daily cron script complains about packages not being installed

[Reinis Zumbergs]

1)installed as Xubuntu Oneiric Beta 1 amd64. Up to date.
2) 1.53ubuntu1
3) I expect that my daily cron does not have problems
4) Happened this:
/etc/cron.daily/popularity-contest:
Package `bcompare' is not installed.
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files,
and dpkg --contents (= dpkg-deb --contents) to list their contents.
Package `skype' is not installed.
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files,
and dpkg --contents (= dpkg-deb --contents) to list their contents.

I have them both installed in i386 architecture if that helps.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: popularity-contest 1.53ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-11.18-generic 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-11-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sun Sep 25 09:53:54 2011
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: popularity-contest
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Lupe Christoph (lupe)]

On my 11.10 x86_64:

Package `flashplugin-downloader' is not installed.
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files,
and dpkg --contents (= dpkg-deb --contents) to list their contents.
Package `ia32-libs-multiarch' is not installed.
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files,
and dpkg --contents (= dpkg-deb --contents) to list their contents.
Package `nspluginviewer' is not installed.
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files,
and dpkg --contents (= dpkg-deb --contents) to list their contents.
Package `qdbus' is not installed.
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files,
and dpkg --contents (= dpkg-deb --contents) to list their contents.

I'd say that this affects i386 packages on x86_64:

$ dpkg-query --list flashplugin-downloader qdbus
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-====================================================-====================================================-=...

[Witold Jarnicki (witoldj)]

A way to fix this is to change line 161 of /usr/sbin/popularity-contest

Old version:
open PACKAGES, "dpkg-query --show --showformat='\${status} \${package}\\n'|";

New version:
open PACKAGES, "dpkg-query --show --showformat='\${status} \${packagespec}\\n'|";

I don't know if that's the proper approach, but it seems to be working.

[Chrescht (sekateur)]

Not sure if it can help to fix it..but this is my output I'm getting:

/etc/cron.daily/popularity-contest:
Package `ia32-libs-multiarch' is not installed.
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files,
and dpkg --contents (= dpkg-deb --contents) to list their contents.
Package `libqt4-scripttools' is not installed.
Package `libqt4-test' is not installed.
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files,
and dpkg --contents (= dpkg-deb --contents) to list their contents.
Package `nspluginviewer' is not installed.
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files,
and dpkg --contents (= dpkg-deb --contents) to list their contents.
Package `qdbus' is not installed.
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files,
and dpkg --contents (= dpkg-deb --contents) to list their contents.

[Sven Berkvens-Matthijsse (sven-launchpad)]

The change proposed in comment #4 seems to work fine for me. Why has there been no further activity for this bug? Surely every amd64 desktop user that uses at least one i386/i686 compatibility package must see this this problem?

[François Marier (fmarier)]

So it looks like nobody bothered to update the package for Precise :(

I've just taken the package from Debian unstable and merged in the Ubuntu hacks. It's in my PPA:

  https://launchpad.net/~fmarier/+archive/ppa/+packages?field.name_filter=&field.status_filter=published&field.series_filter=precise

It seems to work fine.

[Janne Snabb (snabb)]

There is an easy workaround. I am adding it here for the benefit of others who are bothered by this:

# dpkg-reconfigure popularity-contest

And select "No".

(There is no point in submitting this data when nobody bothered to update this package for precise. Feels like nobody appreciates users submitting this data. Sorry about whining.)

[luca (llucax)]

Come on Ubuntu maintainers, don't be so lazy, is an easy fix! :D

[Id2ndR (id2ndr)]

I updated to popularity-contest_1.55~ppa1_all.deb from fmarier to fix the bug in precise.
Too bad that Ubuntu maintainers just aren't able to take the time to backport the fix.

[Marcus Sentry (thesentry)]

I changed line 161 as suggested by Witold and this seems to fix the issue. (Ubuntu 12.04, AMD64)