package colord 0.1.16-2 failed to install/upgrade: ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1

[Alain Rihs]

[Impact]
Upgrades from 11.10 to 12.04 fail indicating "exit status 1" from installing/upgrading colord.

[Discussion]
/var/lib/dpkg/info/colord.postinst does not produce helpful error messages even if run manually. But the script is trying to run this command:

  addgroup --quiet --system scanner

Running it without the --quiet option reveals the error:

  sudo addgroup --system scanner
  addgroup: The group `scanner' already exists and is not a system group. Exiting.

So there's the problem: the group is already there but is not a system group. Taking a look at the group I see:

$ grep scanner /etc/group
scanner:x:1001:colord

Indeed it is not a system group, and it only seems to be used by colord.

[Test Case]
1. Install Ubuntu 11.10
2. ???
3. Upgrade to Ubuntu 12.04

Expected: Successful upgrade with no errors
Actual: Upgrade hits this error - "package colord 0.1.16-2 failed to install/upgrade: ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1"

[Workaround]
  sudo delgroup scanner
  sudo apt-get install -f

[Original Report]
No idea. The installation was going on and suddenly this message appears.

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: colord 0.1.16-2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-24.37-generic-pae 3.2.14
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-24-generic-pae i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu6
Architecture: i386
Date: Fri Apr 27 18:46:43 2012
ErrorMessage: ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release i386 (20110427.1)
SourcePackage: colord
Title: package colord 0.1.16-2 failed to install/upgrade: ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-04-27 (0 days ago)

[Jason Sankey (jsankey)]

Solution:
$ sudo delgroup scanner
$ sudo apt-get install colord

Details:
I'm seeing the same problem after upgrading to 12.04. There is no helpful output from the post install script (/var/lib/dpkg/info/colord.postinst) even if you run it manually. Taking a look inside, the first command is:

addgroup --quiet --system scanner

which fails with no output (thanks to --quiet). Running without --quiet gives:

$ sudo addgroup --system scanner
addgroup: The group `scanner' already exists and is not a system group. Exiting.

So there's the problem: the group is already there but is not a system group. Taking a look at the group I see:

$ grep scanner /etc/group
scanner:x:1001:colord

Indeed it is not a system group, and it only seems to be used by colord. So I took the liberty of removing it:

$ sudo delgroup scanner
Removing group `scanner' ...
Done.

Then reinstalling colord:

$ sudo apt-get install colord
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
colord is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
Setting up colord (0.1.16-2) ...
$

And viola, the problem is solved.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[ludo33200 (ludo-cheron)]

I Have the same bug
Will try previous solution later
Since i've upgraded 11.11->12.04 i no longer can launch/use any application, neither shutdown nor disconnect !
Hope this will correct this bug

System also says me "Failure to download extra dataFileNames-ar.UTF8 (other referenced bug)"
No relation ?

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

I was able to reproduce this bug by doing an oneiric->precise upgrade.

Errors were encountered while processing:
 colord
Error in function:

A fatal error occurred

Please report this as a bug and include the files
/var/log/dist-upgrade/main.log and /var/log/dist-upgrade/apt.log in
your report. The upgrade has aborted.

Can also confirm comment #2 solution:

# delgroup scanner
# apt-get install -f
...
Setting up colord (0.1.16-2) ...

Completed upgrade successfully.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

From one of the dupes, a different workaround:

"""
Happened after 11.10 --> 12.04 upgrade, in relation to configuring MythTV. This fixed it for now, don't know what will happen when colord needs to be reconfigured. (From http://wilkiecat.wordpress.com/2012/04/28/colord-error-after-installing-ubuntu-12-04/)
<code>
 sudo ldconfig
 sudo dpkg -r colord
 sudo apt-get check
 sudo apt-get update
 sudo apt-get upgrade --fix-missing
sudo dpkg --configure colord
</code>
"""

[Didier Roche-Tolomelli (didrocks)]

Removing rls-q-incoming as it's not a quantal update and we want it to show on the precise report.

Assigning that to Chris as he's our colord expert :)

[Berend De Schouwer (berend-de-schouwer)]

Still happens with 12.04 -> 12.10

[montio (montio)]

Hello Berend,

thank you for your hint with the scanner group.

I have deleted the scanner group and reinstalled colord and I had no
trouble anymore.
Also after updating from Kubuntu 12.04 -> 12.10 I had no problems.

Once again, thank you.

Bye Martin

[Chris Halse Rogers (raof)]

Ah, I think I see what's happening here. I should be able to fix this soon.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package colord - 0.1.30-0ubuntu2

---------------
colord (0.1.30-0ubuntu2) raring; urgency=low

  * Tighten libgusb build-dep to >= 0.1.5 to ensure gobject-introspection
    support
 -- Christopher James Halse Rogers <email address hidden> Sun, 03 Mar 2013 08:16:11 +1100