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

Mark Street jet at sonic.net
Thu Apr 8 13:03:56 PDT 2004


This doesn't sound like a problem with the install of the package or apt. 
The rub comes with the way debconf configures packages after they have
been installed on the system.

Usually a package has some sort of debconf template associated with it if
it requires some sort of configuration by the user on install.  However
since you are automating this process the configuration utility is not
being run and you are seeing the result of that in your output.

I would imagine the debconf database holds the programs and their
configuration templates.

Where is it?... /etc/debconf or somesuch.

I would imagine you could tell apt to hold those packages for you to
install later so you could configure them.

Any Debian masters care to comment on debconf and apt automation
interactions like this.

Lincoln Peters said:
> 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>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> talk mailing list
> talk at nblug.org
> http://nblug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/talk
>





More information about the talk mailing list