firebird2.5-classic cannot be installed (hang in debconf/frontend)

[psl]

U10.10, i386

I tried to install firebird2.5-classic but installation process was not finished and I killed it after few minutes of waiting. I cannot remove firebird2.5-classic now...

# apt-get install firebird2.5-classic
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  firebird2.5-classic-common firebird2.5-server-common libfbembed2.5
  libib-util
Suggested packages:
  firebird2.5-doc
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  firebird2.5-classic firebird2.5-classic-common firebird2.5-server-common
  libfbembed2.5 libib-util
0 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 4,068kB of archives.
After this operation, 11.8MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
Get:1 http://cz.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick/universe firebird2.5-server-common i386 2.5.0.25920~ReleaseCandidate2.ds2-8 [419kB]
Get:2 http://cz.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick/universe libfbembed2.5 i386 2.5.0.25920~ReleaseCandidate2.ds2-8 [1,974kB]
Get:3 http://cz.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick/universe libib-util i386 2.5.0.25920~ReleaseCandidate2.ds2-8 [3,940B]
Get:4 http://cz.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick/universe firebird2.5-classic-common i386 2.5.0.25920~ReleaseCandidate2.ds2-8 [1,638kB]
Get:5 http://cz.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick/universe firebird2.5-classic i386 2.5.0.25920~ReleaseCandidate2.ds2-8 [33.3kB]
Fetched 4,068kB in 5s (771kB/s)
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously deselected package firebird2.5-server-common.
(Reading database ... 229379 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking firebird2.5-server-common (from .../firebird2.5-server-common_2.5.0.25920~ReleaseCandidate2.ds2-8_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libfbembed2.5.
Unpacking libfbembed2.5 (from .../libfbembed2.5_2.5.0.25920~ReleaseCandidate2.ds2-8_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libib-util.
Unpacking libib-util (from .../libib-util_2.5.0.25920~ReleaseCandidate2.ds2-8_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package firebird2.5-classic-common.
Unpacking firebird2.5-classic-common (from .../firebird2.5-classic-common_2.5.0.25920~ReleaseCandidate2.ds2-8_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package firebird2.5-classic.
Unpacking firebird2.5-classic (from .../firebird2.5-classic_2.5.0.25920~ReleaseCandidate2.ds2-8_i386.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead ...
Setting up firebird2.5-server-common (2.5.0.25920~ReleaseCandidate2.ds2-8) ...
adduser: Warning: The home directory `/var/lib/firebird' does not belong to the user you are currently creating.
Setting up libfbembed2.5 (2.5.0.25920~ReleaseCandidate2.ds2-8) ...
Setting up libib-util (2.5.0.25920~ReleaseCandidate2.ds2-8) ...
Setting up firebird2.5-classic-common (2.5.0.25920~ReleaseCandidate2.ds2-8) ...
Setting up firebird2.5-classic (2.5.0.25920~ReleaseCandidate2.ds2-8) ...
Created default security2.fdb
 * Preparing /var/run/firebird/2.5... [ OK ]

[1]+ Stopped apt-get install firebird2.5-classic
# kill %1

# apt-get remove -y firebird2.5-classic
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  firebird2.5-classic
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 188kB disk space will be freed.
debconf: DbDriver "config": /var/cache/debconf/config.dat is locked by another process: Resource temporarily unavailable
(Reading database ... 229443 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing firebird2.5-classic ...
debconf: DbDriver "config": /var/cache/debconf/config.dat is locked by another process: Resource temporarily unavailable
dpkg: error processing firebird2.5-classic (--remove):
 subprocess installed pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
debconf: DbDriver "config": /var/cache/debconf/config.dat is locked by another process: Resource temporarily unavailable
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 firebird2.5-classic
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
#

# dpkg -la | grep firebird2.5-classic
rF firebird2.5-classic 2.5.0.25920~ReleaseCandidate2.ds2-8

[psl (slansky)]

I removed the package, I found with command
#fuser -v /var/cache/debconf/config.dat
what process is blocking /var/cache/debconf/config.dat and I killed it; it was /usr/share/debconf/frontend.

Anyway, firebird2.5-classic package is broken, it cannot be installed.

[psl (slansky)]

Bug report #664372 has log files attached.

[Roland Hughes (original-seasoned-geek)]

I reported a new bug on this by mistake. Can we please get this fixed or at least get a well documented work around? I'm in the process of writing another book for "The Minimum You Need to Know" series and have just gotten to the chapter covering Firebird, so need to be able to install it to continue.

[Popa Adrian Marius (mapopa)]

stable release is in debian repository and ppa

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Firebird2.5

from debian is needed the full Firebird Final release to be backported or using the SRU Process

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates
http://packages.debian.org/source/experimental/firebird2.5

in 11.04 we need to create a pool request update with that version

[Damyan Ivanov (dmn-debian)]

The following commit may be of interest: http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-firebird/2.5.git;a=commitdiff;h=e78d02b52

[Popa Adrian Marius (mapopa)]

Please upgrade to 12.04 LTS or at least 11.10 , Maverick is not supported anymore

[psl (slansky)]

You can close this, 11.04 is not supported any more. I know it, I see ugly reminder asking me to upgrade my desktop every day.. :-(

But I am not going to upgrade to 12.04 or 12.10 because I don't like new versions of Ubuntu. In general, I cannot find desktop Linux distribution that I like and situation is really bad at Linux desktop at the moment. I know I have to do upgrade at some day in the future but it is possible hat I will upgrade to Windows 7 or I will buy a PC from Apple... And that will be clear sign that Linux at desktop is dead.