Could not determine the upgrade

Bug #1998086 reported by Marc Girod
6
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
ubuntu-release-upgrader (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

The upgrade failed with the following popup:

Could not determine the upgrade

An unresolvable problem occurred while calculating the upgrade.

 This was likely caused by:
 * Unofficial software packages not provided by Ubuntu
Please use the tool 'ppa-purge' from the ppa-purge
package to remove software from a Launchpad PPA and
try the upgrade again.

If none of this applies, then please report this bug using the command 'ubuntu-bug ubuntu-release-upgrader-core' in a terminal. If you want to investigate this yourself the log files in '/var/log/dist-upgrade' will contain details about the upgrade. Specifically, look at 'main.log' and 'apt.log'.

---
I don't know/understand what arguments I should give to 'sudo ppa-purge'.
main.log has DEBUG and INFO messages, ending up with one WARNING.
apt.log complains about multiple (158) broken packages.
(15 unique 'Breaks on', 5 'Conflicts on', 71 'Depends on')

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: ubuntu-release-upgrader-core 1:20.04.39
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-132.148-generic 5.4.212
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-132-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.24
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CrashDB: ubuntu
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Mon Nov 28 08:44:05 2022
DistributionChannelDescriptor:
 # This is the distribution channel descriptor for the OEM CDs
 # For more information see http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DistributionChannelDescriptor
 canonical-oem-somerville-bionic-amd64-20180608-47+italia-whl+X31
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-03-13 (1356 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04 "Bionic" - Build amd64 LIVE Binary 20180608-09:38
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: ubuntu-release-upgrader
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to focal on 2022-11-28 (0 days ago)
VarLogDistupgradeTermlog:

Revision history for this message
Marc Girod (marc-girod) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Nick Rosbrook (enr0n) wrote :

Reviewing the files from your upgrade attempt, you have installed packages from the deadsnakes PPA. Some of the packages installed are newer than those in the official archive, which is keeping some python packages installed which then prevents the upgrade from being calculated. Please try using the ppa-purge tool to remove packages installed from ppa:deadsnakes/ppa. After that you can try upgrading again and if it still fails open a new bug report. Thanks and good luck!

Changed in ubuntu-release-upgrader (Ubuntu):
status: New → Invalid
tags: added: deadsnakes-ppa
Revision history for this message
Nick Rosbrook (enr0n) wrote :

This should work:

$ ppa-purge ppa:deadsnakes/ppa

Then try the upgrade again.

Revision history for this message
Marc Girod (marc-girod) wrote :

Same problem again...

Could not determine the upgrade

An unresolvable problem occurred while calculating the upgrade.

 This was likely caused by:
 * Unofficial software packages not provided by Ubuntu
Please use the tool 'ppa-purge' from the ppa-purge
package to remove software from a Launchpad PPA and
try the upgrade again.

If none of this applies, then please report this bug using the command 'ubuntu-bug ubuntu-release-upgrader-core' in a terminal. If you want to investigate this yourself the log files in '/var/log/dist-upgrade' will contain details about the upgrade. Specifically, look at 'main.log' and 'apt.log'.

---
I did of course run as instructed:
~> sudo ppa-purge ppa:deadsnakes/ppa
Updating packages lists
PPA to be removed: deadsnakes ppa
Warning: Could not find package list for PPA: deadsnakes ppa
~> sudo apt update
...
~> sudo apt upgrade
...

Revision history for this message
Nick Rosbrook (enr0n) wrote :

It doesn't look like the ppa-purge command worked. Try purging the python version installed from deadsnakes:

$ apt purge python3.8

In any case, the solution is to remove all packages that were install from that PPA (even though the PPA source list has been removed already).

Revision history for this message
Marc Girod (marc-girod) wrote (last edit ):

Large effects: lost the software updater and firefox...
Reinstalled firefox to continue
'Software updater' is not found

tmp> sudo do-release-upgrade
sudo: do-release-upgrade: command not found
tmp> type python
python is /usr/bin/python
tmp> python -V
Python 2.7.18
tmp> python3 -V
Python 3.8.10

Revision history for this message
Marc Girod (marc-girod) wrote : Re: [Bug 1998086] Re: Could not determine the upgrade

Hello,

Now the laptop is locked, and the login dialog doesn't let me enter my
password. It flashes: 'Authentication error' until times out, asking to
click or press a key to unlock.

Marc

On Thu, 1 Dec 2022, 20:10 Nick Rosbrook, <email address hidden> wrote:

> *** This bug is a duplicate of bug 1970018 ***
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1970018
>
> It doesn't look like the ppa-purge command worked. Try purging the
> python version installed from deadsnakes:
>
> $ apt purge python3.8
>
> In any case, the solution is to remove all packages that were install
> from that PPA (even though the PPA source list has been removed
> already).
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1998086
>
> Title:
> Could not determine the upgrade
>
> Status in ubuntu-release-upgrader package in Ubuntu:
> Invalid
>
> Bug description:
> The upgrade failed with the following popup:
>
> Could not determine the upgrade
>
> An unresolvable problem occurred while calculating the upgrade.
>
> This was likely caused by:
> * Unofficial software packages not provided by Ubuntu
> Please use the tool 'ppa-purge' from the ppa-purge
> package to remove software from a Launchpad PPA and
> try the upgrade again.
>
> If none of this applies, then please report this bug using the command
> 'ubuntu-bug ubuntu-release-upgrader-core' in a terminal. If you want
> to investigate this yourself the log files in '/var/log/dist-upgrade'
> will contain details about the upgrade. Specifically, look at
> 'main.log' and 'apt.log'.
>
> ---
> I don't know/understand what arguments I should give to 'sudo ppa-purge'.
> main.log has DEBUG and INFO messages, ending up with one WARNING.
> apt.log complains about multiple (158) broken packages.
> (15 unique 'Breaks on', 5 'Conflicts on', 71 'Depends on')
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
> Package: ubuntu-release-upgrader-core 1:20.04.39
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-132.148-generic 5.4.212
> Uname: Linux 5.4.0-132-generic x86_64
> ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.24
> Architecture: amd64
> CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
> CrashDB: ubuntu
> CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
> Date: Mon Nov 28 08:44:05 2022
> DistributionChannelDescriptor:
> # This is the distribution channel descriptor for the OEM CDs
> # For more information see
> http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DistributionChannelDescriptor
> canonical-oem-somerville-bionic-amd64-20180608-47+italia-whl+X31
> InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-03-13 (1356 days ago)
> InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04 "Bionic" - Build amd64 LIVE Binary
> 20180608-09:38
> PackageArchitecture: all
> ProcEnviron:
> TERM=xterm-256color
> PATH=(custom, no user)
> XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
> LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> SourcePackage: ubuntu-release-upgrader
> UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to focal on 2022-11-28 (0 days ago)
> VarLogDistupgradeTermlog:
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-release-upgrader/+bug/1998086/+subscriptions
>
>

Revision history for this message
Marc Girod (marc-girod) wrote :

I do not think the 'duplicate' status is wrong.
Only at thins point, my case has diverged from the original report.

The laptop doesn't obey hard shutdown.
From the Power Off/Logout Menu, it offers only Suspend.

[ I am now obviously on another box ]

Revision history for this message
Marc Girod (marc-girod) wrote :

Sorry, it did shutdown eventually.

Revision history for this message
Marc Girod (marc-girod) wrote :

Reboot:

UBUNTU: Recovering journal
...
Clearing orphaned inode xxx (uid=0, gid=0, mode=0100644, size=xxx)
[... multiple such lines (one screenfull):
   different inode and size, sometimes the mode, ocasionally the uid/gid: 1001/001 ]
...
/scripts/init-bottom/plymouth: line 18: /bin/plymouth: not founde=0100664, size=210118)01)

Revision history for this message
Nick Rosbrook (enr0n) wrote (last edit ):

Crap, I meant python3.10 not python3.8. Can you still login to a non-graphical TTY? If so, run apt install ubuntu-desktop-minimal to restore those packages.

Revision history for this message
Marc Girod (marc-girod) wrote :

No. I need to interrupt the boot, and try as single user, or something similar.
For the moment the box doesn't reboot, and gets stuck to the situation I described.

I'd be happy to follow instructions...

Revision history for this message
Nick Rosbrook (enr0n) wrote :

You can try recovery mode: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RecoveryMode.

Revision history for this message
Marc Girod (marc-girod) wrote :

Pressing the Power button (briefly) in the situation last described yield a new familiar text display (normal shutdown), and did shut down.

Reboot gave only:

/scripts/init-premount/plymouth: line 36: /sbin/plymouthd: not found
/scripts/init-premount/plymouth: line 37: /sbin/plymouth: not found
UBUNTU: clean, 1521728/30883840 files, 21316398/123523840 blocks
/scripts/init-bottom/plymouth: line 18: /bin/plymouth: not found

Shudown/reboot

[again shutdown familiar: Stopped Mozilla, ...
no response from codec...
ps mouse serial failed to disable mouse...]

Waited until I saw the Dell logo to press and hold the shift key (#2 / #3 in the instructions), but no GRUB menu.

Next, didn't wait: pressed while the screen was still black/empty.
Same result as described above (4 lines)

I don't know whether I have the UEFI enabled. Assuming yes, and trying the Escape key next.

Yes!
GNU GRUB version2.04
Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported [...]

grub>

[TAB]
Possible commands are:

. [ acpi all_functional_test appleloader ... zfskey]
grub>

Revision history for this message
Marc Girod (marc-girod) wrote :

g [TAB] yields only gettext and gptsync
m [TAB] yields 8 completions among which menuentry

Revision history for this message
Marc Girod (marc-girod) wrote :

In fact, not very promising...

grub> linux /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1
error: file /vmlinuz not found.
grub> ls
(proc) (hd0) (hd0,gpt3) (hd0,gpt2) (hd0,gpt1)
grub> search --set=root --file /vmlinuz
error: no such device /vmlinuz.
grub> search --set=root --file /initrd
error: no such device /initrd.

What next? Reinstall from CD?

Revision history for this message
Marc Girod (marc-girod) wrote :

OK, better from a USB key.
Investigating next whether to start from the BIOS (F2) or the grub command line (Esc).
And what to do next: partition the disk to mount /home, test and later get rid of the old part; or try to fix the issue, and start from there.

Revision history for this message
Marc Girod (marc-girod) wrote :

OK. Fixed the old image (re-installed python3.8, plymouth, ubuntu-dektop, ...) and upgraded.
OK

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