Cannot install anything due to interrupted upgrade

[toddpedlar]

I was upgrading some servers to 14.04 this week (from 12.04) as I eventually wanted to bring them to 16.04, and one got stuck - froze - midway through the installation.

So - not knowing what else to do, I hard reset the machine, and it came up in a bad state.

The situation is now this. A partial upgrade was completed, but if I want to complete the upgrade, or to install anything at all, in fact, I am left with only one option - to do a sudo dpkg --configure -a.

Now when I do this, the installation gets stuck - every time, at "Setting up shared-mime-info (1.2-0ubuntu3)..."

It will sit there forever.

What can be done about this? The only way I can get out of this stuck position is to kill the dpkg process.

Any help at all? Sorry but I've searched all the documentation I can find to no avail.

Todd

[Bashing-om]

toddpedlar; Ouch .

Have you tried clearing the caches :


sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get -f install
sudo dpkg --configure -a


Maybe ?



get some hope here ?

[toddpedlar]

I have done everything except autoclean/clean and didn't think of doing dist-upgrade since I thought that would be something I'd only do with a completely sound build of 14.04.

I'll try these.

[toddpedlar]

Nope.

Upon trying autoclean (or any of the others)

I get

E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.

The problem is that if I do this, I end up stuck at the same place, "Setting up shared-mime-info (1.2-0ubuntu3)..."

[Bashing-om]

toddpedlar; Well ..

We get any hints or joy :


sudo apt install --reinstall shared-mime-info

per "apt list" that is the correct version for 14.04.
And "apt show" indicates there is no danger to mess about with the package.



what does it take



to keep a package manager satisfied

[kansasnoob]

Rather than just using:


sudo apt-get -f install

You may want to try the -f or -m suffix with an actual package as target, eg;


sudo apt-get install shared-mime-info -f

Or:


sudo apt-get install shared-mime-info -m

Sometimes it's even better to "long hand" the command instead of using just -f or -m. From man apt-get:


-f, --fix-broken
Fix; attempt to correct a system with broken dependencies in place.
This option, when used with install/remove, can omit any packages
to permit APT to deduce a likely solution. If packages are
specified, these have to completely correct the problem. The option
is sometimes necessary when running APT for the first time; APT
itself does not allow broken package dependencies to exist on a
system. It is possible that a system's dependency structure can be
so corrupt as to require manual intervention (which usually means
using dpkg --remove to eliminate some of the offending packages).
Use of this option together with -m may produce an error in some
situations. Configuration Item: APT::Get::Fix-Broken.

-m, --ignore-missing, --fix-missing
Ignore missing packages; if packages cannot be retrieved or fail
the integrity check after retrieval (corrupted package files), hold
back those packages and handle the result. Use of this option
together with -f may produce an error in some situations. If a
package is selected for installation (particularly if it is
mentioned on the command line) and it could not be downloaded then
it will be silently held back. Configuration Item:
APT::Get::Fix-Missing.


Frequently a typical terminal output will reveal that there is a missing (or broken) dependency, so it may say something like trying to configure pkg X but it depends on pkg Y and pkg Y can't be configured because of pkg Z, so you might have to keep trying a combination of the above commands with the name of the actual package until you get to the problem package at the bottom of the pile.

[toddpedlar]

I tried all those things too, except the --reinstall. But I've already fixed it by looking at a very old thread. The long and short of it is this:

Removed /var/list/dpkg/updates/*

This unstuck the "have to do dpkg --configure -a" thing

Then I did the following

sudo apt-get remove shared-mime-info
sudo apt-get purge shared-mime-info
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

and miraculously it passed through shared-mime-info without stalling. Installation seems complete now, finally.

[Bashing-om]

toddpedlar; Outstanding !

You do good work.

As this matter is now concluded -
Please mark this thread solved;
aides others seeking the solution,
helps keep the forum clean and
precludes others miss-directing efforts to aid.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UnansweredPostsTeam/SolvedThreads



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