debootstrap 1.0.39ubuntu0.2 installation hangs at "Unpacking replacement debootstrap ..." phase of dpkg

[Johnny Robertson]

Created from Question #221018...

3.2.0-36-generic-pae on Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS.

The "Unpacking replacement debootstrap ..." phase of dpkg --auto-deconfigure is hanging, no CPU or I/O currently being used:

/usr/bin/dpkg --status-fd 47 --unpack --auto-deconfigure /var/cache/apt/archives/debootstrap_1.0.39ubuntu0.2_all.deb /var/cache/apt/archives/base-files_6.5ubuntu6.5_i386.deb

No lack of disk-space:

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/ubuntu-root 455G 25G 408G 6% /
udev 2.0G 4.0K 2.0G 1% /dev
tmpfs 792M 1004K 791M 1% /run
none 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock
none 2.0G 404K 2.0G 1% /run/shm
cgroup 2.0G 0 2.0G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1 248M 83M 153M 36% /boot

Here is ps aux | grep dpkg output showing dpkg-deb process marked as defunct:

root 13902 0.0 1.1 50924 47288 pts/2 Ss+ 10:16 0:00 /usr/bin/dpkg --status-fd 47 --unpack --auto-deconfigure /var/cache/apt/archives/debootstrap_1.0.39ubuntu0.2_all.deb /var/cache/apt/archives/base-files_6.5ubuntu6.5_i386.deb
root 13921 0.0 0.0 0 0 pts/2 Z+ 10:17 0:00 [dpkg-deb] <defunct>'

And here's a backtrace of the dpkg process from GDB:

Attaching to process 13902
Reading symbols from /usr/bin/dpkg...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Reading symbols from /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libselinux.so.1...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libselinux.so.1
Reading symbols from /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc.so.6...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc.so.6
Reading symbols from /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2
Reading symbols from /lib/ld-linux.so.2...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /lib/ld-linux.so.2
Reading symbols from /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnss_compat.so.2...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnss_compat.so.2
Reading symbols from /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnsl.so.1...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnsl.so.1
Reading symbols from /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnss_nis.so.2...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnss_nis.so.2
Reading symbols from /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnss_files.so.2...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnss_files.so.2
0xb774b424 in __kernel_vsyscall ()
(gdb) bt
#0 0xb774b424 in __kernel_vsyscall ()
#1 0xb764833c in close () from /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc.so.6
#2 0x0804c1fd in ?? ()
#3 0x0806a5f9 in ?? ()
#4 0x0805b2ab in ?? ()
#5 0x0804dd56 in ?? ()
#6 0x0804a3f3 in ?? ()
#7 0xb75834d3 in __libc_start_main () from /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc.so.6
#8 0x0804a4c5 in ?? ()

dpkg.log:

2013-02-04 10:17:03 upgrade debootstrap 1.0.39ubuntu0.2 1.0.39ubuntu0.2
2013-02-04 10:17:03 status half-installed debootstrap 1.0.39ubuntu0.2
2013-02-04 10:56:43 status triggers-pending man-db 2.6.1-2ubuntu1
2013-02-04 10:56:43 status half-installed debootstrap 1.0.39ubuntu0.2

lsof -p 13902

lsof: WARNING: can't stat() fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon file system /home/etepsic/.gvfs
      Output information may be incomplete.
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
dpkg 13902 root cwd DIR 252,2 4096 2 /
dpkg 13902 root rtd DIR 252,2 4096 2 /
dpkg 13902 root txt REG 252,2 252032 12846081 /usr/bin/dpkg
dpkg 13902 root mem REG 252,2 47040 25695094 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnss_files-2.15.so
dpkg 13902 root mem REG 252,2 92016 25695110 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnsl-2.15.so
dpkg 13902 root mem REG 252,2 30520 25695092 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnss_compat-2.15.so
dpkg 13902 root mem REG 252,2 8748544 12852732 /usr/lib/locale/locale-archive
dpkg 13902 root mem REG 252,2 13940 25695105 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libdl-2.15.so
dpkg 13902 root mem REG 252,2 1730024 25695090 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc-2.15.so
dpkg 13902 root mem REG 252,2 120748 25691128 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libselinux.so.1
dpkg 13902 root mem REG 252,2 26256 12855944 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/gconv/gconv-modules.cache
dpkg 13902 root mem REG 252,2 42652 25695098 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnss_nis-2.15.so
dpkg 13902 root mem REG 252,2 134344 25695102 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/ld-2.15.so
dpkg 13902 root 0u CHR 136,2 0t0 5 /dev/pts/2
dpkg 13902 root 1u CHR 136,2 0t0 5 /dev/pts/2
dpkg 13902 root 2u CHR 136,2 0t0 5 /dev/pts/2
dpkg 13902 root 3uW REG 252,2 0 25428716 /var/lib/dpkg/lock
dpkg 13902 root 4w REG 252,2 4608 25430065 /var/lib/dpkg/updates/tmp.i
dpkg 13902 root 5u REG 252,2 0 25435478 /var/lib/dpkg/triggers/Lock
dpkg 13902 root 6w REG 252,2 20567 25429224 /var/log/dpkg.log
dpkg 13902 root 7r REG 252,2 3533 25435864 /var/lib/dpkg/diversions
dpkg 13902 root 8r REG 252,2 135 25428717 /var/lib/dpkg/statoverride
dpkg 13902 root 47w FIFO 0,8 0t0 394468 pipe

I have tried uninstalling debootstrap, but dpkg reports that it cannot remove it:

# dpkg --remove debootstrap
dpkg: error processing debootstrap (--remove):
 Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should
 reinstall it before attempting a removal.
Errors were encountered while processing:
 debootstrap
I have tried uninstalling debootstrap, but dpkg reports that it cannot remove it.

[Johnny Robertson (mxedit10n)]

Even after forcing dpkg to remove debootstrap:

dpkg --force-all -r debootstrap
dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled:
 Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should
 reinstall it before attempting a removal.
(Reading database ...
dpkg: warning: files list file for package `debootstrap' missing, assuming package has no files currently installed.
(Reading database ... 253879 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing debootstrap ...

...and then trying to re-install, dpkg still hangs & leaves a <defunct> process behind.

[Johnny Robertson (mxedit10n)]

Here's a Core Dump of the running dpkg proc.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[James (jamesk447)]

I ran into this problem on Ubuntu 12.04, for some reason, while trying to "apt-get install virt-manager". After issuing this dpkg purge command with the "--force-remove-reinstreq" option, debootstrap was removed and I was able to successfully run "apt-get install virt-manager" with no complaints. Of course, virt-manager isn't actually dependent on debootstrap, so I just put this here for what it's worth. It may help if you can't install anything due to this one broken package.

james@xxxxxx:/var/log$ sudo dpkg -P --force-remove-reinstreq debootstrap
dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled:
 Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should
 reinstall it before attempting a removal.
(Reading database ...
dpkg: warning: files list file for package `debootstrap' missing, assuming package has no files currently installed.
(Reading database ... 462342 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing debootstrap ...
james@xxxxxx:/var/log$

[Ken Sharp (kennybobs)]

No updates in ten years, so assuming this is fixed.