depmod (module-init-tools 3.7~pre9-2) fails on 2.6.27-10-generic with bus error, causing Intrepid->Jaunty dist-upgrade to fail

[MargL]

Binary package hint: module-init-tools

I tried upgrading a new Dell Inspiron 1545 from Intrepid to Jaunty. The upgrade failed midway through the upgrade (on mod-init-tools) with:
    Running depmod for 2.6.27-10-generic...
    Bus error
    dpkg: error processing module-init-tools (--configure):
    subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 135

The dependency errors piled up after that, leaving hundreds of packages partially installed, culminating in this error:
  "Processing was halted because there were too many errors."

Rebooting and continuing the upgrade failed, so I got help. After we figured out that only running "depmod -a 2.6.27-10-generic" also failed in the same way (whereas running depmod against the other installed kernels ran just fine), we decided to "apt-get remove linux-image-2.6.27-10-generic" (leaving 2.6.27-14 and 2.6.28-11). This worked - unblocking the upgrade which then continued without a hitch.

The reason for the depmod failure is still a mystery. However, it would seem that the install should be robust enough to skip over running depmod on an obsolete and probably unused kernel, or at least not fail quite so spectacularly.

ProblemType: Package
Architecture: i386
Dependencies:
 libgcc1 1:4.3.3-5ubuntu4
 gcc-4.3-base 4.3.3-5ubuntu4
 findutils 4.4.0-2ubuntu4
 libc6 2.9-4ubuntu6
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
ErrorMessage:
 ErrorMessage: subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 135
Package: module-init-tools 3.7~pre9-2
SourcePackage: module-init-tools
Title: package module-init-tools 3.7~pre9-2 failed to install/upgrade:
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-11-generic i686

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

I think this is fixed by the ELF rewrite for 3.10

(seems to be dkms related)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package module-init-tools - 3.10-1

---------------
module-init-tools (3.10-1) karmic; urgency=low

  * New upstream release:
    - Pretty comprehensive ELF handling rewrite.
      LP: #99547, #342255, #370968, #382676, #387081, #399955.
    - depmod can now check module symbol versions.
    - Comprehensive code cleanup.
    - Documentation cleanups.

  * debian/modprobe.d/blacklist-watchdog.conf: Add iTCO_wdt, it8712_wdt,
    it87_wdt, pc87413_wdt, sbc7240_wdt, sch311_wdt, smsc37b787_wdt,
    twl4030_wdt, w83697hf_wdt, w83697ug_wdt & wm8350_wdt. LP: #378328.

 -- Scott James Remnant <email address hidden> Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:10:34 +0100

[Graham Mitchell (graham-grahammitchell)]

Same issue for me; attempting a dist-upgrade from 8.10 LTS.

Upgrade threw an error but then seemed to finish. However, upon rebooting, the system was in an unusable state. Thanks to seeing this page before rebooting, I knew to try

# apt-get remove linux-image-2.6.24-19-generic

...and then the rest of the package setup completed. It took another couple of reboots to get everything sorted, but everything seems fine now.

I don't want to imagine how long it would have taken me to get my system working again if I hadn't seen MargL's notes above.

So, although the bug may be "fixed" somewhere, I think it may still be affecting people who waited this long to upgrade from 8.10 to 9.04.