apt-get upgrade doesn't finish on accountsservice package

[sgc2c]

I did a simple "apt-get update" followed by "apt-get upgrade"
which has never had any problems.
After finishing all the other updates, upgrade
just stayed there never finishing at the
accountsservice package.

I control-C'd out of it then followed it up with a
"dpkg --configure -a" which also just stayed
there, apparently not doing anything of substance
but not hung either.

Here's some relevant information:



root@XYZ:/home/person# dpkg --configure -a
Setting up accountsservice (0.6.40-2ubuntu11.6) ...





person@XYZ:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 16.04.7 LTS
Release: 16.04
Codename: xenial

# uname -a
Linux XYZ 4.4.0-173-generic #203-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jan 15 02:55:01 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux


What should I do?
Thanks in advance.

-sgc2c

[TheFu]

I did a full-upgrade this morning on about 10 different 1604 servers and didn't have any issues. The accountsservice package was part of the patching. Have you tried that or is there a reason you can use a full-upgrade?

[Impavidus]

I don't know about your specific problem (and haven't used 16.04 in years), but I did notice that you run kernel 4.4.0-173, compiled almost 10 months ago. A fully updated 16.04 system should be on kernel 4.4.0-193 by now. It seems there's something else wrong with your package management and has been wrong for about 9 months.

Any packages that report a state other than installed, purged or remaining config? Any kernel metapackages missing?

[deadflowr]

How long did it hang?

[TheFu]

Good catches!

A properly patched 16.04 system should have either

$ uname -a
Linux zcs45 4.4.0-193-generic #224-Ubuntu SMP Tue Oct 6 17:15:28 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

or

$ uname -a
Linux hadar 4.15.0-122-generic #124~16.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Thu Oct 15 16:08:36 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Which depends on when the 16.04 was installed and whether HWE updates were installed or not. HWE gets the newer kernel line.

[sgc2c]

How long did it hang?


It just never finished.

[ActionParsnip]

Try:


sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade


Please give the full output

[TheFu]

accountsservice is related to a root escalation attack, I'd bet:
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/11/ubuntu-fixes-bugs-that-standard-users-could-use-to-become-root/