[Bug 1808836] [NEW] Adding 64-bit libs for Skype rendered Lenovo G50 laptop unbootable

[Silas S. Brown]

Public bug reported:

I used a standard Lubuntu 18.04 LTS i386-destkop live CD to install on a
Lenovo G50 laptop, the install went well and booted into the new system
nicely, but then I remembered this user might want Skype, so I
downloaded the Skype deb and found it was amd64-only.  The laptop was
64-bit capable but I had only brought an i386 CD.

So I did a "dpkg --add-architecture amd64" and an "apt-get update" and
"apt-get install linux-image-generic:amd64" (and reboot) and then tried
to apt-get the libraries that dpkg was complaining about when I'd tried
to install the Skype deb.  This caused apt-get to cascade into changing
half the system to amd64 and I had to do "apt-get -f install" a few
times, one of which told me I was about to remove essential packages,
which I thought was OK because it was going to replace them with the
amd64 versions.  But it turned out the replacement process involved
removing all old packages before installing all new ones, which is not
so good when one of those packages is dpkg itself: I ended up with the
"cannot exec dpkg" error.  So I manually replaced dpkg (using "ar" and
"tar" to extract the deb) and carried on (and it reinstalled dpkg from
amd64 over the top of my manual replacement), and then I thought
everything was OK, but I was getting a few "timeout" and "dpkg
unexpected number of operations" errors (sorry I don't recall the exact
wording), and then when I rebooted I found the initrd was in an
inconsistent state and the system couldn't boot.  (Editing the GRUB
command to boot single-user and without the "splash" or "quiet" options
showed it didn't get any further than initrd-unpack.)

Worse, I couldn't even boot off the CD again, because the Lenovo G50
folks put the CD-booting code on the hard disk.  If you elect to replace
the existing Windows 8 system with Linux (wiping the hard disk and
installing afresh), as I had, the laptop ends up not being able to give
you the option to boot a CD-ROM or USB stick, because the menu to do
that lived on the hard disk and was wiped by the Linux install.  I tried
going into GRUB's command mode (hold Shift on boot and then press C in
GRUB), but GRUB's "ls" could not see the CD-ROM drive.

Thankfully GRUB could still see USB media, so I took the laptop home and
used UNetbootin to put a 64-bit Lubuntu image onto a memory card and put
in the standard Grub2 commands "insmod chain", "set root=(hd1)",
"chainloader +1" and "boot", then copied off the home directory and made
a clean reinstall on amd64.  So all is well.  But I thought a report of
what happened might still be useful.

Perhaps this bug is Lubuntu-related (as the main Ubuntu is no longer
shipping a 32-bit installer with 18.04, but Lubuntu is).  I first tried
to report at https://bugs.launchpad.net/lubuntu/+filebug but that form
gave me a choice of "LxFind or LxScreenshot" and nothing else.  I am
therefore filing it as a general Ubuntu bug in the hope that somebody
can refile as appropriate.

** Affects: apt (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1808836

Title:
  Adding 64-bit libs for Skype rendered Lenovo G50 laptop unbootable

Status in apt package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  I used a standard Lubuntu 18.04 LTS i386-destkop live CD to install on
  a Lenovo G50 laptop, the install went well and booted into the new
  system nicely, but then I remembered this user might want Skype, so I
  downloaded the Skype deb and found it was amd64-only.  The laptop was
  64-bit capable but I had only brought an i386 CD.

  So I did a "dpkg --add-architecture amd64" and an "apt-get update" and
  "apt-get install linux-image-generic:amd64" (and reboot) and then
  tried to apt-get the libraries that dpkg was complaining about when
  I'd tried to install the Skype deb.  This caused apt-get to cascade
  into changing half the system to amd64 and I had to do "apt-get -f
  install" a few times, one of which told me I was about to remove
  essential packages, which I thought was OK because it was going to
  replace them with the amd64 versions.  But it turned out the
  replacement process involved removing all old packages before
  installing all new ones, which is not so good when one of those
  packages is dpkg itself: I ended up with the "cannot exec dpkg" error.
  So I manually replaced dpkg (using "ar" and "tar" to extract the deb)
  and carried on (and it reinstalled dpkg from amd64 over the top of my
  manual replacement), and then I thought everything was OK, but I was
  getting a few "timeout" and "dpkg unexpected number of operations"
  errors (sorry I don't recall the exact wording), and then when I
  rebooted I found the initrd was in an inconsistent state and the
  system couldn't boot.  (Editing the GRUB command to boot single-user
  and without the "splash" or "quiet" options showed it didn't get any
  further than initrd-unpack.)

  Worse, I couldn't even boot off the CD again, because the Lenovo G50
  folks put the CD-booting code on the hard disk.  If you elect to
  replace the existing Windows 8 system with Linux (wiping the hard disk
  and installing afresh), as I had, the laptop ends up not being able to
  give you the option to boot a CD-ROM or USB stick, because the menu to
  do that lived on the hard disk and was wiped by the Linux install.  I
  tried going into GRUB's command mode (hold Shift on boot and then
  press C in GRUB), but GRUB's "ls" could not see the CD-ROM drive.

  Thankfully GRUB could still see USB media, so I took the laptop home
  and used UNetbootin to put a 64-bit Lubuntu image onto a memory card
  and put in the standard Grub2 commands "insmod chain", "set
  root=(hd1)", "chainloader +1" and "boot", then copied off the home
  directory and made a clean reinstall on amd64.  So all is well.  But I
  thought a report of what happened might still be useful.

  Perhaps this bug is Lubuntu-related (as the main Ubuntu is no longer
  shipping a 32-bit installer with 18.04, but Lubuntu is).  I first
  tried to report at https://bugs.launchpad.net/lubuntu/+filebug but
  that form gave me a choice of "LxFind or LxScreenshot" and nothing
  else.  I am therefore filing it as a general Ubuntu bug in the hope
  that somebody can refile as appropriate.

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