[jaunty] update manager lock file not always removed

[Peter]

latest version of software (2/7/7)..

update manager (UM) does not always remove lock file .. hence UM cannot update .. UM stops with warning about lock file ..
seems to work ok if lock file removed manually .. as below ..

-rw-r----- 1 root root 0 2007-07-06 11:58 lock
# rm lock
# pwd
/var/lib/apt/lists

seems to have happened when two instances of UM running and once closed at wrong time ..

[Vincent Legout (vlegout)]

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This bug did not have a package associated with it, which is important for ensuring that it gets looked at by the proper developers. You can learn more about finding the right package at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage . I have classified this bug as a bug in update-manager

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Thanks for your bugreport.

Can you please try to reproduce the behaviour and give me instructions how to do it and the exact error message that you get when you see this error?

Thanks,
 Michael

[Vincent Legout (vlegout)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!

[Dave-B (david-balch)]

I've had this maybe 5 times as well, I'll need to get back to you about the exact text of the message, but here's what happened last time:

1. Update manager announced that there are updates.
2. I had a quick look at what they are, then hit "Install updates".
3. I entered my password in the gksu dialog that appears.
4. A message is shown saying that it couldn't get '/var/cache/apt/archives/lock', (it might also say there's another other package manager running, but I'm not 100% certain about that).
5. I opened a terminal and ls/ greped for the file, seeing that it belongs to root:root, and has date of approx 5 days ago.
6. I deleted the lock and re-ran update manager.
7. Update manager install some updates (possibly just security updates), then has the same problem (i.e. GOTO 5, except for the date).
8. Updates were installed.
9. Checking for the lock file again after all updates were installed (and update-manager appear to exit ok), the lock was back.

[Dave-B (david-balch)]

I also meant to say that this is on 9.04.

I just ran `gksu synaptic` to install a program (fslint), which installed, and synaptic closed with no messages in the terminal, which is good. Unfortunately, the lock file has returned.

From this we can say that it's a problem for both update-manager and synaptic - probably via some shared backend.

I'll update with exact message details when I next have updates to install.

[xteejx (xteejx)]

Does not appear to be the same problem. The original reporter states that this is caused by having 2 update-manager windows open at the same time and closing one of them. Is this the same problem?

[Dave-B (david-balch)]

@Teej: My latest case didn't involve two UM windows, but I think it may have on previous occasions.

Either way, the bug is that the lock is not removed, which seems to me like a more low-level Apt problem. Unfortunately I don't know enough about Apt to identify a better package.

[xteejx (xteejx)]

No problem. As the original reporter did not state an Ubuntu version, can you tell us which version you are running along with the output of uname -a ? Is it possible for you to try in Jaunty, as I am not seeing this in Jaunty or Karmic. Thank you.

[Dave-B (david-balch)]

On 9.04, as noted above.

$ uname -a
Linux silver 2.6.28-13-generic #44-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jun 2 07:55:09 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[xteejx (xteejx)]

Thanks for reporting back. Can you confirm what version of update-manager you are using, the current version for jaunty is 0.111.9 . Thank you.

[Dave-B (david-balch)]

Just encountered it again. UM had notified that Thunderbird updates were available, but I decided I didn't want Thunderbird anymore. I closed UM and started Synaptic, found Thunderbird and marked it for removal, hit apply, and was told the lock file was there.

My system is fully up to date, including update-manager 1:0.111.9.

Any other information that would be useful?..

[xteejx (xteejx)]

Not that I can think of. Marking Confirmed, Medium.

[xteejx (xteejx)]

Why do people insist on assigning themselves?! Please only do so if you are a developer and are actively developing code that can a bug.
Sorry no-one got a chance to look at and/or fix this. Does this update-manager problem occur in Ubuntu 10.10? It would be great if you could test it and let us know. Thank you.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for update-manager (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]