package cracklib-runtime 2.9.2-3 failed to install/upgrade: dependency problems - leaving triggers unprocessed

[Markus Birth]

[Impact]
Upgrading cracklib-runtime is not working for some systems due to trigger cycles. This is making distribution upgrades challenging.

[Test Case]
While we haven't been able to replicate this directly the following tests will confirm that there are no regressions.

Test A
------
1) Install cracklib-runtime from -proposed.
2) Reinstall dictionaries-common and verify that the trigger is called

Test B
------
1) With the version of cracklib-runtime from -proposed installed, confirm that a distribution upgrade to next supported release succeeds.

Test C
------
1) Test a release upgrade from an affected release (Trusty, Xenial) to the next supported release (Xenial, Zesty) with -proposed enabled. To do this upgrade you'll need to edit /etc/apt/sources.list to the target release and run 'sudo apt-get dist-upgrade' as ubuntu-release-upgrader will disable -proposed.

[Regression Potential]
It's possible that upgrades will break hence all the regression tests in the Test Case.

Original Description
--------------------
This seems to be the same problem as described in bug #1636262, only this time it happened during upgrade from 16.10 to 17.04. The setup process (do-release-upgrade -d) aborted and I had to finish it manually.

ProblemType: PackageDistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.04
Package: cracklib-runtime 2.9.2-3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.10.0-19.21-generic 4.10.8
Uname: Linux 4.10.0-19-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.4-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sun Apr 9 17:09:37 2017
ErrorMessage: dependency problems - leaving triggers unprocessed
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-07-26 (257 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160719)
RelatedPackageVersions:
 dpkg 1.18.10ubuntu1
 apt 1.4SourcePackage: cracklib2
Title: package cracklib-runtime 2.9.2-3 failed to install/upgrade: dependency problems - leaving triggers unprocessed
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to zesty on 2017-04-09 (0 days ago)

[Ubuntu QA Website (ubuntuqa)]

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/1681231

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

With the information included in the bug report it is hard to tell what went wrong. Could you please add the log file /var/log/dist-upgrade/apt-term.log to your bug report? Thanks in advance.

[Markus Birth (mbirth)]

The error message is:

    Preparing to unpack .../bash_4.4-2ubuntu1_amd64.deb ...
    Unpacking bash (4.4-2ubuntu1) over (4.3-15ubuntu1) ...
    Processing triggers for plymouth-theme-ubuntu-text (0.9.2-3ubuntu15) ...
    update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
    dpkg: dependency problems prevent processing triggers for cracklib-runtime:
     cracklib-runtime depends on file; however:
      Package file is not configured yet.

    dpkg: error processing package cracklib-runtime (--configure):
     dependency problems - leaving triggers unprocessed

And then that error about the dependency problem with cracklib-runtime repeats over and over until it aborts because of "too many errors".

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

It looks to me like the file package was never configured, from apt-term.log with line numbers:

 888 Preparing to unpack .../19-file_1%3a5.29-3_amd64.deb ...^M
 889 Unpacking file (1:5.29-3) over (1:5.28-2ubuntu1) ...^M

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[aleandro (aleandrodasilva)]

I add my apt-term.log file.

[Umberto Lovadina (lova84)]

i'm adding mine as well. please tell me if you need anything else

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

This was fixed in cracklib2 2.9.2-4, this needs to be synced and SRUed:

 cracklib2 (2.9.2-4) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   * Migrate triggers to interest-noawait to avoid trigger-cycles (Closes:
     #859307)

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

Fixed in 2.9.2-4

 cracklib2 (2.9.2-4) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   * Migrate triggers to interest-noawait to avoid trigger-cycles (Closes:
     #859307)

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

So, we've seen this on yakkety and zesty from what I can tell, but it likely also affects earlier versions. I plan to basically SRU -4 to yakkety and zesty, but I'd like to get some more information for the xenial and trusty, as that's a bit more involved (especially the latter).

There are also two missing security related uploads in -2 and -3 that are not in xenial's -1build2.

[Bill Pier (bpier-a)]

Uhm, so how to clean continue 17.04 install???

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

@bill - you might try 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' and see if that resolves the situation.

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

(rewording from IRC:) Apparently this needs to go in via security, as the upgrade would not automatically enable -updates, and we really need this picked up. Since I can't do security stuff, it'd be best if someone who can handles the updates.

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

OK, so the problem is that the triggers for the old package could be triggered, and that apparently needs some Breaks magic

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=854554#62

[roger warrenmortrest (rogsyl)]

Where do I go from here

[Ross Gammon (rosco2)]

Affects me too. To answer Brian's question in #15, "sudo dpkg --configure -a" did not show (or do) anything for me, instead there was only a message that emacs24 is left unconfigured. I will check for a bug for that in a tick.

[Ross Gammon (rosco2)]

Just an update for my upgrade. I can't remember exactly what happened now. But I think that I looked into the emacs issue, and then did something like "apt-get --fix-broken" or "apt-get --fix-missing". And once the emacs problem was fixed, I could "apt-get upgrade" & "dist-upgrade" to continue the upgrade, and the upgrade completed fine.

Sorry about the vagueness, but I thought I would report back that it is no longer a problem for me.

[Mieszko Piast (mieszko1st-deactivatedaccount)]

I have got this bug when upgrading from Ubuntu 17.04 to 17.10. The upgrade process stops, and the popup with info dependency problems - leaving triggers unprocessed cannot be closed.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Hello Markus, or anyone else affected,

Accepted cracklib2 into zesty-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cracklib2/2.9.2-3ubuntu1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed.Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested and change the tag from verification-needed-zesty to verification-done-zesty. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-zesty. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Hello Markus, or anyone else affected,

Accepted cracklib2 into xenial-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cracklib2/2.9.2-1ubuntu1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed.Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested and change the tag from verification-needed-xenial to verification-done-xenial. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-xenial. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

On an Ubuntu 17.04 system I installed the version of cracklib-runtime from -proposed and performed the following tests:

Test A
------
1) Install cracklib-runtime from -proposed.
2) Reinstall dictionaries-common and verify that the trigger is called

Test B
------
1) With the version of cracklib-runtime from -proposed installed, confirm that a distribution upgrade to next supported release succeeds.

Both of them succeeded.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

On an Ubuntu 16.04 system I edited my sources.list file to have -proposed enabled and modify all xenial entries to zesty. After which I ran 'sudo apt-get dist-upgrade' and successfully upgraded to Ubuntu 17.04 with -proposed enabled and the new version of cracklib-runtime being installed.

bdmurray@clean-xenial-amd64:~$ apt-cache policy cracklib-runtime
cracklib-runtime:
  Installed: 2.9.2-3ubuntu1
  Candidate: 2.9.2-3ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 2.9.2-3ubuntu1 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty-proposed/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2.9.2-3 500
        500 http://192.168.10.7/ubuntu zesty/main amd64 Packages

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package cracklib2 - 2.9.2-3ubuntu1

---------------
cracklib2 (2.9.2-3ubuntu1) zesty; urgency=medium

  * Migrate triggers to interest-noawait to avoid trigger-cycles (Closes:
    #859307, LP: #1681231)

 -- Brian Murray <email address hidden> Fri, 20 Oct 2017 16:52:55 -0700

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

The verification of the Stable Release Update for cracklib2 has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

On an Ubuntu 16.04 system I installed the version of cracklib-runtime from -proposed and performed the following tests:

Test A
------
1) Install cracklib-runtime from -proposed.
2) Reinstall dictionaries-common and verify that the trigger is called

Test B
------
1) With the version of cracklib-runtime from -proposed installed, confirm that a distribution upgrade to next supported release succeeds.

Both of them succeeded. The apt-term.log of the distribution upgrade:
Preparing to unpack .../cracklib-runtime_2.9.2-3_amd64.deb ...^M
Unpacking cracklib-runtime (2.9.2-3) over (2.9.2-1ubuntu1) ...^M

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

On an Ubuntu 14.04 system I edited my sources.list file to have -proposed enabled and modified all trusty entries to xenial. After which I ran 'sudo apt-get dist-upgrade' and successfully upgraded to Ubuntu 16.04 with -proposed enabled and the new version of cracklib-runtime being installed.

From /var/log/apt-term.log:

Preparing to unpack .../cracklib-runtime_2.9.2-1ubuntu1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking cracklib-runtime (2.9.2-1ubuntu1) over (2.9.1-1build1) ...
Setting up cracklib-runtime (2.9.2-1ubuntu1) ...

Setting to v-done for xenial.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package cracklib2 - 2.9.2-1ubuntu1

---------------
cracklib2 (2.9.2-1ubuntu1) xenial; urgency=medium

  * Migrate triggers to interest-noawait to avoid trigger-cycles (Closes:
    #859307, LP: #1681231)

 -- Brian Murray <email address hidden> Fri, 20 Oct 2017 17:07:36 -0700