Bug 215610

Summary:	KPackageKit fails to recover from a dpkg interruption
Product:	[Unmaintained] kpackagekit	Reporter:	Philip Muškovac <yofel>
Component:	general	Assignee:	Steven M. Parrish <smparrish>
Status:	RESOLVED NOT A BUG
Severity:	normal	CC:	dantti12, mail-from-kde
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Ubuntu
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Philip Muškovac 2009-11-21 23:19:38 UTC

Version:           0.4.2-0ubuntu3 (using KDE 4.3.3)
Compiler:          4.4.2-2ubuntu1 
OS:                Linux
Installed from:    Ubuntu Packages

In case of an dpkg-interruption KPackageKit tells me about a different packagemanager already running, which is not the case -- error messages should at least point to the correct problem, if at all. Therefore I could not fix this problem via the GUI, which forced me to switch to the command line.
There was no lock file in /var/lock to be seen, "sudo aptitude update" gave:

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

After following this instruction I could use KPackageKit for updating packages again. Please consider handling this case within a userfriendly dialog, thanks!

This bug was originally reported as:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kpackagekit/+bug/483788

Comment 1 Daniel Nicoletti 2009-11-23 16:36:47 UTC

That's not a KPackageKit bug, even on Synaptic it will tell you to
do the same. If you want a better handling you should start
by asking the backend developer what can be done
which afaik there is nothing.

Comment 2 Huynh Huu Long 2009-11-23 17:42:23 UTC

Reassigning this bug to the developer you mentioned - I forgot his name somehow - would do it, IGNORING this bug can cause a support center / neighbour / local geek to earn some money / words of thankfulness but it will in any case leave an impression of a unrealiable system which one could find harmful to some goal (for example "making Linux ready for the desktop").
As I don't use KPackageKit myself I am not interested helping to improve this software or it's stack, so I won't bother finding the source of mistake myself.
I just hope no one else is hit by this bug again.

Comment 3 Daniel Nicoletti 2009-11-23 18:35:54 UTC

you can be sure there will be lots of ppl hit by this which is not actually a bug, aptitude/apt-get both suggests you to issue dpkg -reconfigure -a

Comment 4 Huynh Huu Long 2009-11-23 19:06:27 UTC

Then I hope apt-get/aptitude get a decent GUI someday which can resolve those problems via the GUI saving the regular user time for a commandline course ;)