[SOLVED] Apt-get broken?

[DC80]

Hi all,

I would not know how to describe this but the following isn't working. Also the software center isn't working. Can this be solved? I had not had this previously...

Thank you in advance

[karlchen]

Hello, DC80.

Hm. The piece of information which you provide is not really sufficient to tell
(a) what happens
(b) why it happens.

Could you post the screen output of the following terminal commands, please:

• Exact Mint version:

  Code: Select all

  inxi -Sr

  Note: capital S, lowercase r
  Mark the inxi screen ouput, copy it to the clipboard and paste the text into your next reply.
• Any problem with the software list?

  Code: Select all

  sudo apt-get check

  Mark the apt-get screen ouput, copy it to the clipboard and paste the text into your next reply.
• Virtual box installed correctly?

  Code: Select all

  dpkg --list virtualbox*

  Mark the dpkg screen ouput, copy it to the clipboard and paste the text into your next reply.
• About the Software Center not starting: What happens if you type mintinstall in the terminal and press enter? The interesting details will be the messages which will be displayed inside the terminal window. Mark these messages, copy them to the clipboard and paste the test into your next reply.

Best regards,
Karl

[DC80]

Hi Karlchen,

Virtualbox was running fine. However I had to reboot and forgot the running machines. They won't start normal, they are stuck at creating a session. I was troubleshooting it when the cli thing happend .

Anyway back to the current problem:

I have executed the mintinstall command with sudo and without sudo and got this as a result:

Code: Select all

anon@anon-desktop ~ $ mintinstall
Vector smash protection is enabled.
add_categories took 38.251 ms
build_matched_packages took 0.164 ms
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (IcedTea 2.6.6) (7u101-2.6.6-0ubuntu0.14.04.1)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.95-b01, mixed mode)
Segmentation fault
anon@anon-desktop ~ $ sudo mintinstall
[sudo] password for anon: 
Vector smash protection is enabled.
add_categories took 1.769 ms
build_matched_packages took 0.262 ms
java version "1.7.0_101"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (IcedTea 2.6.6) (7u101-2.6.6-0ubuntu0.14.04.1)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.95-b01, mixed mode)
Segmentation fault
anon@anon-desktop ~ $ clear

I also ran "sudo apt-get check" which gave me the same answer as the initial problem.

The last command shows my repos which only are official but two:

Code: Select all

anon@anon-desktop ~ $ inxi -Sr
System:    Host: anon-desktop Kernel: 3.19.0-32-generic x86_64 (64 bit)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 2.8.8  Distro: Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa
Repos:     Active apt sources in file: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/maarten-baert-simplescreenrecorder-trusty.list
           deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/maarten-baert/simplescreenrecorder/ubuntu trusty main
           deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/maarten-baert/simplescreenrecorder/ubuntu trusty main
           Active apt sources in file: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
           deb http://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/linuxmint/packages rosa main upstream import
           deb http://extra.linuxmint.com rosa main
           deb http://mirror.1000mbps.com/ubuntu trusty main restricted universe multiverse
           deb http://mirror.1000mbps.com/ubuntu trusty-updates main restricted universe multiverse
           deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-security main restricted universe multiverse
           deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ trusty partner
           Active apt sources in file: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/owncloud-client.list
           deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/isv:/ownCloud:/desktop/Ubuntu_14.04/ /
anon@anon-desktop ~ $ 

The "http://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/linuxmint/packages" and "http://mirror.1000mbps.com/ubuntu" are Mint mirrors but you probably know that.

I think it's not the apt system but rather the gnome terminal? (just thinking out loud here)

Thanks for helping me!

[karlchen]

Hello, DC80.

Here is what sudo apt-get check displays to me. Yours gets stuck at step 2, building up dependency tree.

Code: Select all

$ sudo apt-get check
[sudo] password for karl: 
Paketlisten werden gelesen... Fertig
Abhängigkeitsbaum wird aufgebaut       
Statusinformationen werden eingelesen... Fertig
karl@voyager ~ $ 

aufgebaut (de) = opgebouwd (nl) = built-up (en)

I would be rather amazed if this were a problem related to the terminal which you use. It will be a problem inside the local apt software cache.
So it might be resolvable by:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get check

where it makes sense to proceed to the next command only in case the previous command has terminated successfully. The suggested steps would
+ clean the apt software cache
+ reload the software list from the repos and rebuild the cache
+ check again.

HTH,
Karl

[DC80]

Thank you! It is solved.

But how does this work? I assumed it was apt but the interface is not perfect. And more important, why is it happening?

Many thanks again!

[karlchen]

Hello, DC80.

Great to know that apt-get is playing nicely again.

How the local cache can get corrupted thus preventing apt-get from doing its job?
Hm. I cannot tell for sure how it happens. "apt-get update" receives the updated software lists from the internet. There is always the chance that a file is not transmitted correctly. I suspect that there are rare cases where the sanity checks done by apt-get may fail to realize that a received file is not ok. Trying to use the cached files later on reveals there is a problem.
So there might be two ways to prevent such things from happening: improve sanity checks on incoming data. Improve error handling when detecting faulty data later on (do not just hang, because data are incorrect).
Without having run apt-get inside a debugger and verfied my assumptions, however, they are just that, assumptions.

Cheers,
Karl