Error in do-release-upgrade, invalid start byte

[Mark Tuempfel]

do-release-upgrade
Checking for a new Ubuntu release
Get:1 Upgrade tool signature [819 B]
Get:2 Upgrade tool [1.338 kB]
Fetched 1.339 kB in 0s (0 B/s)
authenticate 'groovy.tar.gz' against 'groovy.tar.gz.gpg'
extracting 'groovy.tar.gz'

Reading cache

Checking package manager
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease
Hit http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease
Hit http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease
Hit http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease
Hit https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial InRelease
Hit http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports InRelease
Fetched 0 B in 0s (0 B/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done

Checking for installed snaps

Calculating snap size requirements

Updating repository information

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/tmp/ubuntu-release-upgrader-7jgue_gd/groovy", line 8, in <module>
    sys.exit(main())
  File "/tmp/ubuntu-release-upgrader-7jgue_gd/DistUpgrade/DistUpgradeMain.py", line 238, in main
    if app.run():
  File "/tmp/ubuntu-release-upgrader-7jgue_gd/DistUpgrade/DistUpgradeController.py", line 2089, in run
    return self.fullUpgrade()
  File "/tmp/ubuntu-release-upgrader-7jgue_gd/DistUpgrade/DistUpgradeController.py", line 1932, in fullUpgrade
    if not self.updateSourcesList():
  File "/tmp/ubuntu-release-upgrader-7jgue_gd/DistUpgrade/DistUpgradeController.py", line 801, in updateSourcesList
    self.sources = SourcesList(matcherPath=self.datadir)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/aptsources/sourceslist.py", line 273, in __init__
    self.matcher = SourceEntryMatcher(matcherPath)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/aptsources/sourceslist.py", line 470, in __init__
    dist = DistInfo(base_dir=matcherPath)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/aptsources/distinfo.py", line 184, in __init__
    with open(dist_fname) as dist_file:
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/tmp/ubuntu-release-upgrader-7jgue_gd/Ubuntu.info'
Error in sys.excepthook:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/problem_report.py", line 477, in add_to_existing
    self.write(f)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/problem_report.py", line 430, in write
    block = f.read(1048576)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.8/codecs.py", line 322, in decode
    (result, consumed) = self._buffer_decode(data, self.errors, final)
UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0x8b in position 1: invalid start byte

Original exception was:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/tmp/ubuntu-release-upgrader-7jgue_gd/groovy", line 8, in <module>
    sys.exit(main())
  File "/tmp/ubuntu-release-upgrader-7jgue_gd/DistUpgrade/DistUpgradeMain.py", line 238, in main
    if app.run():
  File "/tmp/ubuntu-release-upgrader-7jgue_gd/DistUpgrade/DistUpgradeController.py", line 2089, in run
    return self.fullUpgrade()
  File "/tmp/ubuntu-release-upgrader-7jgue_gd/DistUpgrade/DistUpgradeController.py", line 1932, in fullUpgrade
    if not self.updateSourcesList():
  File "/tmp/ubuntu-release-upgrader-7jgue_gd/DistUpgrade/DistUpgradeController.py", line 801, in updateSourcesList
    self.sources = SourcesList(matcherPath=self.datadir)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/aptsources/sourceslist.py", line 273, in __init__
    self.matcher = SourceEntryMatcher(matcherPath)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/aptsources/sourceslist.py", line 470, in __init__
    dist = DistInfo(base_dir=matcherPath)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/aptsources/distinfo.py", line 184, in __init__
    with open(dist_fname) as dist_file:
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/tmp/ubuntu-release-upgrader-7jgue_gd/Ubuntu.info'

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: ubuntu-release-upgrader-core 1:20.04.28
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-52.57-generic 5.4.65
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-52-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.10
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CrashDB: ubuntu
Date: Wed Oct 28 08:08:54 2020
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-02-26 (1339 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20170215.2)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: ubuntu-release-upgrader
Symptom: ubuntu-release-upgrader
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to focal on 2020-10-28 (0 days ago)
VarLogDistupgradeAptlog:
 Log time: 2020-10-28 08:02:19.591618
 Log time: 2020-10-28 08:02:21.893284
mtime.conffile..etc.update-manager.release-upgrades: 2020-10-26T16:30:12.861944

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Retromingent (ray-rwalk2730)]

Does anyone know if the issue is script incompatibility with python3.8? I have python2.7, python3.8 and python3.9 installed and do-release-upgrade fails exactly as described in this report. Thank you.

[Retromingent (ray-rwalk2730)]

root@walkubu:~# python --version
Python 2.7.18

root@walkubu:~# python3 --version
Python 3.8.5

root@walkubu:~# which python
/usr/bin/python

root@walkubu:~# which python3
/usr/bin/python3

root@walkubu:~# do-release-upgrade
Checking for a new Ubuntu release
Get:1 Upgrade tool signature [819 B]
Get:2 Upgrade tool [1,338 kB]
Fetched 1,339 kB in 0s (0 B/s)
authenticate 'groovy.tar.gz' against 'groovy.tar.gz.gpg'
extracting 'groovy.tar.gz'

Reading cache

Checking package manager
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Hit https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu focal InRelease
Hit http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease
Hit http://apt.pop-os.org/proprietary focal InRelease
Hit http://packages.microsoft.com/repos/vscode stable InRelease
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease
Ign https://dl.bintray.com/sbt/debian InRelease
Get:1 https://dl.bintray.com/sbt/debian Release [815 B]
Ign http://linux.dropbox.com/ubuntu disco InRelease
Get:2 http://linux.dropbox.com/ubuntu disco Release [6,598 B]
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease
Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net/system76/pop/ubuntu focal InRelease
Hit http://repository.spotify.com stable InRelease ...

[Retromingent (ray-rwalk2730)]

My issue was resolved by executing "pop-upgrade release upgrade" rather than "do-release-upgrade". Additionally, I had to uninstall the gnome-initial-setup package and install pop-desktop. This is not on a System76 machine, but a custom server (Skylake generation).

User error? Should "do-release-upgrade" have worked for PopOS?

My steps that resolved this:
1. sudo apt purge gnome-initial-setup
2. sudo apt install pop-desktop
3. pop-upgrade release upgrade