dist-upgrade from Ubuntu Mate 14.04.4 LTS to 16.04 LTS (Beta1) fails

[Winfried PLappert]

1.) I installed a fresh copy of ubuntu-mate-14.04-2-LTS-desktop-amd64.iso in a virtual machine.
2.) sudo apt-get update && sudo aptget dist-upgrade
3.) disabled /etc/apt/sources.list.d/extra-ppas.list by just commenting out all the deb lines.
4.) sudo do-release-upgrade -d
5.) Output -- shortened:
authenticate 'xenial.tar.gz' against 'xenial.tar.gz.gpg' ^M
extracting 'xenial.tar.gz'^M
^M
Reading cache^M
^M
Checking package manager^M
...
99% [http://ie.archive.ubuntu.com trusty/universe i386 Packages 31.7 MB]
...
Calculating the changes
Error authenticating some packages
^M
It was not possible to authenticate some packages. This may be a
transient network problem. You may want to try again later. See below
for a list of unauthenticated packages.

module-init-tools
Restoring original system state
Aborting

6.) module-init-tools is supposed to be a transitional packages, and should be removed after installlation. While attempting to do this, module-init-tools whould remove have of ubuntu mate. So I did not do it, but decided to file a bug instead.

7.) lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS
Release: 14.04

8.) package in question:
ubuntu-release-upgrader-core: /usr/bin/do-release-upgrade, version 1:0.220.8

9.) More information when needed; I don't know what you want from me :(

[Per von Zweigbergk (pvz-3)]

I'm having the exact same issue. This is upgrading from a 14.04 LTS Server VM that I have for testing purposes. So it's not unique to the MATE version.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Per von Zweigbergk (pvz-3)]

I think this bug was probably reported to the wrong package... I think I added the right package to the bug now?

[Winfried PLappert (winfried-plappert)]

in 6.) above change " have of ubuntu mate" to " half of ubuntu mate".

 module-init-tools should really reference libkmod2, which is actually installed. Why there are such strange dependencies I don't know.

 module-init-tools provides service for

    alsa-base
    bluez
    initramfs-tools
    linux-image-3.16.0-62-generic (my installed kernel)
    linux-sound-base
    powermgmt-base
    ubuntu-drivers-common

but dpkg -L module-init-tools is really only:
/usr/share/doc/module-init-tools which is a symbolic link to
ls -l /usr/share/doc/module-init-tools
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 8 Feb 28 09:14 /usr/share/doc/module-init-tools -> libkmod2

strange!

module-init-tools depends on the following packages:
    dpkg
    kmod
    libkmod2

[Winfried PLappert (winfried-plappert)]

module-init-tools -- installed version is 15-0ubuntu6

[Winfried PLappert (winfried-plappert)]

I have managed to bypass this problem by manipulation the Python code of the upgrade process. But it is far easier to bypass it properly by setting up a config file in /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades.d/*.cfg.

According to http://askubuntu.com/questions/425355/error-authenticating-some-packages-while-upgrade one needs to create a file /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades.d/unauth.cfg with the contents:

[Distro]
AllowUnauthenticated=yes

The upgrade runs smoothly through.

[Winfried PLappert (winfried-plappert)]

In order to check for the above condition, one need a precursor script (as root) before the update proper, which goes along these lines:

#! /bin/sh
if [[ -n $(dpkg --get-selections | grep module-init-tools | cut -f1) ]]
then
    cat <<- EOF >/etc/update-manager/release-upgrades.d/unauth.cfg
[Distro]
AllowUnauthenticated=yes
EOF
fi

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Thiago Martins (martinx)]

I am facing this problem too! I'm trying to run:

do-release-upgrade -d

From Ubuntu 14.04 Server 64-bit and it does not work.

I'll try the above workaround...

[Winfried PLappert (winfried-plappert)]

1.) I have reset my virtual machine to a state after 14.04 kernel update.
2.) I have created the file /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades.d/unauth.cfg as described above.
3.) I started do-release-upgrade and it does NOT fail any more with the message of unauthenticated packages.

4.) This can be considered a circumvention (for the time being).
5.) After the upgrade to 16.04 you can safely remove package module-init-tools, since the dependencies have been changed (in the other packages) to "module-init-tool | kmod". "|" is OR, which can be satisfied by kmod in 16.04.