Ryan,

Thanks for looking into this.
Yes, the machine in question has been running for many years, might even have started with a non LTS ubuntu before 12.04.
Attached you can find my current copy. It’s a bit weird that it’s not replaced when upgrading to the 12.04 version of ntp package ..




/n


> On 04 Aug 2015, at 21:01, Ryan Harper <email address hidden> wrote:
> 
> I booted a precise server image:
> 
> ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ cat /etc/issue
> Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS \n \l
> 
> ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ uname -a
> Linux ubuntu 3.2.0-88-virtual #126-Ubuntu SMP Mon Jul 6 21:50:59 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
> 
> Installed ntp:
> 
> % sudo apt-get install ntp
> ...
> http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main ntp amd64 1:4.2.6.p3+dfsg-1ubuntu3.4
> 
> ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ grep ntp /etc/group
> ntp:x:112:
> 
> Then do-release-upgrade to move to 14.04 with no issues.
> 
> Examining the postinst scripts in current precise ( ), and various
> trusty versions of the ntp package, the script is always idempotent
> w.r.t adding the ntp group.  It's not clear to me which version of the
> ntp package had a post-inst script that wasn't idempotent.  Getting a
> copy of the ntp.postinst script that is failing would be most useful.
> 
> One workaround to the dist-upgrade issue is to apt-get remove --purge
> ntp (which will run the postrm hook to remove the ntp group) prior to
> upgrading.
> 
> ** Changed in: ntp (Ubuntu)
>       Status: New => Incomplete
> 
> ** Changed in: ntp (Ubuntu)
>     Assignee: Ryan Harper (raharper) => (unassigned)
> 
> -- 
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1372051
> 
> Title:
>  ntp postinst user/group add commands are not idempotent
> 
> Status in ntp package in Ubuntu:
>  Incomplete
> 
> Bug description:
>  At do release upgrade from 12.04.05 to 14.04.01, the ntp package failed:
>  Errors were encountered while processing:
>   ntp
>  Error in function: 
> 
> 
>  A fatal error occurred 
> 
>  Please report this as a bug and include the files 
>  /var/log/dist-upgrade/main.log and /var/log/dist-upgrade/apt.log in 
>  your report. The upgrade has aborted. 
>  Your original sources.list was saved in 
>  /etc/apt/sources.list.distUpgrade. 
> 
>  SystemError: E:Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
> 
> 
>  Could not install the upgrades
> 
>  The upgrade has aborted. Your system could be in an unusable state. A 
>  recovery will run now (dpkg --configure -a). 
> 
>  Please report this bug in a browser at 
>  http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-release-upgrader/+filebug 
>  and attach the files in /var/log/dist-upgrade/ to the bug report. 
>  installArchives() failed 
> 
>  Setting up ntp (1:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2) ...
>  dpkg: error processing package ntp (--configure):
>   subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
>  Errors were encountered while processing:
>   ntp
> 
>  Upgrade complete
> 
>  The upgrade has completed but there were errors during the upgrade 
>  process. 
> 
> 
>  In /var/lib/dpkg/info/ntp.postinst the add group / adduser commands fail due to already existing group / user.
>  Appended “ || /bin/true” to those lines, and “dpkg —configure ntp” succeeded.
> 
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ntp/+bug/1372051/+subscriptions