[Bug 1543280] Re: Synaptic fails with "W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/root/.synaptic/tmp//tmp_sh' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)"

[Francesco Ongaro]

*** This bug is a duplicate of bug 1522675 ***
    https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1522675

I can confirm the bug, Ubuntu 16.04.

I know that this is a duplicate of bug #1522675 (not related to synaptic
but to apt itself as noted before), but I think that we have two
different issues here.

The first is:

W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-
notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/andale32.exe' couldn't be
accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)

This happens as the directory is not owned by _apt:

cat /etc/passwd | grep apt
_apt:x:105:65534::/nonexistent:/bin/false

ls -la /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 gen  8 17:50 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 gen  8 17:50 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 gen  8 17:50 partial

The manual workaround that worked for me and do no create a huge
security hole is:

chown _apt /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/

Hopefully https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=813786 will
fix the issue but can't say till it hit mainstream as I'm a standard
user with a LTS installation.

Anyway, and this is the seconde issue, ttf-mscorefonts-installer will
refuse to work anyway as ttf-mscorefonts-
installer_3.4+nmu1ubuntu2_all.deb is somehow broken getting a redirect
from Sourceforge:

curl -kis http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arial32.exe | grep "^Location: "
Location: http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/corefonts/the%20fonts/final/arial32.exe

That contains a space that will make the subsequent request:

E: Failed to fetch https://netcologne.dl.sourceforge.net/project/corefonts/the fonts/final/arial32.exe  The HTTP server sent an invalid Content-Range header
E: Download Failed

Installing ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.6_all.deb from Debian fix the
issue so it really has to do with some scripting inside the package
(postinst?).

** Bug watch added: Debian Bug tracker #813786
   http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=813786

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1543280

Title:
  Synaptic fails with "W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file
  '/root/.synaptic/tmp//tmp_sh' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. -
  pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)"

Status in aptitude package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  Fails on all sorts of Xenial package installs.

  Please update this ticket with manual fix for this, to facilitate
  Xenial testing.

  Thanks.
  __________

  Two simple examples...

  1) aptitude changelog apt > /dev/null

  2) echo 'ttf-mscorefonts-installer msttcorefonts/accepted-mscorefonts-eula select true' | debconf-set-selections
       apt-get -yqq install ttf-mscorefonts-installer
  ___________

  There are several bugs related to this problem. None have a fix
  specified + all are opened against random packages, rather than
  aptitude.

  Several of these bugs have been closed saying problem is fixed in apt-1.1.2 + above which is incorrect.
  ___________

  lsb_release -a
  No LSB modules are available.
  Distributor ID:	Ubuntu
  Description:	Ubuntu Xenial Xerus (development branch)
  Release:	16.04
  Codename:	xenial

  apt-get --version
  apt 1.1.10 (amd64)
  Supported modules:
  *Ver: Standard .deb
  *Pkg:  Debian dpkg interface (Priority 30)
   Pkg:  Debian APT solver interface (Priority -1000)
   S.L: 'deb' Debian binary tree
   S.L: 'deb-src' Debian source tree
   Idx: Debian Source Index
   Idx: Debian Package Index
   Idx: Debian Translation Index
   Idx: Debian dpkg status file
   Idx: Debian deb file
   Idx: Debian dsc file
   Idx: Debian control file
   Idx: EDSP scenario file

  aptitude --version
  aptitude 0.7.4 compiled at Dec  9 2015 19:30:45
  Compiler: g++ 5.3.1 20151207
  Compiled against:
    apt version 5.0.0
    NCurses version 6.0
    libsigc++ version: 2.6.2
    Gtk+ support disabled.
    Qt support disabled.

  Current library versions:
    NCurses version: ncurses 6.0.20151024
    cwidget version: 0.5.17
    Apt version: 5.0.0

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