package ntp 1:4.2.4p6+dfsg-1ubuntu5.1 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1

[braoult]

Binary package hint: ntp

I am running Koala, and every time I make a package update (whatever
the package is), I get the following error:

   Setting up ntp (1:4.2.4p6+dfsg-1ubuntu5.1) ...
   chown: invalid group: `ntp:ntp'
   dpkg: error processing ntp (--configure):
   subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1

Interesting is:

   $ grep ntp /etc/passwd
   ntp:x:112:124::/home/ntp:/bin/false
   $ grep ntp /etc/group
   $ grep 124 /etc/group
   postdrop:x:124:

Group "ntp" does not exist. Could it be that the install script tried to create
this group with an already existing gid ("postdrop")?

ProblemType: Package
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Dec 9 07:55:44 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: ntp 1:4.2.4p6+dfsg-1ubuntu5.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-16.52-generic
SourcePackage: ntp
Title: package ntp 1:4.2.4p6+dfsg-1ubuntu5.1 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-16-generic x86_64

[Chuck Short (zulcss)]

Thanks for the bug report, as a work around for now you do the following:

sudo addgroup ntp

Ill have a look at this again for lucid.

Regards
chuck

[braoult (braoult)]

Hi Chuck,

Thanks, I don't get anymore the error after adding the group. However, the user "ntp" does not belong to this group.

Regards,

Bruno.

[Thierry Carrez (ttx)]

postinst has:

adduser --system --quiet --group --no-create-home ntp || :
chown -R ntp:ntp /var/lib/ntp /var/log/ntpstats

If adduser fails for any reason (and with "--quiet" and "|| :" it's hard to know), then chown would fail.
Can you (or any of the 9 people affected by this bug) reproduce after purging and reinstalling the package ?

sudo apt-get purge ntp
sudo apt-get install ntp

[kabsi (i41b-1aunchpad-0ut-hpgu)]

# apt-get purge ntp
# apt-get install ntp

worked for me. (ubuntu 11.10 upgrade)

Doing remove instead of purge was not enough.

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

I know it's a long time, but I'm cleaning up old NTP bugs atm.

This is actually fixed a long time ago in https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=624275
And in Ubuntu due to the merge following that (Q).

Setting fix released to properly reflect the status