Many errors installing packages during upgrading to 8.04

[Yang]

I ran into a bunch of problems upgrading from 7.10 to 8.04. During the "Installing the ugprades" part of the setup procedure, I got a ton of errors.

The very first one was titled "Could not install 'libdb4.6'" and had the detailed message "no package named `libdb4.6' is installed, cannot configure".

Then what followed were a number of error dialogs for other packages that popped up afterward, all with the detailed message "dependency problems - leaving unconfigured." I'm guessing they were dependent on libdb4.6's successful installation. These were the packages:

- libpam-modules
- login
- passwd
- libuuid1
- e2fsprogs
- python2.5
- python

Then I saw "Could not install '/var/cache/apt/archives/xserver-xorg_1%3a7.3+10ubuntu10_all.deb'" with the detailed message "pre-dependency problem - not installing xserver-xorg."

Then I saw a stream of other errors:

- package perl-modules is already installed and configured
- package libnewt0.52 is already installed and configured
- package whiptail is already installed and configured
- package defoma is already installed and configured
- package gsfonts is already installed and configured
- package ttf-dejavu-extra is already installed and configured
- package ttf-dejavu is already installed and configured
- package ucf is already installed and configured
- package fontconfig-config is already installed and configured
- package libexpat1 is already installed and configured
- package libfontconfig1 is already installed and configured

Then some more of the "dependency problems - leaving unconfigured":

- libsasl2-2
- libldap-2.4-2
- ssl-cert
- cupsys
- libsasl2-modules

For some time, I haven't seen any errors, so I'm submitting this for now.

[Yang (yaaang)]

Crap.

I just got another one: "package libice6 is already installed and configured."

And finally I see:

[code]Could not install the upgrades

The upgrade aborts now. Your system could be in an unusable state. A recovery will run now (dpkg --configure -a).

Please report this bug against the 'update-manager' package and include the files in /var/log/dist-upgrade/ in the bugreport.
installArchives() failed[/code]

AAAaarggh!

[Patrick Kilgore (patrick-kilgore)]

Thanks for reporting this bug. Can you please attach the information requested by the update manager? That would be the files in your var/log/dist-upgrade/ folder.

[Yang (yaaang)]

After rebooting, I found that Gnome would not start up. I could log in, but then I'm taken to a tan wallpaper, and nothing more happens. I hit ctrl-alt-f2 and tried the following:

yang@harvard ~
$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
[sudo] password for yang:
E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.

yang@harvard ~
$ sudo dpkg --configure -a
Setting up libgmpxx4ldbl (2:4.2.2+dfsg-1ubuntu2) ...

Setting up libdjvulibre15 (3.5.20-2) ...

Setting up librpcsecgss3 (0.17-1ubuntu1) ...

Setting up upstart-logd (0.3.9-2) ...
Setting up libflac8 (1.2.1-1ubuntu2) ...

Setting up man-db (2.5.1-3) ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/manpath.config ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/cron.daily/man-db ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/cron.weekly/man-db ...
scrollkeeper-update: deferring update until scrollkeeper is configured

Setting up libesd-alsa0 (0.2.38-0ubuntu9) ...

Setting up pulseaudio-utils (0.9.10-1ubuntu1) ...
Setting up libpisync1 (0.12.3-4ubuntu1) ...

Setting up libsdl1.2debian (1.2.13-1ubuntu1) ...
Setting up tk8.4 (8.4.16-2ubuntu1) ...

Setting up libopenssl-ruby1.8 (1.8.6.111-2ubuntu1) ...
Setting up cpp-4.1 (4.1.2-21ubuntu1) ...
Setting up whois (4.7.24) ...
Setting up wamerican (6-2.1) ...

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of xbase-clients:
 xbase-clients depends on x11-session-utils; however:
  Package x11-session-utils is not installed.
 xbase-clients depends on x11-utils; however:
  Package x11-utils is not installed.
 xbase-clients depends on x11-xfs-utils; however:
  Package x11-xfs-utils is not installed.
dpkg: error processing xbase-clients (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Setting up dvd+rw-tools (7.0-9ubuntu1) ...
Setting up libqt3-mt (3:3.3.8-b-0ubuntu3) ...

Setting up libuniconf4.4 (4.4.1-0ubuntu2) ...

Setting up libnm-util0 (0.6.6-0ubuntu5) ...

Setting up libltdl3-dev (1.5.26-1ubuntu1) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of xorg:
 xorg depends on x11-session-utils; however:
  Package x11-session-utils is not installed.
 xorg depends on x11-utils; however:
  Package x11-utils is not installed.
 xorg depends on x11-xfs-utils; however:
  Package x11-xfs-utils is not installed.
dpkg: error processing xorg (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Setting up libgda3-3 (3.0.2-2ubuntu1) ...

Setting up libmysqlclient15off (5.0.51a-3ubuntu5) ...

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libcairo2-dev:
 libcairo2-dev depends on libfontconfig1-dev (>= 2.5.0-2ubuntu2); however:
  Version of libfontconfig1-dev on system is 2.4.2-1.2ubuntu4.
dpkg: error processing libcairo2-dev (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Setting up libungif4g (4.1.6-4) ...
Setting up mono-jit (1.2.6+dfsg-6ubuntu3) ...

Setting up libvlc0 (0.8.6.release.e+x264svn20071224+faad2.6.1-0ubuntu3) ...

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libpango1.0-dev:
 libpango1.0-dev depends on libcairo2-dev (>= 1.2.6); however:
  Package libcairo2-dev is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing libpango1.0-dev (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unco...

[Patrick Kilgore (patrick-kilgore)]

Thanks for posting the additional information, I'm going to confirm this bug and someone from the update-manager team should be able to help you out.

[Yang (yaaang)]

Thank you for confirming this. Do you have a rough estimate of how long it will be before there is a solution? I'm trying to decide between waiting for a solution from you vs. wiping out my system and reinstalling from scratch. While I understand it may be difficult to make these estimates, the latter option is expensive - I had done this some months back and remember spending upwards of a week getting my system back into shape/ready for work.

[Yang (yaaang)]

I'm just as interested in any hints on how I may begin to debug this situation on my own.

[Iwan (iwanferreira)]

I get exactly the same error(s). I tried removing the packages that are not yet configured from DPKG (dpkg -r -a) and restarting the apt-get dist-upgrade, but it gives the exact same error every time. Any help would be much appreciated.

[Yang (yaaang)]

At last!

apt-get install -f got me out of the dependency failure tarpit that was killing my attempts to apt-get install packages and to dpkg --configure -a. Another thing to try would've been apt-get clean -f. A subsequent apt-get dist-upgrade worked (took under 3 minutes).

Thanks to JoshuaRL on #ubuntu.

[Iwan (iwanferreira)]

Hi Yang!

Can you please be more specific on what you did to get it to work. What packages did you have to install with apt-get install -f? Did you have to download the packages or was it already downloaded?

When I tried to apt-get install -f the packages that it says it is dependant on, it says package not found. I also tried apt-get install -f without any package name and then it says run dpkg --configure -a.

Any suggestions?

[Yang (yaaang)]

I actually ran it without package arguments.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

@Iwan: please attach your /var/log/dist-upgrade file to the report as well please. I will try to figure out if its the same problem or somethign different.

@Yang: Unfortuantely the error you see is pretty hard to diagnose. It looks like apt is running dpkg with incorrect ordering arguments. I haven't seen a problem like this yet and I'm a bit in the dark about what causes it :-(

[Iwan (iwanferreira)]

Michael, unfortunately this was taking to long to solve so I reinstalled 7.10 from CD. I am waiting to receive the 8.04 CD and will do a clean install from that once received.

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

I'm closing this report due to your last comment regarding you've fixed it with a dist-upgrade and we don't have enough information to know what happened.
Don't hesitate to submit any new bug.