I have just hit this problem upgrading from hardy 8.04 to lucid 10.04, so you don't need to go back as far as dapper to see it. I now have a partially upgraded system, and a
aptitude safe-upgrade
gives
Preconfiguring packages ...
tar: ./postinst: Cannot utime: Bad file descriptor
tar: ./preinst: Cannot utime: Bad file descriptor
tar: ./prerm: Cannot utime: Bad file descriptor
tar: ./postrm: Cannot utime: Bad file descriptor
tar: ./conffiles: Cannot utime: Bad file descriptor
tar: ./md5sums: Cannot utime: Bad file descriptor
tar: ./control: Cannot utime: Bad file descriptor
tar: .: Cannot utime: Bad file descriptor
tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors
dpkg-deb: subprocess tar returned error exit status 2
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/bash_4.1-2ubuntu3_i386.deb (--unpack):
subprocess dpkg-deb --control returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/bash_4.1-2ubuntu3_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
Tar version is 1.22-2, and /bin/tar is the same as the binary on another working 10.04.1 system
gnulib is not installed - same as on another working 10.04.1 system
I have just hit this problem upgrading from hardy 8.04 to lucid 10.04, so you don't need to go back as far as dapper to see it. I now have a partially upgraded system, and a
aptitude safe-upgrade
gives
Preconfiguring packages ... apt/archives/ bash_4. 1-2ubuntu3_ i386.deb (--unpack): apt/archives/ bash_4. 1-2ubuntu3_ i386.deb
tar: ./postinst: Cannot utime: Bad file descriptor
tar: ./preinst: Cannot utime: Bad file descriptor
tar: ./prerm: Cannot utime: Bad file descriptor
tar: ./postrm: Cannot utime: Bad file descriptor
tar: ./conffiles: Cannot utime: Bad file descriptor
tar: ./md5sums: Cannot utime: Bad file descriptor
tar: ./control: Cannot utime: Bad file descriptor
tar: .: Cannot utime: Bad file descriptor
tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors
dpkg-deb: subprocess tar returned error exit status 2
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/
subprocess dpkg-deb --control returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
Tar version is 1.22-2, and /bin/tar is the same as the binary on another working 10.04.1 system
gnulib is not installed - same as on another working 10.04.1 system
One difference is that the working system has:
> ldd `which tar`
linux- gate.so. 1 => (0x00f66000) i686/cmov/ librt.so. 1 (0x00574000) i686/cmov/ libc.so. 6 (0x00ad0000)
libpthread. so.0 => /lib/tls/ i686/cmov/ libpthread. so.0 (0x00665000)
/lib/ld- linux.so. 2 (0x007b8000)
librt.so.1 => /lib/tls/
libc.so.6 => /lib/tls/
whereas the "broken" one has:
# ldd `which tar`
linux- gate.so. 1 => (0xffffe000)
libpthread. so.0 => /lib/libpthread .so.0 (0xb7e6b000)
/lib/ld- linux.so. 2 (0x80000000)
librt.so.1 => /lib/librt.so.1 (0xb7fcc000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0xb7e83000)