status stops updating on preinst failure

[Steve Langasek]

Binary package hint: update-manager

Currently, slocate is failing to upgrade on my hardy system with the following preinst error:

 Preparing to replace slocate 3.1-1ubuntu3 (using .../slocate_3.1-1.1ubuntu1_amd64.deb) ...
 ===============================================
 ===Error. The following diversions still exist:
 diversion of /usr/bin/locate to /usr/bin/locate.notslocate by slocate
 diversion of /usr/bin/updatedb to /usr/bin/updatedb.notslocate by slocate
 diversion of /usr/share/man/man1/locate.1.gz to /usr/share/man/man1/locate.notslocate.1.gz by slocate
 diversion of /usr/share/man/man1/updatedb.1.gz to /usr/share/man/man1/updatedb.notslocate.1.gz by slocate
 ===============================================
 dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/slocate_3.1-1.1ubuntu1_amd64.deb (--unpack):
  subprocess pre-installation script returned error exit status 1

That bug is not this bug.

This bug is that, once the slocate preinst fails, the status message in the update-manager GUI is stalled at "unpacking slocate" for the remainder of the session, no matter how many packages are unpacked and installed afterwards.

A minor issue, but during a hardy upgrade that lasted several minutes, I was left wondering if the slocate preinst was stalled when it had really just failed and apt had moved on.

[Philip Wyett (philwyett)]

This issue is pre hardy final and I am going to mark it invalid at this time. If anyone suffers this issue in future, feel free to re-open the bug.