apt-get crashes on apt-get update

Bug #424182 reported by tdn
6
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
apt (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

I am using Kubuntu 9.04.

I was trying to install a package but then apt-get segfaulted.
After this, I am not able to run apt-get update, nor apt-cache search:

#apt-cache search foo
zsh: segmentation fault (core dumped) apt-cache search foo
#apt-get dist-upgrade
zsh: segmentation fault (core dumped) apt-get dist-upgrade
#aptitude dist-upgrade
zsh: segmentation fault (core dumped) aptitude dist-upgrade

What can be causing this?

I have attached strace of apt-get dist-upgrade.

Revision history for this message
tdn (spam-thomasdamgaard) wrote :

Attached is dmesg output.

Revision history for this message
tdn (spam-thomasdamgaard) wrote :

Here is the output from the original apt-get crash:
http://thomasdamgaard.dk/p/P1384.html

I was installing sysv-rc-conf.
agi: aliased to apt-get install

Revision history for this message
arky (arky) wrote :

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This bug did not have a package associated with it, which is important for ensuring that it gets looked at by the proper developers. You can learn more about finding the right package at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. I have classified this bug as a bug in apt.

When reporting bugs in the future please use apport, either via the appropriate application's "Help -> Report a Problem" menu or using 'ubuntu-bug' and the name of the package affected. You can learn more about this functionality at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

affects: ubuntu → apt (Ubuntu)
Revision history for this message
tdn (spam-thomasdamgaard) wrote :

I found out that the files
/var/cache/apt/pkgcache.bin
and
/var/cache/apt/srcpkgcache.bin
caused the problem.

I renamed them to *.bin2.
This appearently solved the problem.

Attached is a tar.gz including the two broken .bin-files that causes apt-get to segfault and an strace of apt-get update when it seqfaults.

Revision history for this message
Torsten Spindler (tspindler) wrote :

I copied your pkgcache.bin and srcpkgcache.bin to a Ubuntu 10.04 LTS system and could not reproduce the crash there. All operations went fine, including apt-cache search foo and sudo apt-get dist-upgrade.
I will mark this bug as fix released until we can reproduce it somehow.

Changed in apt (Ubuntu):
status: New → Fix Released
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