Launchpad insanity runs rampant

[gene heskett]

On Friday, August 12, 2011 02:26:31 AM Nils Kassube did opine:

> gene heskett wrote:
> > On Thursday, August 11, 2011 08:18:37 PM Nils Kassube did opine:
> > > gene heskett wrote:
> > > > There is no error, but any time the updater software even checks
> > > > for updates, I have another popup that takes manual closing by
> > > > grabbing focus & refusing to allow a click away, advising me
> > > > that ntp is miss-behaving.
> > > 
> > > Can you tell us what _exactly_ the error message is? Maybe that
> > > helps to find out the real reason for the popup.
> > 
> > it says error 1 in the popup.
> > 
> > From the crash file before I nuked it:
> > SourcePackage: ntp
> > 
> > ErrorMessage:
> >  subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit
> > 
> > status 1
> 
> Right - that explains it. It looks like there was an update for the ntp
> package which didn't work for some reason and the post installation
> script returned an error code. I'm not sure if everything is well with
> that package - maybe it would happen again? I would suggest that you
> manually check for updates with the command
> 
> sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
> 
> and check if there is an update for the ntp package which would possibly
> cause the problem again.

Apparently there is.  That said it was going to update the flash-installer, 
then reported this in the early part:

Setting up ntp (1:4.2.4p8+dfsg-1ubuntu2.1) ...
chown: invalid group: `ntp:ntp'
dpkg: error processing ntp (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1 

So now we know the cause of the error.

And:

root at shop:/etc# grep ntp passwd
ntp:x:116:125::/home/ntp:/bin/false
root at shop:/etc# grep ntp group
root at shop:/etc#

Hummmm, ahh, duh, no group 'ntp', WTH?

Recommended fix?  Or should I just add it to the group file?
I did that, using the group # 125 from the passwd file, then re-ran the 
above apt-get sequence, and got this:

1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Setting up ntp (1:4.2.4p8+dfsg-1ubuntu2.1) ...
 * Starting NTP server ntpd                                                                                                   
[ OK ]

No more error!!!!!!

I did not personally delete that entry from /etc/group, so there must have 
been a borked update that edited the group file, or something along those 
lines, and a typu like that wouldn't even have had to be in an ntp related 
script!

Damned computers, they (usually) do exactly as they are told. ;-)

Thanks Nils.  Now I believe it really is fixed. :-)

Another tip of the hat in your direction.

Just one comment: It says it is starting the NTP SERVER...  Here I always 
thought ntpd was a client...  Picky picky. :)

Cheers, gene
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