.bak vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-386
config-2.6.22-14-386 initrd.img-2.6.24-19-386 vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-386
config-2.6.24-16-386 initrd.img-2.6.24-19-386.bak vmlinuz-2.6.24-17-386
config-2.6.24-17-386 initrd.img-2.6.24-21-386 vmlinuz-2.6.24-18-386
config-2.6.24-18-386 initrd.img-2.6.24-21-386.bak vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-386
config-2.6.24-19-386 initrd.img-2.6.25-2-386 vmlinuz-2.6.24-21-386
config-2.6.24-21-386 memtest86+.bin vmlinuz-2.6.25-2-386
config-2.6.25-2-386 System.map-2.6.15-26-386
randal@explorer:~$

And I dont seem to have the necessary files in /boot either.

As an observation, most of the files in /boot seem to be useless now. I had assumed that the update process was keeping this directory cleaned up. I guess not. Clearly I am glad that some old versions of the kernel were left behind since I would be out of service otherwise. But keeping more than five old kernels seems a bit excessive.

[Randal Leavitt (randal-leavitt)]

My "Update Manager" always states that two updates are available:
- totem-common
- gnome-icon-theme

However, I have tried to run these updates several times now, and they always fail, so I just ignore the "Update Manager" notices about them.

Today, my "Update Manager" told me that twenty-nine updates were available. The list included "totem-common" and "gnome-icon-theme". So I deactived these two items, and ran the other updates. I hope this is reasonable - I dont know if there are any dependencies between these updates.

The update appeared to run correctly for the other twenty-seven items.

I then tried to run the updates for totem-common and gnome-icon-theme. This failed. One of the error messages produced was:

E: /var/cache/apt/archives/gnome-icon-theme_2.24.0-0ubuntu1_all.deb: unable to make backup symlink for `./usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/mimetypes/spreadsheet.svg'
E: /var/cache/apt/archives/totem-common_2.24.3-0ubuntu1_all.deb: unable to make backup symlink for `./usr/share/gnome/help/totem/oc/figures/totem_next_button.png'

The Update Manager reported that the update was complete, but that errors had occurred. The Update Manager reported the following:

(Reading database ... 243689 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace gnome-icon-theme 2.22.0-1ubuntu2 (using .../gnome-icon-theme_2.24.0-0ubuntu1_all.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement gnome-icon-theme ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/gnome-icon-theme_2.24.0-0ubuntu1_all.deb (--unpack):
 unable to make backup symlink for `./usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/mimetypes/spreadsheet.svg': No such file or directory
Preparing to replace totem-common 2.22.1-0ubuntu2 (using .../totem-common_2.24.3-0ubuntu1_all.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement totem-common ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/totem-common_2.24.3-0ubuntu1_all.deb (--unpack):
 unable to make backup symlink for `./usr/share/gnome/help/totem/oc/figures/totem_next_button.png': No such file or directory
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/gnome-icon-theme_2.24.0-0ubuntu1_all.deb
 /var/cache/apt/archives/totem-common_2.24.3-0ubuntu1_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install. Trying to recover:

The error report left behind by this failure asked me to report the problem to Ubuntu, which I did. This created bug report 296570. I hope that new bug report is helpful.

[Randal Leavitt (randal-leavitt)]

I figured out how to install the latest kernel. So I am now running using the 2.6.27 kernel.

randal@explorer:~$ uname -a
Linux explorer 2.6.27-7-generic #1 SMP Tue Nov 4 19:33:20 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
randal@explorer:~$

Sounds play as expected. Everything else that I have tried has worked too. So this system is a bit healthier now. I still have the two updates, totem-common and gnome-icon-theme, that will not update. I have not tried to run these updates with the 2.6.27 kernel in place - that will be a good thing to do tomorrow.

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

Thanks for your report. I'm closing this report because it is not a bug in update-manager and you've reported the remaining issues in bug 293211 , bug 294244 and bug 296570 .

Don't hesitate to submit any new bug.