apt_check.py crashed with SIGSEGV in pkgPolicy::GetCandidateVer()

[GuyR]

Ubuntu 12.04 Beta2

ProblemType: Crash
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: update-notifier-common 0.119ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-21.34-generic 3.2.13
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-21-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.0-0ubuntu2
Architecture: i386
CheckboxSubmission: 592d2a6e0d18bcb44c8ff4a0517b9d98
CheckboxSystem: 4029317434a5f787a60302f0f64e8786
Date: Sat Mar 31 17:48:18 2012
ExecutablePath: /usr/lib/update-notifier/apt_check.py
InterpreterPath: /usr/bin/python2.7
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcCmdline: /usr/bin/python /usr/lib/update-notifier/apt-check
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=fr_FR:fr:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SegvReason: writing unknown VMA
Signal: 11
SourcePackage: update-notifier
Title: apt_check.py crashed with SIGSEGV in pkgPolicy::GetCandidateVer()
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm admin audio cdrom dialout dip fax floppy fuse lp lpadmin mythtv netdev plugdev root scanner tape video
mtime.conffile..etc.apt.apt.conf.d.10periodic: 2011-10-13T19:54:59

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[R (Chandra) Chandrasekhar (chandra)]

I have experienced this bug and it has resulted in the following consequences on my Kubuntu 12.04 amd64 system:

1. Inability to update or upgrade with

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

See example below for error message.

2. Error when trying to install or reinstall any existing package. For instance

sudo apt-get install --reinstall update-notifier-common

gives

---
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 reinstalled, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/222 kB of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Use of uninitialized value $item in hash element at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/DbDriver/File.pm line 82, <$__ANONIO__> chunk 29.
(Reading database ... 65%dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 files list file for package 'libhal1' is missing final newline
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)
---

For the record, I was told during some upgrade that libhal1 was not needed and could be removed by

sudo apt-get autoremove

and the above error must have resulted from that operation.

3. The system runs but is flaky.

4. I have a new system disk that is less than three months old and is unlikely to be the cause of the above problems.

5. It appears that I need to re-install my system (sigh).

If there is any workaround, I will appreciate knowing about it.

Thank.s

[R (Chandra) Chandrasekhar (chandra)]

Is this connected to

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-notifier/+bug/1016040

by any chance?

[R (Chandra) Chandrasekhar (chandra)]

And to

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-notifier/+bug/1024599

as well?

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to review all reported bugs in a timely manner.

Ubuntu 12.04 (precise) reached end-of-life on April 28, 2017.

I'm setting the status of this bug to 'Incomplete' as it's not seen any activity for some time. If this is still an issue when using a currently maintained release of Ubuntu then please let us know which one(s) otherwise this bug report can be left to expire in approximately 60 days time.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for update-notifier (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]