debian/{config,postinst} are both broken for dpkg-reconfigure

[tdflanders]

Binary package hint: dpkg

[...]
Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50remake.el (source)...
Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/51debian-el.el (source)...
Wrote /etc/emacs22/site-start.d/00debian-vars.elc
Wrote /usr/share/emacs22/site-lisp/debian-startup.elc
Please restart all running instances of firefox-3.0, or you will experience problems.
Please restart all running instances of firefox-3.1, or you will experience problems.
Configuring flashplugin-nonfree
-------------------------------

Have you already downloaded the .tar.gz package from Adobe? If so, please enter
the directory you downloaded it into. Do not include the filename here. If you
have not already downloaded it, leave this blank and the package will be
downloaded automatically.

Location to the local file: /var/cache/flashplugin-nonfree

download or license refused
The Flash plugin is NOT installed.
remove/flim: Handling removal of emacsen flavor emacs22 ... done.
install/apel: Byte-compiling for emacs22 ... skipped. (already compiled)
install/flim: Byte-compiling for emacs22 ... done.
Cleaning up font configuration of fontconfig...
Cleaning up category cid..
[...]

[tdflanders (thomasdelbeke)]

thomas@thomas-laptop:~$ date ; ls /var/cache/flashplugin-nonfree ; lsb_release -rd ; uname -a ; apt-cache policy linux linux-source linux-source-2.6.28 linux-image-2.6.28-4-generic linux-headers-2.6.28-4-generic linux-restricted-modules-2.6.28-4-generic linux-backports-modules-2.6.28-4-generic linux-backports-modules-jaunty linux-backports-modules-jaunty-generic dpkg flashplugin-nonfree ; date
Wed Jan 7 07:49:11 GMT 2009
install_flash_player_10_linux.tar.gz
Description: Ubuntu jaunty (development branch)
Release: 9.04
Linux thomas-laptop 2.6.28-4-generic #9-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jan 6 19:34:01 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux
linux:
  Installed: 2.6.28.4.4
  Candidate: 2.6.28.4.4
  Version table:
 *** 2.6.28.4.4 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/restricted Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
linux-source:
  Installed: 2.6.28.4.4
  Candidate: 2.6.28.4.4
  Version table:
 *** 2.6.28.4.4 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
linux-source-2.6.28:
  Installed: 2.6.28-4.9
  Candidate: 2.6.28-4.9
  Version table:
 *** 2.6.28-4.9 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
linux-image-2.6.28-4-generic:
  Installed: 2.6.28-4.9
  Candidate: 2.6.28-4.9
  Version table:
 *** 2.6.28-4.9 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
linux-headers-2.6.28-4-generic:
  Installed: 2.6.28-4.9
  Candidate: 2.6.28-4.9
  Version table:
 *** 2.6.28-4.9 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
linux-restricted-modules-2.6.28-4-generic:
  Installed: 2.6.28-4.4
  Candidate: 2.6.28-4.4
  Version table:
 *** 2.6.28-4.4 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/restricted Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
linux-backports-modules-2.6.28-4-generic:
  Installed: 2.6.28-4.1
  Candidate: 2.6.28-4.1
  Version table:
 *** 2.6.28-4.1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
linux-backports-modules-jaunty:
  Installed: 2.6.28.4.4
  Candidate: 2.6.28.4.4
  Version table:
 *** 2.6.28.4.4 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
linux-backports-modules-jaunty-generic:
  Installed: 2.6.28.4.4
  Candidate: 2.6.28.4.4
  Version table:
 *** 2.6.28.4.4 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
dpkg:
  Installed: 1.14.23ubuntu1
  Candidate: 1.14.23ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 1.14.23ubuntu1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
flashplugin-nonfree:
  Installed: 10.0.15.3ubuntu2
  Candidate: 10.0.15.3ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 10.0.15.3ubuntu2 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/multiverse Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
Wed Jan 7 07:49:15 GMT 2009
thomas@thomas-laptop:~$

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Did you accept the license? Looking at the code path in the postinst script, the error "download or license refused" will happen if you decline the license agreement

[tdflanders (thomasdelbeke)]

Hi there Chris,

yes I certainly did accept the license. I will try to be more complete here: it happened somewhere in the new 2.6.28-4 kernels. Someone has upgraded the dpkg-reconfigure command. It works all in all just great now.

<below: dpkg-reconfigure -p low debconf ; choose 2. readline + (priority) 4. low>

Improvements:

when running dpkg-reconfiguring -au (-p low is now automated):

when hit ca-certificates-java, all previous chosen certificates (141!) are remembered. Just click enter.

Autorisation for PAM options are remembered. Just click enter.
(e.g. 1. unix 2. consolekit 3. libpam-ldap 4. ecrypt* 5. cracklib ....)

flashplugin-nonfree is remembered.

Problem:

previously the install directory had to be typed in manual. The first time I noticed this:

accept license option was remembered, but displayed as yes; instead of y (the obvious choice upon previous prompt Y/n).

Also download directory was remembered: /var/cache/flashplugin-nonfree. Since 2.6.28-4.8 this became deprecated. When I fill in /var/cache/flashplugin-nonfree the problem occurs. I am now still running dpkg-reconfigure -au. When that is finished I can still root# rm /var/cache/flashplugin-nonfree/* ; dpkg-reconfigure flashplugin-nonfree (leave download directory blank - option yes fir license is remembered - this was last time anyway)

It seems like 1 kernel a day now with alfa-3, and I run this after every upgrade requiring reboot. Other than that this command is perfectly improved! (except some esthetics, like WARNING this + cannot rm that - I does not bother me and is overread)

Is there a dpkg alternative for this command (like dpkg -i instead of install something /somewhere)?

Is a gdb-backtrace possible of debconf or gkdebconf? (if needed)

Should I try: $ apt-get source flashplugin-nonfree ; $ sudo su and root# rm /var/cache/flashplugin-nonfree/* ; cp ~/somestuff /var/cache/flashplugin-nonfree

thomas@thomas-laptop:~$ apt-get source flashplugin-nonfree
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Need to get 25.8kB of source archives.
Get: 1 http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/multiverse flashplugin-nonfree 10.0.15.3ubuntu2 (dsc) [1569B]
Get: 2 http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/multiverse flashplugin-nonfree 10.0.15.3ubuntu2 (tar) [24.2kB]
Fetched 25.8kB in 4s (5684B/s)
gpg: Signature made Sat 03 Jan 2009 13:05:15 GMT using RSA key ID 140C6664
gpg: Can't check signature: public key not found
dpkg-source: extracting flashplugin-nonfree in flashplugin-nonfree-10.0.15.3ubuntu2
dpkg-source: info: unpacking flashplugin-nonfree_10.0.15.3ubuntu2.tar.gz
thomas@thomas-laptop:~$ ls -la flash*
-rw-r--r-- 1 thomas thomas 1569 2009-01-03 14:04 flashplugin-nonfree_10.0.15.3ubuntu2.dsc
-rw-r--r-- 1 thomas thomas 24235 2009-01-03 14:04 flashplugin-nonfree_10.0.15.3ubuntu2.tar.gz

flashplugin-nonfree-10.0.15.3ubuntu2:
total 44
drwxr-xr-x 3 thomas thomas 4096 2008-10-15 17:36 .
drwxr-xr-x 74 thomas thomas 36864 2009-01-07 09:14 ..
drwxr-xr-x 4 thomas thomas 4096 2009-01-03 13:05 debian
thomas@thomas-laptop:~$ ls -la /flash*/debian/*
ls: cannot access /flash*/debian/*: No such file or directory
thomas@thoma...

[tdflanders (thomasdelbeke)]

Seems like the download directory was changed:

[...]
update-rc.d: warning: /etc/init.d/xserver-xorg-input-wacom missing LSB information
update-rc.d: see <http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts>
 * Doing Wacom setup... [ OK ]
root@thomas-laptop:/home/thomas# rm /var/cache/flashplugin-nonfree/*
root@thomas-laptop:/home/thomas# rm /var/cache/flashplugin-nonfree/*
rm: cannot remove `/var/cache/flashplugin-nonfree/*': No such file or directory
root@thomas-laptop:/home/thomas# dpkg-reconfigure flashplugin-nonfree
Configuring flashplugin-nonfree
-------------------------------

Have you already downloaded the .tar.gz package from Adobe? If so, please enter
the directory you downloaded it into. Do not include the filename here. If you
have not already downloaded it, leave this blank and the package will be
downloaded automatically.

Location to the local file:

The Adobe flash plugin is to be downloaded from www.adobe.com. This can be done
automatically now. The distribution license of the Adobe flash plugin is
available at www.adobe.com.

Do you accept the license and do you want to download the flash plugin now? yes

Downloading...
--2009-01-07 09:20:38-- http://archive.canonical.com/pool/partner/a/adobe-flashplugin/adobe-flashplugin_10.0.15.3.orig.tar.gz
Resolving archive.canonical.com... 91.189.90.142
Connecting to archive.canonical.com|91.189.90.142|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 3935267 (3.8M) [application/x-gzip]
Saving to: `./adobe-flashplugin_10.0.15.3.orig.tar.gz'

     0K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 1% 36.8K 1m43s
    50K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 2% 87.6K 72s
   100K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 3% 96.1K 60s
   150K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 5% 87.3K 55s
   200K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 6% 67.9K 54s
   250K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 7% 98.0K 50s
   300K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 9% 63.0K 51s
   350K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 10% 88.3K 48s
   400K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 11% 84.8K 47s
   450K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 13% 89.1K 45s
   500K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 14% 98.1K 44s
   550K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 15% 102K 42s
   600K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 16% 107K 41s
   650K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 18% 87.7K 40s
   700K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 19% 102K 38s
   750K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 20% 95.8K 37s
   800K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 22% 104K 36s
   850K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 23% 66.0K 36s
   900K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 24% 77.0K 36s
   950K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 26% 6.75K 54s
  1000K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 2...

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Actually, this symptom is due to debian/{config,postinst} both being *utterly* broken in behaviour.

In debian/postinst, after the plugin is downloaded and/or installed for the first time, the debconf "httpget" variable is forcibly set to false, which will fail the license agreement query, and hence, the reporter's symptom is exhibited.

debian/config is utterly out of date, still uses md5sums, and attempts to store an invalid/outdated directory into the debconf "local" variable.

[tdflanders (thomasdelbeke)]

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for that. Sorry for the pun, but this is all just "Chinese" to me. Thanks a lot for the good work and I am ready to provide you more info or test the fix if desired. Cheers, Thomas.

[George Pollard (porges)]

I just ran into this. After upgrading from Intrepid, Synaptic had flashplugin-nonfree marked as installed, but without the files actually being installed (!). Attempting to reinstall via Synaptic just gave the message "download or license refused", with no option to accept the license.

In the end I had to dpkg-reconfigure debconf (following this suggestion: http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?p=39636#39636), and un/reinstall via apt-get. Even then, apt-get asked me both questions *twice*.

[Scott Wegner (swegner)]

Thanks for the tip George. I was also having trouble getting flashplugin-nonfree actually installed. Kept getting the "download or license refused". Per your hints, here are the steps I took to get it installed:

1) sudo dpkg-reconfigure debconf
   -- Selected GNOME frontend and "medium", although I imagine any settings would work
2) sudo rm -rf /var/cache/flashplugin-nonfree
   -- I'm not really sure if this step was necessary, but it removed the local cached version which may have been causing trouble
3) sudo aptitude reinstall flashplugin-nonfree
   -- Make sure the path to the local version is blank
   -- Accept the license
   -- Repeat

Afterwards, I could see in the terminal the the plugin was truely being downloaded from Adobe, and Flash is now working once again.

[Kevinf (siegfri3d)]

Thanks Scott!
sudo rm -rf /var/cache/flashplugin-nonfree
This alone did the trick for me.

[Marco da Silva (igama)]

Like Kevinf, just doing

sudo rm -rf /var/cache/flashplugin-nonfree

was enough for me.

[Daniel Richard G. (skunk)]

Installing this package with a specified "location to the local file" is broken. This is needed for installations where HTTP access is restricted.

This was working in Intrepid. Can we get a fix for this in before Jaunty goes gold?

[Joel Ebel (jbebel)]

While this problem manifests itself differently for me, I believe this is a result of the same bug. I'm trying to pre-install the flash plugin on local disk for the flashplugin-installer to find. It seems the config file is looking for the upstream adobe filename, but the postinst is using the name of the file on archive.canonical.com which also has a different checksum. The config file should check for the same file as the postinst. I've attached a patch to fix this problem.

[Joel Ebel (jbebel)]

Ping to the sponsors team. It would be great to have this included in the impending flash update. I've provided a patch.

[Marc Deslauriers (mdeslaur)]

@Joel: sorry about that, I had already started building the packages.

I'll take a look at your patch for the next update.

[Stefano Rivera (stefanor)]

Joel: If this is still an issue (in maverick) please retarget this there. lucid can be fixed after that with an SRU patch.

Unsubsrcibing sponsors for now.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package flashplugin-nonfree - 10.1.82.76ubuntu1

---------------
flashplugin-nonfree (10.1.82.76ubuntu1) maverick; urgency=low

  * SECURITY UPDATE: New upstream release 10.1.82.76 (LP: #616167)
    - debian/config, debian/postinst: Updated sha256sums and path
    - CVE-2010-1297
  * Fix installing from local files (LP: #314637)
    - debian/config: look for the versioned archive.canonical.com file, as
      that is what the postinst expects to find.
    - Thanks to Joel Ebel <email address hidden> for supplying the fix.
 -- Marc Deslauriers <email address hidden> Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:22:16 -0400

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package flashplugin-nonfree - 10.1.82.76ubuntu0.10.04.2

---------------
flashplugin-nonfree (10.1.82.76ubuntu0.10.04.2) lucid-security; urgency=low

  * SECURITY UPDATE: New upstream release 10.1.82.76 (LP: #616167)
    - debian/config, debian/postinst: Updated sha256sums and path
    - CVE-2010-0209
    - CVE-2010-2188
    - CVE-2010-2213
    - CVE-2010-2214
    - CVE-2010-2215
    - CVE-2010-2216
  * Fix installing from local files (LP: #314637)
    - debian/config: look for the versioned archive.canonical.com file, as
      that is what the postinst expects to find.
    - Thanks to Joel Ebel <email address hidden> for supplying the fix.
 -- Marc Deslauriers <email address hidden> Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:47:16 -0400

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package flashplugin-nonfree - 10.1.82.76ubuntu0.9.10.1

---------------
flashplugin-nonfree (10.1.82.76ubuntu0.9.10.1) karmic-security; urgency=low

  * SECURITY UPDATE: New upstream release 10.1.82.76 (LP: #616167)
    - debian/config, debian/postinst: Updated sha256sums and path
    - CVE-2010-0209
    - CVE-2010-2188
    - CVE-2010-2213
    - CVE-2010-2214
    - CVE-2010-2215
    - CVE-2010-2216
  * Fix installing from local files (LP: #314637)
    - debian/config: look for the versioned archive.canonical.com file, as
      that is what the postinst expects to find.
    - Thanks to Joel Ebel <email address hidden> for supplying the fix.
 -- Marc Deslauriers <email address hidden> Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:54:30 -0400

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package flashplugin-nonfree - 10.1.82.76ubuntu0.9.04.1

---------------
flashplugin-nonfree (10.1.82.76ubuntu0.9.04.1) jaunty-security; urgency=low

  * SECURITY UPDATE: New upstream release 10.1.82.76 (LP: #616167)
    - debian/config, debian/postinst: Updated sha256sums and path
    - CVE-2010-0209
    - CVE-2010-2188
    - CVE-2010-2213
    - CVE-2010-2214
    - CVE-2010-2215
    - CVE-2010-2216
  * Fix installing from local files (LP: #314637)
    - debian/config: look for the versioned archive.canonical.com file, as
      that is what the postinst expects to find.
    - Thanks to Joel Ebel <email address hidden> for supplying the fix.
 -- Marc Deslauriers <email address hidden> Wed, 11 Aug 2010 09:04:09 -0400