GDebi hangs when dpkg backend prompts for input (needs timeout + urgency hint)

[Donald Straney]

Binary package hint: gdebi

I upgraded an installed package from a .deb file by installing it with GDebi, but since I had changed one of the configuration files included in the old package, I could see a prompt from dpkg in the status window of the installer to overwrite the file, skip it, etc. before continuing. Since GDebi didn't seem to provide any input to dpkg, it hung and I had to kill both processes manually. I can't be sure, but I'd assume it would do this with any other prompt from dpkg. It would help if it could somehow detect a prompt (maybe by searching for a certain string in the output, or something else less hack-ish) from dpkg and show a dialog with the appropriate options. I'm using GDebi version 0.1.6ubuntu1 - hope this helps.

[Chris Moore (dooglus)]

I think I just experienced the same bug in feisty.

I tried installing http://www.virtualbox.org/download/1.3.8/VirtualBox_1.3.8_Ubuntu_feisty_i386.deb and it seemed to be taking a very long time to install. The gdebi window was still animated - the orange progress indicator moving back and forth as if it was doing something (see first attachment)...

[Chris Moore (dooglus)]

... however, when I expanded the 'terminal' widget, I could see that it wasn't doing anything other than waiting for me to agree to a license (see second attachment).

It would be a lot better if gdebi was able to automatically show the terminal when user input is required.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Thanks for your bugreport.

This should be much better with the gutsy 0.2.5 version that will setup the environment correctly so that the gnome debconf frontend is used.
There is still a timeout for the terminal expansion required, I will look into that.

Cheers,
 Michael

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

This is fixed in the current version of gdebi in intrepid.