Reinstall Ubuntu (with preserving existing data) shows error message due to "Could not get lock /target/var/cache/apt/archives/lock"

[Łukasz Zemczak]

When trying to reinstall an existing Ubuntu cosmic installation using latest 18.10 desktop images, the install shows an error dialog around the end of the installation with an "Error restoring installed applications". Looking at the syslog such a traceback can be seen:

apt_pkg.Error: E:Could not get lock /target/var/cache/apt/archives/lock - open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable), E:Unable to lock directory /target/var/cache/apt/archives/

After reproducing this on a live session, after chrooting into /target indeed any apt-get install operations result in the same lock-file error. The whole syslog of the reinstall attached to the bug.

Test case:
 * Download latest cosmic image
 * Install cosmic on the whole disk (can be on a VM)
 * (optional) Boot into the system and leave a file in the home directory (to leave a trace, just in case)
 * Reboot and install cosmic using the first option in ubiquity: Reinstall Ubuntu
 * Finish configuration

The install itself doesn't fail, but around the end of the installation process the error dialog appears. System is still bootable but left with old packages.

[paulw2u (paulw2u)]

Also seen running 'manual partitioning' test case.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[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/1798369

[Balint Reczey (rbalint)]

I installed cosmic in a KVM vm using virt-manager, then ran update-manager to update a few packages leaving the lock file behind, restarted to the installer, chose reinstall and the installer is stuck in systemd[1]: Started Cleanup of Temporary Directories.

[Łukasz Zemczak (sil2100)]

We decided this is not a release blocker as actually, what I missed mentioning earlier, this does not cause actually the installation to fail (the title was wrong). The install still finishes but at the end the user is presented with an error message that the refresh of installed applications failed. The message however does mention that everything is ok with the system just with the applications left in previous state and risk of them not working without a reinstall (or something similar). The system is bootable and still works.

Changing description to make that clear.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Is this option still presented in disco or has it been removed?

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

This option is still present in Disco and it fails in the same way.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Actually I did not see an error message regarding the log file, nor can I find one on disk, but the packages I had installed before the reinstall are no longer installed.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

eoan has reached end of life, so this bug will not be fixed for that release

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

On Ubuntu 20.04 the error message I'm seeing when trying to manually run the apt-clone command from the Ubuntu 20.04 Live CD is:

"Chrooting into /target/
dpkg: error: cannot stat pathname '/tmp/apt-dpkg-install-$TEMP' : No such file or directory"

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Digging into this a bit further the apt-clone file which ubiquity has created in /target/ubiquity-apt-clone/apt-clone-state-ubuntu.tar.gz does not actually have the packages listed in it which I'd previous installed on my system.

That being said trying to restore an apt-clone file I made before the reinstall also failed with the same "dpkg: error: cannot stat pathname".?field.comment=Digging into this a bit further the apt-clone file which ubiquity has created in /target/ubiquity-apt-clone/apt-clone-state-ubuntu.tar.gz does not actually have the packages listed in it which I'd previous installed on my system.

That being said trying to restore an apt-clone file I made before the reinstall also failed with the same "dpkg: error: cannot stat pathname".

[Ronaldo Garry Müller (ronaldogmuller)]

OK.
Thanks!
RGMüller

Em seg., 24 de ago. de 2020 às 17:40, Brian Murray <
<email address hidden>> escreveu:

> ** Tags added: restore-new-distro
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to a
> duplicate bug report (1884686).
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1798369
>
> Title:
> Reinstall Ubuntu (with preserving existing data) shows error message
> due to "Could not get lock /target/var/cache/apt/archives/lock"
>
> Status in APT:
> New
> Status in ubiquity:
> New
> Status in apt package in Ubuntu:
> Invalid
> Status in ubiquity package in Ubuntu:
> Confirmed
> Status in apt source package in Eoan:
> Invalid
> Status in ubiquity source package in Eoan:
> Won't Fix
>
> Bug description:
> When trying to reinstall an existing Ubuntu cosmic installation using
> latest 18.10 desktop images, the install shows an error dialog around
> the end of the installation with an "Error restoring installed
> applications". Looking at the syslog such a traceback can be seen:
>
> apt_pkg.Error: E:Could not get lock
> /target/var/cache/apt/archives/lock - open (11: Resource temporarily
> unavailable), E:Unable to lock directory
> /target/var/cache/apt/archives/
>
> After reproducing this on a live session, after chrooting into /target
> indeed any apt-get install operations result in the same lock-file
> error. The whole syslog of the reinstall attached to the bug.
>
> Test case:
> * Download latest cosmic image
> * Install cosmic on the whole disk (can be on a VM)
> * (optional) Boot into the system and leave a file in the home
> directory (to leave a trace, just in case)
> * Reboot and install cosmic using the first option in ubiquity:
> Reinstall Ubuntu
> * Finish configuration
>
> The install itself doesn't fail, but around the end of the
> installation process the error dialog appears. System is still
> bootable but left with old packages.
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/apt/+bug/1798369/+subscriptions
>

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

This process which reinstalls your existing applications has been removed from ubiquity as it was broken and misleading in that it frequently would not reinstall many of the applications which were installed on the system. So in the interest of providing a better user experience, by not creating expectations that would not be met, we have removed that part of the "Reinstall Ubuntu" option.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package ubiquity - 20.10.10

---------------
ubiquity (20.10.10) groovy; urgency=medium

  [ Didier Roche ]
  [ Jean-Baptiste Lallement ]
  * AD integration for GTK UI.
  * bump KDE_SESSION_VERSION to 5 to fix xdg-open on Kubuntu (LP: #1890173)

  [ Brian Murray ]
  * Do not try to keep installed software when reinstalling Ubuntu as the
    process was error prone (LP: 1152399) and did not provide a quailty
    experience. (LP: #1798369)

 -- Jean-Baptiste Lallement <email address hidden> Tue, 15 Sep 2020 17:06:15 +0200