Error failed to fork pty

[kapatz]

Binary package hint: synaptic

 Ubuntu 9.04
Install and Remove Applications
I try to install any package and I get this error

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Unfortunately, we can't fix it because your description didn't include enough information. You may find it helpful to read "How to report bugs effectively" http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html. We'd be grateful if you would then provide a more complete description of the problem.

We have instructions on debugging some types of problems at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProcedures

At a minimum, we need:
1. the specific steps or actions you took that caused you to encounter the problem,
2. the behavior you expected, and
3. the behavior you actually encountered (in as much detail as possible).
Thanks!

[kapatz (massimo-terenzi)]

after network upgrade ubuntu to 9.04, I can not install more package using synaptic package manager, the error is: Error failed to fork pty. if I try to open the terminal for use apt-get command line, the terminal appears, but without prompt and the error is : There was an error creating the child process for this terminal

[bot42u (boycethompson)]

I have the exact same problem and distribution.

[kapatz (massimo-terenzi)]

I have resolved with:
sudo ln -s /etc/init.d/mountdevsubfs.sh /etc/rcS.d/S11mountdevsubfs.sh

sudo vi /etc/fstab
add string:
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw 0 0

[romeoluzzi (luzzir)]

Very cool kapatz, but how do you do all that if you can't get into the command line. I have the same problem and am not having any luck trying to solve it. Additional information would be greatly appreciated.

[kapatz (massimo-terenzi)]

hit ctrl + alt + F1, if it does not work the first time, try again another time ctrl + alt + F1, then login and make change

[romeoluzzi (luzzir)]

Am fairly new to Linux and do appreciate the information. Thank you so much.

[SirAry (theodor-scherer)]

Same error in mythubuntu diskless:
on the server it works well but if I go in MCC, select the image and try to use synaptic to install something in it, the packages are dowloaded, but after that will get in error: failed to fork pty ...
the S11 link exist both in server and in image ...
I tried to add the line in fstab, but it didn't work ...
so, it works if I am logged as chroot on the image, and do:
umount devpts
mount devpts
After that, I have acces to install by synaptics without this error ....
It seems that 9.04 is insuficiently tested ... as there are more errors that I have at a clean install ... :(

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Are you sure that your initscripts package is configured correctly? That symlink is created when the initscripts package is configured. What is the output of "dpkg -l initscripts"?

[kapatz (massimo-terenzi)]

max@wsterenzi:~$ dpkg -l initscripts
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Cfg-files/Unpacked/Failed-cfg/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-=========================-=========================-==================================================================
ii initscripts 2.86.ds1-61ubuntu11 Scripts for initializing and shutting down the system

[Scott James Remnant (Canonical) (canonical-scott)]

This is caused by a modification you have made to your system and failed to account for in the upgrade.

Either

 1) your /etc/rcS.d directory has been re-ordered such that S11mountdevsubfs.sh is no longer S11 (or S10udev is no longer S10)

 2) your /etc/init.d/mountdevsubfs.sh file has custom modifications, and you declined the conffile prompt on upgrade.

For #1, use whatever tool you used to originally reorder to fix the problem.

For #2, move the /etc/init.d/mountdevsubfs.sh.dpkg-new file over top of /etc/init.d/mountdevsubfs.sh and re-apply your modifications