Errors (hanging,only continue with Ctrl-c) while prosessing kexec-tools

[Jarkko Lietolahti]

Karmic
Binary package hint: kexec-tools

jarkko@gandalf:/boot/grub$ sudo dpkg --configure -a -D2000
Setting up kexec-tools (20090000-2.0.0ubuntu10) ...
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
Searching for default file ... found: /boot/grub/default
Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst
Searching for splash image ... none found, skipping ...
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.31-3-generic
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.31-2-generic
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.31-1-generic
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.30-10-generic
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.30-9-generic
Found kernel: /memtest86+.bin

XXXXXXXXXXXX (hangs here forever) XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

^Cdpkg: error processing kexec-tools (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script killed by signal (Interrupt)
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-3-generic
Errors were encountered while processing:
 kexec-tools
jarkko@gandalf:/boot/grub$

Same thing with apt-get dist-upgrade.

update-grub works when run alone;
jarkko@gandalf:/boot/grub$ sudo update-grub
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
Searching for default file ... found: /boot/grub/default
Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst
Searching for splash image ... none found, skipping ...
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.31-3-generic
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.31-2-generic
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.31-1-generic
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.30-10-generic
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.30-9-generic
Found kernel: /memtest86+.bin
Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ... done

jarkko@gandalf:/boot/grub$

[Loïc Minier (lool)]

I'm seeing this as well; it seems to be a bug in the grub config script, this is the end of the update-grub set -x output:
...
+ echo
+ echo '###' END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
++ tempfile
+ otherbuffer=/tmp/fileOHxgNt
+ cat /tmp/fileTiCEPE
+ ucf_update_kernels /tmp/fileTiCEPE /tmp/fileOHxgNt
+ local target
+ target=/tmp/fileTiCEPE
+ local buffer
+ buffer=/tmp/fileOHxgNt
+ sed -ni '-e/## ## End Default Options ##/,/### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST/p' /tmp/fileOHxgNt
+ '[' x = x ']'
+ sed -n '-e/## ## End Default Options ##/,/### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST/p'
+ db_x_loadtemplatefile /var/lib/dpkg/info/grub.templates grub
+ _db_cmd 'X_LOADTEMPLATEFILE /var/lib/dpkg/info/grub.templates' grub
+ IFS=' '
+ printf '%s\n' 'X_LOADTEMPLATEFILE /var/lib/dpkg/info/grub.templates grub'
+ IFS='
'
+ read -r _db_internal_line

[Loïc Minier (lool)]

Downgrading grub-common and makedumpfile didn't help here.

[Loïc Minier (lool)]

Downgrading kexec-tools fixes the issue.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

It's a bug in kexec-tools for calling db_stop and then attempting to trigger update-grub which will try to use the debconf frontend that's just been told to sit and swivel rather than do anything useful.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

(I doubt there's any value at all in using db_stop here; it has a very limited purpose, namely for init scripts that start daemons that don't close file descriptors on startup.)

[Loïc Minier (lool)]

Ah right, the db_stop is completely bogus; I was wondering what was the expected usage so that update-grub would have debconf still open, but there's just no point in ever closing debconf manually.

I confirmed that dropping the db_stop works fine.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package kexec-tools - 20090000-2.0.0ubuntu11

---------------
kexec-tools (20090000-2.0.0ubuntu11) karmic; urgency=low

  * Don't call db_stop in postinst as update-grub calls into debconf; thanks
    Colin Watson; LP: #400397.

 -- Loic Minier <email address hidden> Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:05:51 +0200

[Jarkko Lietolahti (jarkko-jab)]

20090000-2.0.0ubuntu11 fixes the problem.