package rkhunter 1.3.8-10 failed to install/upgrade: ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1

[Tony Green]

Failure occurred during system upgrade. I assume details have been automatically added somewhere...

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: rkhunter 1.3.8-10
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-17.30-generic 3.0.22
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-17-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu7
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Apr 30 09:07:07 2012
ErrorMessage: ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110427)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: rkhunter
Title: package rkhunter 1.3.8-10 failed to install/upgrade: ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-04-30 (0 days ago)

[Tony Green (mrzx4-c4uxxu-hwbqs)]

Now this is getting annoying.

Rknunter IS installed OK and is functioning.

But every time I install or update any other software it's throwing errors:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Errors were encountered while processing:
 rkhunter
Error in function:
SystemError: E:Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
Setting up rkhunter (1.3.8-10) ...
dpkg: error processing rkhunter (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A bit of Googling suggests "aptitude -f install", which gives:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  gnome-codec-install icc-profiles-free libaccess-bridge-java libtextcat-data
  ttf-sil-gentium
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  akonadi-backend-mysql{u} bluez-alsa:i386{u} glib-networking:i386{u}
  gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3:i386{u} gstreamer0.10-plugins-base:i386{u}
  gstreamer0.10-plugins-good:i386{u} gstreamer0.10-x:i386{u} gtk2-engines:i386{u}
  gtk2-engines-murrine:i386{u} gtk2-engines-oxygen:i386{u}
  gtk2-engines-pixbuf:i386{u} gvfs:i386{u} gvfs-libs:i386{u} ia32-libs{u}
  ia32-libs-multiarch:i386{u} ibus-gtk:i386{u} libaa1:i386{u} libaio1:i386{u}
  libao4:i386{u} libasn1-8-heimdal:i386{u} libasound2:i386{u}
  libasound2-plugins:i386{u} libasyncns0:i386{u} libatk1.0-0:i386{u}
  libaudiofile1:i386{u} libavc1394-0:i386{u} libcaca0:i386{u}
  libcairo-gobject2:i386{u} libcairo2:i386{u} libcanberra-gtk-module:i386{u}
  libcanberra-gtk0:i386{u} libcanberra0:i386{u} libcap2:i386{u} libcapi20-3:i386{u}
  libcdparanoia0:i386{u} libcroco3:i386{u} libcupsimage2:i386{u} libcurl3:i386{u}
  libdbus-glib-1-2:i386{u} libdv4:i386{u} libesd0:i386{u} libexif12:i386{u}
  libflac8:i386{u} libgail-common:i386{u} libgail18:i386{u} libgconf-2-4:i386{u}
  libgd2-xpm:i386{u} libgdbm3:i386{u} libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0:i386{u}
  libgettextpo0:i386{u} libgl1-mesa-dri:i386{u} libgl1-mesa-glx:i386{u}
  libglapi-mesa:i386{u} libglu1-mesa:i386{u} libgnome-keyring0:i386{u}
  libgomp1:i386{u} libgphoto2-2:i386{u} libgphoto2-port0:i386{u}
  libgssapi3-heimdal:i386{u} libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0:i386{u}
  libgstreamer0.10-0:i386{u} libgtk2.0-0:i386{u} libgudev-1.0-0:i386{u}
  libhcrypto4-heimdal:i386{u} libheimbase1-heimdal:i386{u}
  libheimntlm0-heimdal:i386{u} libhx509-5-heimdal:i386{u} libibus-1.0-0:i386{u}
  libidn11:i386{u} libiec61883-0:i386{u} libieee1284-3:i386{u}
  libjack-jackd2-0:i386{u} libjasper1:i386{u} libjson0:i386{u}
  libkrb5-26-heimdal:i386{u} libldap-2.4-2:i386{u} libllvm3.0:i386{u}
  libltdl7:i386{u} libmad0:i386{u} libmikmod2:i386{u} libmpg123-0:i386{u}
  libnspr4:i386{u} libnss3:i386{u} libodbc1:i386{u} libogg0:i386{u} liboil0.3:i386{u}
  libopenal1:i386{u} liborc-0.4-0:i386{u} libpango1.0-0:i386{u} libpixman-1-0:i386{u}
  libproxy1:i386{u} libpulse-mainloop-glib0:i386{u} libpulse0:i386{u}
  libpulsedsp:i386{u} libqt4-designer:i386{u} libqt4-opengl:...

[Tony Green (mrzx4-c4uxxu-hwbqs)]

Getting pissed off with getting an error message every time I install any other software, so decided to dig into this.

The bug is in line 38 of the postinst script.
-------------------------------------------------
rkhtmpdir=$(grep '^TMPDIR' /etc/rkhunter.conf | sed 's/TMPDIR=//')
-------------------------------------------------

In /etc/rkhunter.conf, the TMPDIR assignment is commented out, as is normal for all variable assignments within that file where the default is supposed to be taken.

Un-commenting the line in the config file allows the postinst script to run successfully.

I would suggest that the postinst script should be changed so that if $rkhtmpdir is null after line 38, it's assigned to the default value (/var/lib/rkhunter/tmp).

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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