Update problem with Mint 19 Xfce

[toothandnail]

I have an install of Mint 19 XFCE. Not my usual distro - I've been an Arch Linux user of years. Installed Mint as something that I can support others on. However, I've run into a problem that I've not been able to solve so far.

An upgrade a couple of days ago failed on the kernel update. The error is as below:

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 unable to open '/lib/modules/4.15.0-34-generic/kernel/drivers/leds/leds-88pm860x.ko.dpkg-new': Operation not permitted
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-34-generic_4.15.0-34.37_amd64.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install.  Trying to recover:
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-image-generic:
 linux-image-generic depends on linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-34-generic; however:
  Package linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-34-generic is not installed.

I thought that it might be due to a corrupted download. Tried purging the failed components and reinstalling. Got the same error. Even downloading a fresh copy of the .deb came up with the same error.

On my own install, that update went without problems. Having failed on the other machine, I copies the files from my own install and used them. Still getting the same error. If I try to install the linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-34-generic using dpkg, I get the same error, but on different files:

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ken@Vincent:/var/cache/apt/archives$ sudo dpkg -i linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-34-generic_4.15.0-34.37_amd64.deb
[sudo] password for ken:
(Reading database ... 306577 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-34-generic_4.15.0-34.37_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-34-generic (4.15.0-34.37) ...
dpkg: error processing archive linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-34-generic_4.15.0-34.37_amd64.deb (--install):
 unable to open '/lib/modules/4.15.0-34-generic/kernel/drivers/nfc/fdp/fdp.ko.dpkg-new': Operation not permitted
Errors were encountered while processing:
 linux-mken@Vincent:/var/cache/apt/archives$ sudo dpkg -i linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-34-generic_4.15.0-34.37_amd64.deb

I'm not familiar enough with Mint or Debian-based distros to have any idea how to find the cause of this problem. Can anyone give me an idea of what may be causing the problem and how to solve it?

Thanks...

Paul.

[Laurent85]

Please post below commands output:

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uname -r
findmnt /
apt install -s

[toothandnail]

As below....

Please post below commands output:

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uname -r

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ken@Vincent:~$ uname -r
4.15.0-33-generic 

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findmnt /

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 ken@Vincent:~$ findmnt /
TARGET SOURCE    FSTYPE OPTIONS
/      /dev/sda2 ext4   rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,data=ordered

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apt install -s

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ken@Vincent:~$ apt install -s
[sudo] password for ken:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt --fix-broken install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies.
 linux-image-generic : Depends: linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-34-generic but it is not installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt --fix-broken install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

apt --fix-broken install fails, and every attempt I've made to get the linux-modules-extra package installed has failed.

Paul.

[Laurent85]

Can you post the full output of apt --fix-broken:

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sudo /usr/bin/apt -V --fix-broken install

[toothandnail]

Can you post the full output of apt --fix-broken:

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sudo /usr/bin/apt -V --fix-broken install

Here it is...

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ken@Vincent:~$ sudo /usr/bin/apt -V --fix-broken install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
   linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-34-generic (4.15.0-34.37)
The following NEW packages will be installed
   linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-34-generic (4.15.0-34.37)
0 to upgrade, 1 to newly install, 0 to remove and 7 not to upgrade.
2 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/32.7 MB of archives.
After this operation, 171 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
(Reading database ... 306577 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-34-generic_4.15.0-34.37_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-34-generic (4.15.0-34.37) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-34-generic_4.15.0-34.37_amd64.deb (--unpack):
 unable to open '/lib/modules/4.15.0-34-generic/kernel/drivers/staging/rtl8712/r8712u.ko.dpkg-new': Operation not permitted
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-34-generic_4.15.0-34.37_amd64.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) 

Paul.

[Laurent85]

Did you reboot since the problem occurred or only suspended to ram ?

[toothandnail]

Did you reboot since the problem occurred or only suspended to ram ?

The machine has been rebooted multiple times since the problem first appeared. It gets shut down overnight as well...

The odd thing is I've not seen any dpk errors on any other file - just on the modules-extra package. And I've tried several versions of that package, including one copied from my own laptop, where the update applied without any errors.

Paul.

[Laurent85]

The error message suggests some authoritative mechanism prevents the operation to complete. Did you install a software from a different source than from official repositories ?

[toothandnail]

The error message suggests some authoritative mechanism prevents the operation to complete. Did you install a software from a different source than from official repositories ?

No, no changes have been made to the installed repo list. Most updates have used the Mint update tool, though Synaptic has been used since this error first occurred - seemed to be the only way to purge the faulty file and get back to normal. After the first update failure, the machine was booting without proper module support - no network and incorrect video drivers, since it was coming up in an odd (lower) resolution.

At the moment, I've manually edited /boot/grub/grub.cfg to load the earlier kernel and manually run depmod to get the module dependencies correctly set. So its working, but still fails on the kernel update.

Paul.

[Laurent85]

I am running out of idea. You may purge 4.15.0-34, some clean up and reboot:

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apt purge linux.*4.15.0-34.*
apt autoremove --purge
apt clean
apt update
sudo update-initramfs -u
sudo update-grub

After reboot reinstall linux-generic:

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apt install linux-generic

No need to edit /boot/grub/grub.cfg, you can select a different kernel from the grub menu, hold down the shift key at startup in case the grub menu doesn't show up by default.

[toothandnail]

Sorry for the slow reply - couldn't get to the machine until today....

I am running out of idea. You may purge 4.15.0-34, some clean up and reboot:

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apt purge linux.*4.15.0-34.*
apt autoremove --purge
apt clean
apt update
sudo update-initramfs -u
sudo update-grub

After reboot reinstall linux-generic:

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apt install linux-generic

No need to edit /boot/grub/grub.cfg, you can select a different kernel from the grub menu, hold down the shift key at startup in case the grub menu doesn't show up by default.

That seems to have made things worse. Now its going in circles complaining about python updates that don't seem to exist. I'll have to have a closer look later in the week. I'm not sure - maybe the fact that other updates became available while the problem with the extra modules was still going on has confused it even more.

Paul.