apt should recommend to use apt-get clean in some error cases

[Chris Perry]

Initially I was upgrading Ubuntu using apt-get and the upgrade of smbclient failed. Im running ubuntu 12.04 (upgraded from 10.04). This is an annoying error since although I never run smbclient myself an error icon is now permanently displayed on the barat the top of my desktop: "An error occurred. Please run Package Manager ...".

Here is the output when I retry the upgrade using apt-get -f install:

The following packages will be upgraded:
  smbclient
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
39 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/14.0 MB of archives.
After this operation, 9,216 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
(Reading database ... 393766 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace smbclient 2:3.6.3-2ubuntu2.8 (using .../smbclient_2%3a3.6.3-2ubuntu2.9_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement smbclient ...
dpkg-deb (subprocess): failed to read on buffer copy for failed to write to pipe in copy: Input/output error
dpkg-deb: error: subprocess paste returned error exit status 2
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/smbclient_2%3a3.6.3-2ubuntu2.9_i386.deb (--unpack):
 short read on buffer copy for backend dpkg-deb during `./usr/bin/smbget'
No apport report written because MaxReports has already been reached
                                                                    Processing triggers for man-db ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/smbclient_2%3a3.6.3-2ubuntu2.9_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

[end of output]

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It seems that your bug report is not filed about a specific source package though, rather it is just filed against Ubuntu in general. It is important that bug reports be filed about source packages so that people interested in the package can find the bugs about it. You can find some hints about determining what package your bug might be about at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. You might also ask for help in the #ubuntu-bugs irc channel on Freenode.

To change the source package that this bug is filed about visit https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1261117/+editstatus and add the package name in the text box next to the word Package.

[This is an automated message. I apologize if it reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Chris Perry (clissold345)]

I got an automated message asking me to assign this bug to a package. The problem occurs when running update-manager (as I understand it) so that's the package Ive assigned the bug to.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

This error:

Unpacking replacement smbclient ...
dpkg-deb (subprocess): failed to read on buffer copy for failed to write to pipe in copy: Input/output error

Indicates that the package has become corrupt on disk somehow. I'd first try removing the package from the cache by using apt-get clean, and then try apt-get -f install. The fact that the package became corrupt may be indicative a problem with your hard disk or memory though.

[Chris Perry (clissold345)]

Hi Brian, thanks for your response. Yes the two commands that you suggest (apt-get clean and apt-get -f install) fix my problem. Thanks.

It was actually the output of apt-get upgrade that suggested I run apt-get -f install. Perhaps (in this situation) it should have suggested that I run both commands (apt-get clean and apt-get -f install)? Then I might have fixed the problem myself. Regards, Chris.