System Update froze - UbuntuMATE 16-04

Tue Jun 19 19:04:34 UTC 2018

On 20/06/2018, Bret Busby <bret.busby at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 20/06/2018, Bret Busby <bret.busby at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 20/06/2018, Sarunas Burdulis <sarunas at math.dartmouth.edu> wrote:
>>> On 2018-06-19 13:40, Bret Busby wrote:
>>>> Hello.
>>>>
>>>> I have tried to do a system update on this computer, which is (kind
>>>> of) running UbuntuMATE 16.04 .
>>>>
>>>> The Software Updater shows
>>>>
>>>> "Installing updates..."
>>>>
>>>> and, under that, is
>>>> "Running post-installation trigger initramfs-tools"
>>>>
>>>> (it is unfortunate that the window does not allow copying and pasting
>>>> of text in the window)
>>>>
>>>> and it has been sitting there, with no progress for over half an hour
>>>> (it is on an i3CPU with 16GB of RAM, not an 8086 with 640kB of RAM).
>>>
>>> [...]
>>>
>>>> So, how dio I fix this broken system upgrade?
>>> Go to terminal, either an app or via Ctrl-Alt-F2.
>>>
>>> Become a real user:
>>>
>>> sudo su -
>>>
>>> unless you like this 'sudo' litany.
>>>
>>> Find offending processes and kill them all.
>>>
>>> Then
>>>
>>> apt-get update
>>> apt-get upgrade
>>> apt-get dist-upgrade
>>>
>>> If any of those fail, run
>>>
>>> apt-get -f install
>>>
>>> and repeat 'upgrade' and 'dist-upgrade'
>>>
>>> You can also do
>>>
>>> apt-get --purge remove snapd unattended-upgrades
>>>
>>> at any time
>>>
>>> Check, that you still have some kernels to boot:
>>>
>>> update-grub
>>>
>>> and reboot.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Sarunas Burdulis
>>> Systems Administrator, Dartmouth Mathematics
>>> math.dartmouth.edu/~sarunas
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I tried apt-get update, then apt-get -f install, results below
>>
>> "
>> root at bret-Inspiron-580-UbuntuMATE:/home/bret# apt-get update
>> Reading package lists... Done
>> E: Could not get lock /var/lib/apt/lists/lock - open (11: Resource
>> temporarily unavailable)
>> E: Unable to lock directory /var/lib/apt/lists/
>> root at bret-Inspiron-580-UbuntuMATE:/home/bret# apt-get update
>> Reading package lists... Done
>> E: Could not get lock /var/lib/apt/lists/lock - open (11: Resource
>> temporarily unavailable)
>> E: Unable to lock directory /var/lib/apt/lists/
>> root at bret-Inspiron-580-UbuntuMATE:/home/bret# apt-get update
>> Reading package lists... Done
>> E: Could not get lock /var/lib/apt/lists/lock - open (11: Resource
>> temporarily unavailable)
>> E: Unable to lock directory /var/lib/apt/lists/
>> root at bret-Inspiron-580-UbuntuMATE:/home/bret# apt-get -f install
>> E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (11: Resource
>> temporarily unavailable)
>> E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), is
>> another process using it?
>> root at bret-Inspiron-580-UbuntuMATE:/home/bret#
>> "
>>
>
> Okay - I found another pair of processes involving initramfs, so I
> killed them, and, then, it let me run apt get update and apt-get
> upgrade.
>
> Now, it is stuck again, at the same place.
>
> "
> Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.23-0ubuntu10) ...
> Setting up initramfs-tools (0.122ubuntu8.11) ...
> update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
> Setting up perl-modules-5.22 (5.22.1-9ubuntu0.5) ...
> Setting up libperl5.22:amd64 (5.22.1-9ubuntu0.5) ...
> Setting up perl (5.22.1-9ubuntu0.5) ...
> Setting up imagemagick-common (8:6.8.9.9-7ubuntu5.11) ...
> Setting up libmagickcore-6.q16-2:amd64 (8:6.8.9.9-7ubuntu5.11) ...
> Setting up libmagickwand-6.q16-2:amd64 (8:6.8.9.9-7ubuntu5.11) ...
> Setting up dirmngr (2.1.11-6ubuntu2.1) ...
> Setting up gpgsm (2.1.11-6ubuntu2.1) ...
> Setting up python3-update-manager (1:16.04.13) ...
> Setting up update-manager-core (1:16.04.13) ...
> Setting up update-manager (1:16.04.13) ...
> Setting up libjavascriptcoregtk-4.0-18:amd64 (2.20.3-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
> Setting up libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37:amd64 (2.20.3-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
> Setting up libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37-gtk2:amd64 (2.20.3-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
> Setting up gir1.2-javascriptcoregtk-4.0:amd64 (2.20.3-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
> Setting up gir1.2-webkit2-4.0:amd64 (2.20.3-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
> Setting up libexempi3:amd64 (2.2.2-2ubuntu0.1) ...
> Setting up libmagickcore-6.q16-2-extra:amd64 (8:6.8.9.9-7ubuntu5.11) ...
> Setting up libunity-control-center1 (15.04.0+16.04.20171130-0ubuntu1) ...
> Setting up linux-libc-dev:amd64 (4.4.0-128.154) ...
> Setting up unity-control-center-faces (15.04.0+16.04.20171130-0ubuntu1) ...
> Setting up liblouis-data (2.6.4-2ubuntu0.3) ...
> Setting up liblouis9:amd64 (2.6.4-2ubuntu0.3) ...
> Setting up libruby2.3:amd64 (2.3.1-2~16.04.10) ...
> Setting up python3-louis (2.6.4-2ubuntu0.3) ...
> Setting up ruby2.3 (2.3.1-2~16.04.10) ...
> Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.122ubuntu8.11) ...
> update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-127-generic
>
> "
>

So, after it got stuck in the initramfs stuff again, in killing the
two new initramfs setup processes, I get

"
Setting up ruby2.3 (2.3.1-2~16.04.10) ...
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.122ubuntu8.11) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-127-generic
dpkg: error processing package initramfs-tools (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script was killed by signal (Terminated)
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.23-0ubuntu10) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 initramfs-tools
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
W: Operation was interrupted before it could finish
root at bret-Inspiron-580-UbuntuMATE:/home/bret# apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  linux-generic linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 3 not to upgrade.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Setting up initramfs-tools (0.122ubuntu8.11) ...
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.122ubuntu8.11) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-127-generic
dpkg: error processing package initramfs-tools (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script was killed by signal (Terminated)
Errors were encountered while processing:
 initramfs-tools
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
root at bret-Inspiron-580-UbuntuMATE:/home/bret#

"

Now, I do not know how many hours this

update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-127-generic

step is supposed to take, but I think something is wrong there.

-- 

Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia

..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
 Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
 "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
 A Trilogy In Four Parts",
 written by Douglas Adams,
 published by Pan Books, 1992

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