package libvirt-bin 1.3.1-1ubuntu10.27 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed pre-removal script returned error exit status 2

[oldrobcat]

no idea what this ubuntu software is doing - so inscrutable. I want to go back to the v.14 I loaded and NEVER update again!

I'm only forced to use Linux to get HTML5, I will still use Win XP for everything except a modern browser.

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: libvirt-bin 1.3.1-1ubuntu10.27
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.19.0-80.88~14.04.1-generic 3.19.8-ckt22
Uname: Linux 3.19.0-80-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.19
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sat Oct 19 21:26:00 2019
DpkgTerminalLog:
 Removing libvirt-bin (1.3.1-1ubuntu10.27) ...
 /etc/init.d/libvirt-guests: 472: /etc/init.d/libvirt-guests: cannot create /var/lib/libvirt/libvirt-guests: Directory nonexistent
 invoke-rc.d: initscript libvirt-guests, action "stop" failed.
 dpkg: error processing package libvirt-bin (--remove):
  subprocess installed pre-removal script returned error exit status 2
ErrorMessage: subprocess installed pre-removal script returned error exit status 2
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-10-12 (8 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Beta amd64 (20150805)
ProcCmdline: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.19.0-80-generic root=UUID=7623b750-3009-461b-850b-987d5aa36f9c ro quiet splash
SourcePackage: libvirt
Title: package libvirt-bin 1.3.1-1ubuntu10.27 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed pre-removal script returned error exit status 2
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
modified.conffile..etc.libvirt.qemu.networks.default.xml: [modified]
mtime.conffile..etc.libvirt.qemu.networks.default.xml: 2019-10-13T10:41:48.130777

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

Hi oldrobcat,
on upgrades services are restarted and it seems when restarting this one something failed, that in turn flagged the update of that package as broken.

The path it failed on /var/lib/libvirt/libvirt-guests is odd as the line it fails on is after a safety check that checks if the path exists.

[ -f "$LISTFILE" ] && return 0
...
: >"$LISTFILE"

So the latter failing to direct output to it means that most likely in between (and there isn't happening much in between) the directory was removed?

Or the path should not exist while the script is not running, maybe a former one was aborted uncleanly?

This seems very odd, but your message from your upgrade seems to confirm just that - that it was not running smooth. Never the less, the error itself isn't clear at all, it seems some sort of local config issue to me - but with the data at hand I can't guess further what it is.

Fortunately libvirt isn't strictly required at this point, you could try to remove, upgrade all and re-install it later.

That would be like:
$ apt remove libvirt-bin libvirt-daemon
$ apt upgrade
$ apt install libvirt-bin libvirt-daemon

But in systems with odd issues due to config often there are follow on issues that most likely will affect this workaround as well.

Never the less for more help we'd need to know more, but I'm even unsure what exactly to ask.
For a start maybe:
$ dpkg --verify libvirt-bin
$ mount | grep var
Or anything else that you know might be special in that regard.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for libvirt (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]