PHP5 breaks apache update

[Matthew Nuzum]

Binary package hint: update-manager

I think this is because apache2 was stopped. It went through the whole 2+ hour process of downloading the packages, then it started installing. About 2 min into this aspect it died. Screenshot of the error and a tar file from /var/log/dist-upgrade is attached.

[Matthew Nuzum (newz)]

Hmm... this is bad. I tried re-running update manager and got a message "Software index is broken - It is impossible to install or remove software..." I'm attaching a screenshot

[Matthew Nuzum (newz)]

ok, more bad news... even sudo apt-get install -f fails now... It does have something to do with apache2. It can't stop apache and therefore dies. However, I can't start apache

matt@matts-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get install -f
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  vmware-player-kernel-modules-2.6.17-10 apache2-common python2.5
  python2.5-minimal libpq4 php5-mysql
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following extra packages will be installed:
  apache2-mpm-prefork apache2.2-common
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  apache2-common
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  apache2.2-common
The following packages will be upgraded:
  apache2-mpm-prefork
1 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 1 to remove and 1104 not upgraded.
120 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B/1358kB of archives.
After unpacking 602kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
dpkg: apache2-common: dependency problems, but removing anyway as you request:
 apache2-mpm-prefork depends on apache2-common (= 2.0.55-4ubuntu4); however:
  Package apache2-common is to be removed.
(Reading database ... 158341 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing apache2-common ...
 * Stopping apache 2.0 web server... [fail]
invoke-rc.d: initscript apache2, action "stop" failed.
dpkg: error processing apache2-common (--remove):
 subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 apache2-common
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

matt@matts-laptop:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 start
 * Starting apache 2.0 web server... Syntax error on line 1 of /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/php5.load:
API module structure `php5_module' in file /usr/lib/apache2/modules/libphp5.so is garbled - perhaps this is not an Apache module DSO?
                                                                         [fail]

***GOOD NEWS***
sudo rm /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/php5.load fixes the problem

Still, this is very scary stuff

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Here is the error from the logs:

Removing apache2-common ...
 * Stopping apache 2.0 web server...
 * Stopping apache 2.0 web server...
 * Stopping apache 2.0 web server... [fail]
invoke-rc.d: initscript apache2, action "stop" failed.
dpkg: error processing apache2-common (--remove):
 subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 apache2-common

I reassign this to apache2 and milestone it (because it breaks upgrades)

Thanks,
 Michael

[Daniel Hahler (blueyed)]

Have you tried manually stopping the old Apache? ("sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 stop")

[Matthew Nuzum (newz)]

Before the upgrade process began, starting and stopping apache wasn't a problem. The problem is that I couldn't complete the update to Feisty using update-manager because of some problems. I eventually figured out that if I deleted some of the apache configuration files relating to php5 then the update process did work.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

@dAniel hAhler: Thanks for this suggestions, but this is really a bug in the package. it should be able to deal with the upgrade without having to special case it.

[Daniel Hahler (blueyed)]

Manually stopping of Apache was meant to help in debugging this - e.g. where/how does it fail?
Does it only fail, because Apache is not running and some dpkg-script does not handle it correctly?

IMHO the bug title is misleading: PHP5 does not cause breaking this - but apache2-common from edgy (according to bug #88210).
The PHP error then also results from a broken Apache setup, doesn't it?

[Tollef Fog Heen (tfheen)]

This has to be worked around in update-manager

[Tollef Fog Heen (tfheen)]

This is a bug in php5 for not depending on apache2-common; rejecting, will have to be worked around in update-manager.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Here is a summary of our irc discussion:

<mvo> Mithrandir: is that the workaround you recommend: "rm -f /var/lib/dpkg/info/apache2-common.postrm." ?
<Mithrandir> mvo: no, the workaround is to remove php[45] before upgrading apache.
<mvo> Mithrandir: so before the actual upgrade, remove php[45], upgrade, reinstall php[45]?
<Mithrandir> mvo: that ought to work, yes.
<mvo> Mithrandir: thats very evil and has the potential to screw up quite badly within the apt cache. is that really the only way?
 _ion: no
<Mithrandir> mvo: the problem is php[45] depends on apache2-common's ABI without declaring that.
[..]
<Mithrandir> mvo: the problem here is a missing dependency, you could, maybe, possibly work around it by first stopping apache2, then removing the prerm and postrm then upgrade, but you would need to test this properly.
<mvo> Mithrandir: the missing dependency is not a package dependency but the ABI dependency that you talked about earlier? (sorry, I'm not familiar with php/apache packages
<Mithrandir> mvo: no. libapache2-mod-php5 in edgy depends (as in, an ABI dependency) on apache2-common, but fails to declare that Depend on apache2-common, the package. This is a bug. libpache2-mod-php5 in feisty depends and Depends on apache2.2-common.
<Mithrandir> mvo: if you upgrade libapache2-mod-php5 without first upgrading apache2-common, it will fall over. If you first install apache2.2-common without removing libapache2-mod-php5, the upgrade falls over.
<mvo> Mithrandir: I seem to be unable to reproduce the apache/php upgrade issue here in a chroot or in vmware. even with the same ordering it seems (http://paste.ubuntu-nl.org/12909). is there more to do to reproduce the issue?
<Mithrandir> mvo: from memory, something like: debootstrap an edgy chroot. Install apache2 + libapache2-mod-php5. download the relevant binaries from feisty, run dpkg -i on them; it ought to blow up. If not, try installing just apache2.2-common and apache2-mpm-prefork from feisty.
 mvo: it might work by accident.

I can not reproduce it here yet. Even with unpack/configure patterns that look very similar to the one in the bugreports.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

For the records, I tried installing "apache2 php5 libapache2-mod-php5" in a clean edgy chroot and then upgraded with that to feisty. I got now crash.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

That should read: "I got no crash". I also did that in a vmware environment.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Soren Hansen was so kind to give me instruction how to reproduce the problem reliably:

1. Do a clean Edgy install (I used ubuntu server, but whatever rocks
   your boat..)
2. Install libapache2-mod-php5 (pulls in apache as well)
3. stop apache (*very* important step as it turns out)
4. sed -i -e s/edgy/feisty/ /etc/apt/sources.list
5. apt-get update ; apt-get install libapache2-mod-php5

The problem is:
* php5 gets installed
* apache2 upgrade fails, because prerm tries to stop it (failing because
  it's already stopped)
* Any subsequent attempts at doing anything with Apache fails, because
  php5 has been upgraded breaking API compatibility with apache2 (2.0)).

I can reproduce it now too.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

It seems to me the safest approach here is for update-manager to:
* check if apache2-common is installed
* if so, stop it and remove /var/lib/dpkg/info/apache2-common-prerm (it contains only the DEBHELPER stop magic)

This has minimal other implications.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Implemented my last suggestion in bzr.

[calenti (calenti)]

Issue for my upgrade attempt was the first line in Apache 2's module list. After the upgrade failed I couldn't even start apache2 from sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 start.

I commented out the PHP reference in the apache module list and was able to start apache. I am now retrying the dist-upgrade using apitude per the FeistyUpgrade section of help.ubuntu.com.