iptables-persistent fails to install if module iptable_filter is not available

[benparker]

In my case, I'm upgrading to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS from Ubuntu 11.10. The machine is hosted at Linode who compiles the netfilter modules into their kernels.

Error occurred during do-release-upgrade and here is the same error from apt-get install iptables-persistent:

Setting up iptables-persistent (0.5.3ubuntu2) ...
dpkg: error processing iptables-persistent (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 iptables-persistent
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I traced this to /var/lib/dpkg/info/iptables-persistent.postinst and the following modprobe:
modprobe -q iptable_filter

If iptable_filter is not available as a module, modprobe returns a non-zero exit status which halts execution of the postinst script.

From "man modprobe" in the -q section:
However, it will still return with a non-zero exit status. The kernel uses this to opportunistically probe for modules which might exist using request_module.

Changing the modprobe calls to trap the errors using " || true" worked for me:
modprobe -q iptable_filter || true

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Andreas Rütten (aruetten)]

We believe that the bug is fixed in Debian version 0.5.5

[Andreas Rütten (aruetten)]

The proposed fix of debbug #679840 removes all modprobe calls from the postinst so this would makes this bug obsolete.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package iptables-persistent - 0.5.6ubuntu1

---------------
iptables-persistent (0.5.6ubuntu1) quantal; urgency=low

  * Sync on Debian (Fixes LP: #1002078)
  * fix LP: #1019857 - flushing nat table fails; Apply patch given in the bug
    by Andreas Rütten, thanks! (Closes: #683789)

iptables-persistent (0.5.6) unstable; urgency=low

  * [6b6358] Instead of checking on modules, test a working iptables more
    directly (Closes: #679840)
  * [1db63c] Remove dependency on kmod
 -- Micah Gersten <email address hidden> Thu, 23 Aug 2012 22:50:38 -0500

[Bilge (corporate)]

This bug affects me on 12.04 LTS. This bug leaves my package manager throwing errors every time I use apt-get because "1 not fully installed or removed." I don't want to remove it.

At first I received this error:
FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/3.2.13-grsec-xxxx-grs-ipv6-64/modules.dep: No such file or directory

So I ran `sudo depmod -a 3.2.13-grsec-xxxx-grs-ipv6-64`

However, I still get errors:
dpkg: error processing iptables-persistent (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 iptables-persistent
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Is an SRU is appropriate?

[Robert Pendell (shinji257)]

Can we get 0.5.6 backported to 12.04.2 LTS?

[Athir Nuaimi (athir-g)]

I would also like to see this backported to 12.04 LTS

[ouss (oussjarrouse)]

I am having the same problem on 12.04 LTS. It would be really nice if it was back-ported.