[Bug 442941] Re: debconf failed to upgrade from 1.5.27ubuntu1 to 1.5.27ubuntu2: exit status 128 - Use of uninitialized value $reply in scalar chomp at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/FrontEnd/Passthrough.pm line 66

[Colin Watson]

Aha!  What appears to be happening is that the installer erroneously
sets up /var/cache/debconf/config.dat with mode 0600, so it's unreadable
to the user-mode debconf frontend, which falls over and leaves the root
debconf proxy without anything to talk to; it then crashes shortly
afterwards and we're left with this horrendous mess to try to debug.
This explains Amael's comment #8, and other comments indicating that
this goes away after the first upgrade.

I can fix this in the installer, but of course that only applies for
future releases.  For current releases, we have pretty limited options
here.  The only way we can push out code to fix the permissions is to
release a package to -updates that does it, but in this case the user-
mode debconf frontend is started up (and fails) before we install any
packages, so that's likely to be ineffective.

After some discussion on #ubuntu-devel, it seems that the least bad of
the available options is to write a wiki page documenting the problem
and a workaround (and probably also documenting the similar problem in
bug 500175, since I don't think we can tell the two problems apart
automatically - I've just gone through several dozen of the duplicate
bug reports and I'm not even sure I can tell them apart manually), and
cause people with this problem to be redirected to that bug report
rather than filing a new bug.  This should go some way towards
explaining what's going on, and things should be fixed up on their next
upgrade in any case.  We'll then make sure that initial installations of
Oneiric won't have this bug.

** Also affects: ubiquity (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

** Changed in: ubiquity (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided => High

** Changed in: ubiquity (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => In Progress

** Changed in: ubiquity (Ubuntu)
     Assignee: (unassigned) => Colin Watson (cjwatson)

** Also affects: debconf (Ubuntu Lucid)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

** Also affects: tzdata (Ubuntu Lucid)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

** Also affects: ubiquity (Ubuntu Lucid)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

** Also affects: debconf (Ubuntu Maverick)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

** Also affects: tzdata (Ubuntu Maverick)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

** Also affects: ubiquity (Ubuntu Maverick)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

** Also affects: debconf (Ubuntu Natty)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

** Also affects: tzdata (Ubuntu Natty)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

** Also affects: ubiquity (Ubuntu Natty)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

** Also affects: debconf (Ubuntu Oneiric)
   Importance: High
     Assignee: Colin Watson (cjwatson)
       Status: Confirmed

** Also affects: tzdata (Ubuntu Oneiric)
   Importance: Medium
       Status: Confirmed

** Also affects: ubiquity (Ubuntu Oneiric)
   Importance: High
     Assignee: Colin Watson (cjwatson)
       Status: In Progress

** Changed in: debconf (Ubuntu Lucid)
       Status: New => Invalid

** Changed in: debconf (Ubuntu Maverick)
       Status: New => Invalid

** Changed in: debconf (Ubuntu Natty)
       Status: New => Invalid

** Changed in: tzdata (Ubuntu Lucid)
       Status: New => Invalid

** Changed in: tzdata (Ubuntu Maverick)
       Status: New => Invalid

** Changed in: tzdata (Ubuntu Natty)
       Status: New => Invalid

** Changed in: ubiquity (Ubuntu Lucid)
   Importance: Undecided => High

** Changed in: ubiquity (Ubuntu Lucid)
       Status: New => Triaged

** Changed in: ubiquity (Ubuntu Lucid)
    Milestone: None => ubuntu-10.04.3

** Changed in: ubiquity (Ubuntu Lucid)
     Assignee: (unassigned) => Colin Watson (cjwatson)

** Changed in: ubiquity (Ubuntu Maverick)
   Importance: Undecided => Medium

** Changed in: ubiquity (Ubuntu Maverick)
       Status: New => Triaged

** Changed in: ubiquity (Ubuntu Maverick)
     Assignee: (unassigned) => Colin Watson (cjwatson)

** Changed in: ubiquity (Ubuntu Natty)
   Importance: Undecided => Medium

** Changed in: ubiquity (Ubuntu Natty)
       Status: New => Triaged

** Changed in: ubiquity (Ubuntu Natty)
     Assignee: (unassigned) => Colin Watson (cjwatson)

** Changed in: ubiquity (Ubuntu Oneiric)
    Milestone: None => oneiric-alpha-3

** Changed in: debconf (Ubuntu Oneiric)
       Status: Confirmed => Invalid

** Changed in: tzdata (Ubuntu Oneiric)
       Status: Confirmed => Invalid

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to debconf in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/442941

Title:
  debconf failed to upgrade from 1.5.27ubuntu1 to 1.5.27ubuntu2: exit
  status 128 - Use of uninitialized value $reply in scalar chomp at
  /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/FrontEnd/Passthrough.pm line 66

Status in “debconf” package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid
Status in “tzdata” package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid
Status in “ubiquity” package in Ubuntu:
  In Progress
Status in “debconf” source package in Lucid:
  Invalid
Status in “tzdata” source package in Lucid:
  Invalid
Status in “ubiquity” source package in Lucid:
  Triaged
Status in “debconf” source package in Maverick:
  Invalid
Status in “tzdata” source package in Maverick:
  Invalid
Status in “ubiquity” source package in Maverick:
  Triaged
Status in “debconf” source package in Natty:
  Invalid
Status in “tzdata” source package in Natty:
  Invalid
Status in “ubiquity” source package in Natty:
  Triaged
Status in “debconf” source package in Oneiric:
  Invalid
Status in “tzdata” source package in Oneiric:
  Invalid
Status in “ubiquity” source package in Oneiric:
  In Progress

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: debconf

  Failed to report to debconf during first upgrade after installation of
  9.10 beta. Upgrade failed.

  ProblemType: Package
  Architecture: amd64
  Date: Mon Oct  5 09:54:06 2009
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
  ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 128
  NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
  Package: debconf 1.5.27ubuntu2
  PackageArchitecture: all
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-11.36-generic
  SourcePackage: debconf
  Title: package debconf 1.5.27ubuntu2 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 128
  Uname: Linux 2.6.31-11-generic x86_64

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/debconf/+bug/442941/+subscriptions