adobe-flashplugin_20170411.1.orig.tar.gz couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run ...

[Christoph]

The system was upgraded from zesty to yakkety a few days ago.

sudo apt dist-upgrade
....
Unpacking gnome-music (3.24.1.1-0ubuntu1) over (3.24.0-0ubuntu1) ...
Setting up libostree-1-1:amd64 (2016.15-3ubuntu3) ...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.60ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-19) ...
Processing triggers for update-notifier-common (3.179) ...
flashplugin-installer: processing...
flashplugin-installer: downloading http://archive.canonical.com/pool/partner/a/adobe-flashplugin/adobe-flashplugin_20170411.1.orig.tar.gz
Get:1 http://archive.canonical.com/pool/partner/a/adobe-flashplugin/adobe-flashplugin_20170411.1.orig.tar.gz [30,4 MB]
Fetched 30,4 MB in 18min 46s (27,0 kB/s)
W: Download is performed unsandboxed as root as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/adobe-flashplugin_20170411.1.orig.tar.gz' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
E: Download Failed
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.23-1ubuntu2) ...
Setting up gnome-user-guide (3.24.0-0ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for libglib2.0-0:amd64 (2.52.0-1) ...
Processing triggers for libglib2.0-0:i386 (2.52.0-1) ...
Setting up gnome-music (3.24.1.1-0ubuntu1) ...
....

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Chris Samuel (chris-csamuel)]

See this from cron whenever flash updates are available on my amd64 17.04 box.

/etc/cron.daily/update-notifier-common:
Get:1 http://archive.canonical.com/pool/partner/a/adobe-flashplugin/adobe-flashplugin_20171016.1.orig.tar.gz [30.4 MB]
Fetched 30.4 MB in 2s (10.6 MB/s)
W: Download is performed unsandboxed as root as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/adobe-flashplugin_20171016.1.orig.tar.gz' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
flashplugin-installer: processing...
flashplugin-installer: downloading http://archive.canonical.com/pool/partner/a/adobe-flashplugin/adobe-flashplugin_20171016.1.orig.tar.gz
Installing from local file /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/adobe-flashplugin_20171016.1.orig.tar.gz
Flash Plugin installed.

It is right about the permissions on the directory.

$ ls -ld /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 18 07:35 /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial

I also see the same issue on a 32-bit 16.04.3 box upgraded just now with apt-get.

flashplugin-installer: processing...
flashplugin-installer: downloading http://archive.canonical.com/pool/partner/a/adobe-flashplugin/adobe-flashplugin_20171016.1.orig.tar.gz
Get:1 http://archive.canonical.com/pool/partner/a/adobe-flashplugin/adobe-flashplugin_20171016.1.orig.tar.gz [30.4 MB]
Fetched 30.4 MB in 5min 51s (86.6 kB/s)
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/adobe-flashplugin_20171016.1.orig.tar.gz' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
Installing from local file /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/adobe-flashplugin_20171016.1.orig.tar.gz
Flash Plugin installed.

Same issue with permissions there too I suspect.

# ls -ld /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 18 20:20 /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial

[Chris Samuel (chris-csamuel)]

In /var/lib/dpkg/info/apt.postinst there is a comment that says:

# libapt will setup partial/ at runtime

So I wonder if that directory is not meant to exist?

It owned by the update-notifier-common package though:

$ dlocate /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial
update-notifier-common: /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial

So perhaps it needs more attention?

[Chris Samuel (chris-csamuel)]

I should also mention that the aforementioned _apt user does exist on my system, it's just that the directory is not owned by them.

$ id _apt
uid=125(_apt) gid=65534(nogroup) groups=65534(nogroup)

$ ls -ld /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 18 07:35 /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial