timidity failed to upgrade: "Starting TiMidity++ ALSA midi emulation..." failed

[Reuben Kagan]

usual update by update notifier, this modul failes, I have 22-13 kernel version installed but use only 22-12, because of some problems with nvidia and framebuffer.

ProblemType: Package
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Oct 10 08:32:38 2007
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 7.10
ErrorMessage: subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia cdrom
Package: linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.22-14-generic 2.6.22-14.35
PackageArchitecture: amd64
SourcePackage: linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.22
Title: package linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.22-14-generic 2.6.22-14.35 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Uname: Linux pilpilon 2.6.22-12-generic #1 SMP Sun Sep 23 20:03:18 GMT 2007 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Error:
Setting up timidity (2.13.2-15ubuntu1) ...

 * Starting timidity  * Starting TiMidity++ ALSA midi emulation... 
[fail]

invoke-rc.d: initscript timidity, action "start" failed.

dpkg: error processing timidity (--configure):

 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1

[ryanb (balch-ryan)]

I am getting the same error. I am/was running the latest version of gutsy everything up until this morning. I am running an intel box with an nvidia graphics card and I receive this error running the updates this morning:

E: /var/cache/apt/archives/virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.22-14-generic_6_i386.deb: subprocess new pre-removal script returned error exit status 1

I installed my virtualbox tools using the following URL:

http://phorolinux.com/installing-virtualbox-ose-on-ubuntu-710-gutsy-gibbon.html

I did a modprobe -r to remove the vboxdrv module to see if that changed anything but it didn't. I don't know where else to go to get more details on the error.

[Daniel Hahler (blueyed)]

This appears to be a problem with timidity, not linux-ubuntu-modules, therefore I'm reassigning the package.

The postinst script of timidity probably needs to be fixed so that it does not cause failure in case it cannot start.

[Esa Turtiainen (esa-turtiainen)]

Something like this happens still in Hardy:

$ sudo apt-get install timidity
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
timidity is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Setting up timidity (2.13.2-19ubuntu1) ...
 * Starting TiMidity++ ALSA midi emulation... [fail]
invoke-rc.d: initscript timidity, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error processing timidity (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of solfege:
 solfege depends on timidity; however:
  Package timidity is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing solfege (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 timidity
 solfege
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

[Joel Montgomery (montgoja)]

I have the same problems on a fresh install of Hardy - this occurred after attempting to install Songwrite.

Code appears as follows:

sudo apt-get install songwrite
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  songwrite
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B/536kB of archives.
After this operation, 1110kB of additional disk space will be used.
Selecting previously deselected package songwrite.
(Reading database ... 120763 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking songwrite (from .../songwrite_0.14-2_all.deb) ...
Setting up timidity (2.13.2-19ubuntu1) ...
 * Starting TiMidity++ ALSA midi emulation... ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:874:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
                                                                         [fail]
invoke-rc.d: initscript timidity, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error processing timidity (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of timidity-interfaces-extra:
 timidity-interfaces-extra depends on timidity (= 2.13.2-19ubuntu1); however:
  Package timidity is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing timidity-interfaces-extra (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of songwrite:
 songwrite depends on timidity | playmidi | pmidi; however:
  Package timidity is not configured yet.
  Package playmidi is not installed.
  Package pmidi is not installed.
dpkg: error processing songwrite (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 timidity
 timidity-interfaces-extra
 songwrite
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

And now anytime I do anything with package manager, it continues to attempt to resolve the timidity issues, so I'm getting errors everytime I use synaptic.

[Franz Dietrich (franz-die)]

a workaround is to stop timidity manually:
sudo killall timidity

and afterwards run:
sudo apt-get install

then the package should finish installing cleanly and the really anoying mesages every update are gone.

For the package maintainer: The problem is that timidity simply starts itself. If it is already running(eg. on update) there is no point where the runing instance is stopped. So if you add a stop command just before the installation or right before the start command everything should without errors. I have no idea how to fix that with a patch or so but that should not be too hard to do.

greetings enaut

[Marques Johansson (marques)]

For the postinst script to work libasound2-plugins must be installed

Here is my output before installing libasound2-plugins:

Setting up timidity (2.13.2-19ubuntu1) ...
 * Starting TiMidity++ ALSA midi emulation... ALSA lib pcm.c:2104:(snd_pcm_open_conf) Cannot open shared library /usr/lib/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_pulse.so
                                                                         [fail]
invoke-rc.d: initscript timidity, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error processing timidity (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Processing triggers for menu ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 timidity
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)