error upgrading to karmic libc6 : ldconfig failed with 'illegal instruction'

[Maciej Niedzielski]

Binary package hint: update-manager

I am running Ubuntu Server Jaunty on a NSLU2 device.
uname -a
Linux magicbox 2.6.28-14-ixp4xx #47-Ubuntu Sat Jul 25 03:06:10 UTC 2009 armv5tel GNU/Linux

I wanted to upgrade to Karmic and I run:
sudo do-release-upgrade
(as advised at https://help.ubuntu.com/9.04/serverguide/C/installing-upgrading.html)

Problems started during libc6:

~~~~~
Processing triggers for libc6 ...
ldconfig deferred processing now taking place
Selecting previously deselected package libc-bin.
dpkg: considering deconfiguration of libc6, which would be broken by installation of libc-bin
 ...
dpkg: yes, will deconfigure libc6 (broken by libc-bin).
(Reading database ... 26208 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libc-bin (from .../libc-bin_2.10.1-0ubuntu15_armel.deb) ...
De-configuring libc6 ...
Replacing files in old package libc6 ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up libc-bin (2.10.1-0ubuntu15) ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/bindresvport.blacklist ...

(Reading database ... 26214 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace libc6 2.9-4ubuntu6 (using .../libc6_2.10.1-0ubuntu15_armel.deb) ...
Removing obsolete conffile /etc/init.d/glibc.sh ...
Checking for services that may need to be restarted...
Checking init scripts...
Unpacking replacement libc6 ...
dpkg: warning - old post-removal script killed by signal (Illegal instruction)
dpkg - trying script from the new package instead ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.10.1-0ubuntu15_armel.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess new post-removal script killed by signal (Illegal instruction)
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 subprocess pre-installation script killed by signal (Illegal instruction)
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.10.1-0ubuntu15_armel.deb
Exception during pm.DoInstall(): E:Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

~~~~~
And then it asked me to report this bug.

I attach full log from console (after downloading packages) plus files from /var/log/dist-upgrade

[Maciej Niedzielski (machekku)]

So it seems that ixp4xx is no longer supported in karmic (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/debian-installer/+bug/392238). However it would be nice if upgrade tool could detect this and warn (or better stop) me.

[Mat (matlinuxer2)]

I have the same problem, too.
I found that to excute '/sbin/ldconfig.real' and '/sbin/ldconfig' will print "Illegal instruction" after the failed upgrade.

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

Not an update-manager issue. Affecting eglibc

[A. P. Geramifard (geramia)]

I have such error while installing many packages!!! such as libc6 , ttf-mscorefonts , samba and many more!!!
despite of some comments of many user i think this kind of issue doesnt have any thing related with network bacause when i manually download the package n try to install it the same error occurs !!!
i don't know what's wrong with dpkg in this version but it makes me sick !!!!!

some body help me !!!!!!!!

[Alexei Colin (alexei.colin)]

Check with gdb what's the Illegal instruction:
$ gdb /path/to/bad/ldconfig.real
> run -V [ I assume even ldconfig.real -V fails ]
Starting program: /path/to/bad/ldconfig.real -V
Program received signal SIGILL, Illegal instruction.
0x0806a7ae in ?? ()
> info reg eip
eip 0x806a7ae 0x806a7ae [example output]
> x/4b 0x806a7ae [ view the memory at address where eip is at obtained above ]
0x806a7ae: 0x0f 0x45 0xc2 0xc3 [example output]

In this example, the illegal instruction is 0f 45 : cmovne.
This is a real case: that's what I see on my Xcore86 (x586) CPU, on upgrade to libc-bin_2.12.1-0ubuntu8_i386 (attempted but failed upgrade from Ubuntu 10.04 to 10.10). Apparently, very sadly, Maverick dropped support for x586 ( https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MaverickMeerkat/ReleaseNotes#Linux%20kernel%202.6.35 ).

Hope somebody someday might find this useful.