package open-vm-tools-desktop 2:10.0.7-3227872-5ubuntu1~16.04.2 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess new pre-removal script returned error exit status 1

[Pablo Ernesto Vigneaux Wilton]

On start my virtual machine

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: open-vm-tools-desktop 2:10.0.7-3227872-5ubuntu1~16.04.2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-127.153-generic 4.4.128
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-127-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.18
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sat Jun 2 20:55:13 2018
ErrorMessage: subprocess new pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-04-23 (770 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160420.1)
RelatedPackageVersions:
 dpkg 1.18.4ubuntu1.4
 apt 1.2.26
SourcePackage: open-vm-tools
Title: package open-vm-tools-desktop 2:10.0.7-3227872-5ubuntu1~16.04.2 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess new pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

Thanks for filing this bug in Ubuntu.

dmesg has many lines like this:
[66571.561333] NMI watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#0 stuck for 42s! [vmtoolsd:2016]

I see you are upgrading from the old open-vm-tools that was shipped in xenial, and perhaps this is a problem with the old version.

Could you perhaps try to reboot this sytem, to get clear of the kernel BUG issues, and then try this:

sudo apt update
sudo apt -f install

See if that helps and if it can get you upgraded fully to the new open-vm-tools that was made available in xenial-updates.

Thanks!

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

Ack to all Andreas said, and it seems your jobs are misconfigured/failing before the upgrade.

From the log:
Job for run-vmblock\x2dfuse.mount failed. See "systemctl status "run-vmblock\\x2dfuse.mount"" and "journalctl -xe" for details.
Job for run-vmblock\x2dfuse.mount failed. See "systemctl status "run-vmblock\\x2dfuse.mount"" and "journalctl -xe" for details.

After the clean reboot and -f run as Andreas asked for.
If still failing could you report the ouput of.
- systemctl status "run-vmblock\\x2dfuse.mount"
- systemctl status "run-vmblock\\x2dfuse.mount"
- journalctl -xe

That might indicate why the services don't run cleanly and from there trigger this cascade leading to the upgrade issues.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for open-vm-tools (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]