[NBLUG/talk] Automated "apt-get upgrade" problems

Lincoln Peters sampln at sbcglobal.net
Thu Apr 8 11:09:56 PDT 2004


I have my Debian/unstable box configured to update itself every day at
midnight.  However, it seems that some of the new package require user
intervention to install, and strange things appear to be happening when
they try to install.  For example:

Setting up php4-pgsql (4.3.3-2) ...
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Dialog
debconf: (TERM is not set, so the dialog frontend is not usable.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Readline
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Readline
debconf: (This frontend requires a controlling tty.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Teletype

If I later run "apt-get upgrade" from the command line, it tells me that
there are no new packages to be installed.  It seems that the package
that needed dialogs managed to install anyway, but I have no idea what
the questions were or how they were answered, and I can't seem to find a
way to reconfigure them if I find that I need to.

What is the best way to handle packages that require a dialog, and what
would I do to handle them in that way?

The entire "cron" report follows:

-----Forwarded Message-----
From: Cron Daemon <root at odysseus>
To: root at odysseus
Subject: Cron <root at odysseus> apt-get update && apt-get -y upgrade
Date: Thu, 08 Apr 2004 00:02:49 -0700

Hit http://security.debian.org stable/updates/main Packages
Hit http://security.debian.org stable/updates/main Release
Hit http://security.debian.org stable/updates/contrib Packages
Hit http://security.debian.org stable/updates/contrib Release
Hit http://security.debian.org stable/updates/non-free Packages
Hit http://security.debian.org stable/updates/non-free Release
Hit http://security.debian.org testing/updates/main Packages
Hit http://security.debian.org testing/updates/main Release
Hit http://security.debian.org testing/updates/contrib Packages
Hit http://security.debian.org testing/updates/contrib Release
Hit http://security.debian.org testing/updates/non-free Packages
Hit http://security.debian.org testing/updates/non-free Release
Hit ftp://ftp.us.debian.org stable/main Packages
Hit ftp://ftp.us.debian.org stable/main Release
Hit ftp://ftp.us.debian.org stable/non-free Packages
Hit ftp://ftp.us.debian.org stable/non-free Release
Hit ftp://ftp.us.debian.org stable/contrib Packages
Hit ftp://ftp.us.debian.org stable/contrib Release
Hit ftp://ftp.us.debian.org stable/main Sources
Hit ftp://ftp.us.debian.org stable/main Release
Hit ftp://ftp.us.debian.org stable/non-free Sources
Hit ftp://ftp.us.debian.org stable/non-free Release
Hit ftp://ftp.us.debian.org stable/contrib Sources
Hit ftp://ftp.us.debian.org stable/contrib Release
Get:1 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/main Packages [2971kB]
Get:2 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/main Release [82B]
Hit ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/non-free Packages
Get:3 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/non-free Release [86B]
Hit ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/contrib Packages
Get:4 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/contrib Release [85B]
Get:5 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/main Sources [1166kB]
Get:6 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/main Release [84B]
Hit ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/contrib Sources
Get:7 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/contrib Release [87B]
Hit ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/non-free Sources
Get:8 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/non-free Release [88B]
Get:9 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org testing/main Packages [2846kB]
Get:10 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org testing/main Release [81B]
Hit ftp://ftp.us.debian.org testing/non-free Packages
Get:11 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org testing/non-free Release [85B]
Get:12 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org testing/contrib Packages [60.0kB]
Get:13 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org testing/contrib Release [84B]
Get:14 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org testing/main Sources [1117kB]
Get:15 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org testing/main Release [83B]
Get:16 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org testing/contrib Sources [27.3kB]
Get:17 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org testing/contrib Release [86B]
Hit ftp://ftp.us.debian.org testing/non-free Sources
Get:18 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org testing/non-free Release [87B]
Fetched 8188kB in 1m23s (97.7kB/s)
Reading Package Lists...
Reading Package Lists...
Building Dependency Tree...
The following packages have been kept back:
  abiword abiword-common abiword-plugins-gnome kvlc libglade2-0 libxml2
  libxml2-dev libxml2-utils libxslt1 libxslt1.1 vlc vlc-plugin-arts
  x-window-system-core xlibmesa-gl-dev xlibmesa-glu-dev xlibmesa3
The following packages will be upgraded:
  fontconfig gaim libenchant1 libfontconfig1 libfontconfig1-dev libpam-modules
  libpam-runtime libpam0g libsnmp-base php4-pgsql
10 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 16 not upgraded.
Need to get 4401kB of archives.
After unpacking 331kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/main libpam-runtime 0.76-17 [54.5kB]
Get:2 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/main libpam0g 0.76-17 [73.7kB]
Get:3 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/main libpam-modules 0.76-17 [151kB]
Get:4 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/main libfontconfig1-dev 2.2.2-2 [231kB]
Get:5 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/main libfontconfig1 2.2.2-2 [87.9kB]
Get:6 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/main fontconfig 2.2.2-2 [57.6kB]
Get:7 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/main gaim 1:0.76-1 [2662kB]
Get:8 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/main libenchant1 1.1.4+cvs.2004.04.07-1 [61.0kB]
Get:9 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/main libsnmp-base 5.1.1-1 [983kB]
Get:10 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/main php4-pgsql 3:4.3.3-2 [38.5kB]
Fetched 4401kB in 43s (101kB/s)
(Reading database ... 160944 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace libpam-runtime 0.76-16 (using .../libpam-runtime_0.76-17_all.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libpam-runtime ...
Setting up libpam-runtime (0.76-17) ...

(Reading database ... 160946 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace libpam0g 0.76-16 (using .../libpam0g_0.76-17_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libpam0g ...
Setting up libpam0g (0.76-17) ...

(Reading database ... 160946 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace libpam-modules 0.76-16 (using .../libpam-modules_0.76-17_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libpam-modules ...
Setting up libpam-modules (0.76-17) ...

(Reading database ... 160946 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace libfontconfig1-dev 2.2.2-1 (using .../libfontconfig1-dev_2.2.2-2_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libfontconfig1-dev ...
Preparing to replace libfontconfig1 2.2.2-1 (using .../libfontconfig1_2.2.2-2_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libfontconfig1 ...
Preparing to replace fontconfig 2.2.2-1 (using .../fontconfig_2.2.2-2_i386.deb) ...
Cleaning up font configuration of fontconfig...
Cleaning up category cid..
Cleaning up category truetype..
Cleaning up category type1..
Unpacking replacement fontconfig ...
Preparing to replace gaim 1:0.75-3 (using .../gaim_1%3a0.76-1_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement gaim ...
Preparing to replace libenchant1 1.1.4+cvs.2004.02.14-1 (using .../libenchant1_1.1.4+cvs.2004.04.07-1_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libenchant1 ...
Preparing to replace libsnmp-base 5.1-5 (using .../libsnmp-base_5.1.1-1_all.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libsnmp-base ...
Preparing to replace php4-pgsql 3:4.3.3-1 (using .../php4-pgsql_3%3a4.3.3-2_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement php4-pgsql ...
Setting up gaim (0.76-1) ...

Setting up libenchant1 (1.1.4+cvs.2004.04.07-1) ...
Setting up libsnmp-base (5.1.1-1) ...
Setting up php4-pgsql (4.3.3-2) ...
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Dialog
debconf: (TERM is not set, so the dialog frontend is not usable.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Readline
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Readline
debconf: (This frontend requires a controlling tty.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Teletype

Setting up libfontconfig1 (2.2.2-2) ...

Setting up libfontconfig1-dev (2.2.2-2) ...
Setting up fontconfig (2.2.2-2) ...
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Dialog
debconf: (TERM is not set, so the dialog frontend is not usable.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Readline
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Readline
debconf: (This frontend requires a controlling tty.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Teletype
Updating font configuration of fontconfig...
Cleaning up category cid..
Cleaning up category truetype..
Cleaning up category type1..
Updating category type1..
Updating category truetype..
Updating category cid..
Regenerating fonts cache... done.


-- 
Lincoln Peters <sampln at sbcglobal.net>





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