Debian Bug report logs - #4784
dselect/dpkg errors

Toggle useless messages

Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Lindsay Haisley <fmouse@fmp.com>

To: submit@bugs.debian.org

Subject: dselect/dpkg errors

Date: Mon, 14 Oct 1996 22:22:43 -0500

Package: dpkg
Version: 1.2.6

Running dpkg out of dselect I received the following when trying to install
packages from the Debian CDROM.  I had pre-mounted the cdrom on /mnt and
selected the "mounted" option from the list of access methods, however I
have the same problem if I select "cdrom" from the access methods list and
dpkg looks for the module utilities  in
/var/lib/dpkg/methods/mnt/stable/binary, In the latter case it appears that
the CDROM is indeed not mounted at all and /var/lib/dpkg/methods/mnt is empty.
  
This is the very first (and last!) CDROM package which dpkg tried to cope
with during the install.  This is an initial install of Debian and I have
not been able to install any packages from the CDROM.


Output from dselect is as follows:

Running dpkg -iGROEB /mnt/stable/binary
find: /mnt/stable/binary/base/modules_2.0.0-10.deb: No such file or directory
dpkg: subprocess find return error exit status 1

installation script returned exit status 1.
Press RETURN to continue ...

...and I'm back in the dselect menu without anything having been installed.
The interesting thing here is that if I suspend dselect and 
ls /mnt/stable/binary/base/modules_2.0.0-10.deb it's there, no problem.  

So what is going on here?  Any ideas?  I'm no stranger to Linux, but this is
my first time with Debian Linux.  I've read good reviews of it and it
appears to be a well organized and well supported distribution, however what
with kernel version mismatches and this dpkg problem the install is turning
into something of a pain in the butt.


Lindsay Haisley                   (______)
FMP Computer Services               (oo)        "The bull 
fmouse@fmp.com                /------\/            stops here!"
Austin, Texas, USA           / |    ||  
512-259-1190                *  ||---||             * * * * * *
                               ~~   ~~         http://www.fmp.com

Message #10 received at 4784@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Lindsay Haisley <fmouse@fmp.com>

To: help@i-connect.net

Cc: Simon Shapiro <shimon@i-connect.net>, 4784@bugs.debian.org, ian@chiark.greenend.org.uk

Subject: Stale links on iConnect Debian CD-ROM

Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 19:24:35 -0500 (CDT)

I've been unable to install Debian Linux from the CD-ROM I purchased from iConnect
a short while ago.  On going over the problem in correspondence with Chris
Fearnley, I found the source of the problem, quoted below.

> OK, I found the problem.  dpkg [dselect] is trying to access the file
> /mnt/stable/binary-i386/base/modules_2.0.0-10.deb.  On the CDROM from
> iConnect this is a symbolic link to the file
> "../../../Debian-1.1-updates/binary-i386/modules_2.0.0-10.deb".  There is no
> such file at the other end of the symbolic link!  There is a corresponding
> link for modules_2.0.0-11.deb, but the link for modules_2.0.0-10.deb is stale!

For what it's worth to you (I don't know how involved you are with the software),
although the Debian dependencies list modules_2.0.0-11 in the base set as being
scheduled for installation, the data accessed by dselect is causing it to try to
open modules_2.0.0-10.dep for which the links are stale.  

I should also note that I used the boot disk image boot_2.0.19_9-1440.bin from
SpecialKernels since the stock boot.bin has a buggy driver for my Adaptec AHA2840
SCSI host card.  Since I don't understand the dselect process, I don't know if
this is relevant or not.

I don't know whether the problem is an incorrect script which is accessing a stale
link, or the stale link itself.  It would seem that a CD-ROM distribution of Linux
should not contain stale symbolic links in any event.

If it's within your area of responsibility, I'd like to receive a CD-ROM of Debian
with this problem fixed.

The S.N. of my CD is 749, mastered 03-Oct-96.


--
Lindsay Haisley          | "Everything works     |   PGP public key
FMP Computer Services    |       if you let it"  |   available via
fmouse@fmp.com           |    (The Roadie)       |   Internet finger
http://www.fmp.com       |                       |

Message #15 received at 4784@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Simon Shapiro <shimon@nomis.i-Connect.Net>

To: Lindsay Haisley <fmouse@fmp.com>

Cc: help@i-connect.net, Simon Shapiro <shimon@i-connect.net>, 4784@bugs.debian.org, ian@chiark.greenend.org.uk

Subject: RE: Stale links on iConnect Debian CD-ROM

Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 19:00:22 -0700 (PDT)

On 17-Oct-96 Lindsay Haisley wrote:
> > I've been unable to install Debian Linux from the CD-ROM I purchased from iC
onnect
> a short while ago.  On going over the problem in correspondence with Chris
> Fearnley, I found the source of the problem, quoted below.
> 
> > OK, I found the problem.  dpkg [dselect] is trying to access the file
> > /mnt/stable/binary-i386/base/modules_2.0.0-10.deb.  On the CDROM from
> > iConnect this is a symbolic link to the file
> > "../../../Debian-1.1-updates/binary-i386/modules_2.0.0-10.deb".  There is no
> > such file at the other end of the symbolic link!  There is a corresponding
> > link for modules_2.0.0-11.deb, but the link for modules_2.0.0-10.deb is stal
e!
> 
> For what it's worth to you (I don't know how involved you are with the softwar
e),
> although the Debian dependencies list modules_2.0.0-11 in the base set as bein
g
> scheduled for installation, the data accessed by dselect is causing it to try 
to
> open modules_2.0.0-10.dep for which the links are stale.  
> 
> I should also note that I used the boot disk image boot_2.0.19_9-1440.bin from
> SpecialKernels since the stock boot.bin has a buggy driver for my Adaptec AHA2
840
> SCSI host card.  Since I don't understand the dselect process, I don't know if
> this is relevant or not.
> 
> I don't know whether the problem is an incorrect script which is accessing a s
tale
> link, or the stale link itself.  It would seem that a CD-ROM distribution of L
inux
> should not contain stale symbolic links in any event.
> 
> If it's within your area of responsibility, I'd like to receive a CD-ROM of De
bian
> with this problem fixed.
> 
> The S.N. of my CD is 749, mastered 03-Oct-96.

We had detected this problem and applied a patch.  The server has been updated
too.

I am sending you the patch, a shar file, in a separate message.

Sorry about this error.

Simon

Message #20 received at 4784@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Chris Fearnley <cjf@netaxs.com>

To: shimon@nomis.i-Connect.Net

Cc: 4784@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#4784: Stale links on iConnect Debian CD-ROM

Date: Thu, 17 Oct 1996 19:22:20 -0400 (EDT)

'Simon Shapiro wrote:'
>
>On 17-Oct-96 Lindsay Haisley wrote:
>> > I've been unable to install Debian Linux from the CD-ROM I purchased from iC
>onnect
>> a short while ago.  On going over the problem in correspondence with Chris
>> Fearnley, I found the source of the problem, quoted below.
>> 
>> > OK, I found the problem.  dpkg [dselect] is trying to access the file
>> > /mnt/stable/binary-i386/base/modules_2.0.0-10.deb.  On the CDROM from
>> > iConnect this is a symbolic link to the file
>> > "../../../Debian-1.1-updates/binary-i386/modules_2.0.0-10.deb".  There is no
>> > such file at the other end of the symbolic link!  There is a corresponding
>> > link for modules_2.0.0-11.deb, but the link for modules_2.0.0-10.deb is stal
>e!
>> 
>> For what it's worth to you (I don't know how involved you are with the softwar
>e),
>> although the Debian dependencies list modules_2.0.0-11 in the base set as bein
>g
>> scheduled for installation, the data accessed by dselect is causing it to try 
>to
>> open modules_2.0.0-10.dep for which the links are stale.  

I think this isn't the first time our /very/ complex symbolic link
structure has gone belly-up :(  Perhaps, someone could write some code
to check the links and compare with the Packages files to verify that
everything is kosher (I'll do it when I start mastering CDs, but that
may be several more months from now :(.  Or if someone can redesign the
system so it requires fewer symbolic links, that would ease these
problems.

-- 
Christopher J. Fearnley            |    Linux/Internet Consulting
cjf@netaxs.com, cjf@onit.net       |    UNIX SIG Leader at PACS
http://www.netaxs.com/~cjf         |    (Philadelphia Area Computer Society)
ftp://ftp.netaxs.com/people/cjf    |    Design Science Revolutionary
"Dare to be Naive" -- Bucky Fuller |    Explorer in Universe

Message #27 received at 4784-maintonly@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: remco@blaakmeer.student.utwente.nl (Remco Blaakmeer)

To: 4784-maintonly@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Old bugs need to be looked at

Date: Sun, 1 Feb 1998 12:23:30 +0100 (CET)

This is an automated message sent to all bugs older than one year.

This bug is very old. Please take a look at it and see if you can fix it.
If it has already been fixed, please close it.

If you have problems fixing it or if you don't have the time to fix it,
please ask the people on debian-devel@lists.debian.org for help, so that
at least the oldest bugs can be solved before Debian 2.0 is released.

Remco Blaakmeer

Message #32 received at 4784@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Remco Blaakmeer <remco@blaakmeer.student.utwente.nl>

To: 4784@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#4784: Stale links on iConnect Debian CD-ROM

Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 14:17:35 +0100 (CET)

Hi,

After the long list of nags I sent, here is a contribution that is meant
to be useful. :-)

The problem is with dangling symlinks. 'find . -follow' exits with exit
code `1' when it finds one. For the proper functioning of dpkg this error
is not critical, IMHO, but dpkg simply aborts on 'any error', AFAIK.

I did a 'ps' when a 'dpkg -iGROEB' was running and saw that these
arguments were passed to find:

..../binary-i386/ -follow -name *.deb -type f -print0

Now, this seems ok, but it can't handle dangling symlinks. I suggest that
something like the following is used to take care of it. I know dpkg is
written in C, but I don't know much about C, so this is bash syntax.

findfiles () {
   TEMPFILE=`tempfile`
   find "$1" -follow -name *.deb -type f -print0 2> $TEMPFILE
   if grep -v "No such file or directory" $TEMPFILE >&2
   then
      RETURN=1
   else
      RETURN=0
   fi
   rm -f $TEMPFILE
   return $RETURN
}

This findfiles function can be used in any pipe with the directory name as
the single argument. Any error produced by the `find' command that is not
about a dangling symlink is sent to stderr, the filenames are sent to
stdout.

Remco

Message #37 received at 4784@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Brian White <bcwhite@verisim.com>

To: 4784@bugs.debian.org, dpkg-maint@chiark.greenend.org.uk

Cc: control@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Questionable problem source

Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 14:52:26 -0500

reassign 4784 dpkg
--

This bug seems to have been reassigned to "general" at some point instead
of to "ftp.debian.org".

While the directory structure may have brought the problem to light, there
does seem to be a legitimate problem with dpkg, so I'm reassigning it there.

                                          Brian
                                 ( bcwhite@verisim.com )

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Message #44 received at 4784-close@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Wichert Akkerman <wakkerma@debian.org>

To: 4784-close@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Bug#4784: fixed in dpkg 1.9.0

Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 08:53:37 -0400

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
dpkg, which has been installed in the Debian FTP archive:

dpkg-doc_1.9.0_all.deb
  to pool/main/d/dpkg/dpkg-doc_1.9.0_all.deb
dpkg-1.9.0.tar.gz byhand
dpkg_1.9.0.dsc
  to pool/main/d/dpkg/dpkg_1.9.0.dsc
dpkg-dev_1.9.0_all.deb
  to pool/main/d/dpkg/dpkg-dev_1.9.0_all.deb
dpkg-1.9.0_i386.nondebbin.tar.gz byhand
dpkg_1.9.0_i386.deb
  to pool/main/d/dpkg/dpkg_1.9.0_i386.deb
dpkg_1.9.0.tar.gz
  to pool/main/d/dpkg/dpkg_1.9.0.tar.gz



A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 4784@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Wichert Akkerman <wakkerma@debian.org> (supplier of updated dpkg package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@debian.org)


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Format: 1.7
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 12:39:16 +0200
Source: dpkg
Binary: dpkg-dev dpkg-doc dpkg
Architecture: source all i386
Version: 1.9.0
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: low
Maintainer: Wichert Akkerman <wakkerma@debian.org>
Changed-By: Wichert Akkerman <wakkerma@debian.org>
Description: 
 dpkg       - Package maintenance system for Debian
 dpkg-dev   - Package building tools for Debian
 dpkg-doc   - Dpkg Internals Documentation
Closes: 4784 4974 13961 15644 25317 25496 31620 37017 45511 60717 60717 65284 67528 67896 68783 72406 74372 74814 75139 75562 75796 80142 80529 80532 81358 81630 82419 82708 82723 83042 83083 83468 83752 83812 84328 84361 84449 84582 84625 84905 85035 85040 85080 85847 85977 86453 86658 86847 87238 87485 87505 87571 87572 87579 87581 87985 88015 88225 88987 89000 89409 90328 90516 90722 90982 92908 93559 93873 94474 95023 95088
Changes: 
 dpkg (1.9.0) unstable; urgency=low
 .
   * Things should mostly work OpenBSD 2.8 as well now
   * Added a --status-pipe option.
   * Fixed several memleaks.
   * Profiled dpkg.
     * Reworked lib/parse.c:parsedb().  Instead of using getc(), then
       calling varbufaddc(), it now reads the entire file at once into a
       huge buffer, then moves pointers around, to do the parsing.  This
       gave a speedup of 33% on a dual celeron 333, when reading status and
       available.
     * various other speedups.
   * Removed all --smallmem code, as smallmem and largemem now actually
     use about the same amount of memory, and largemem is faster.  Both
     --largemem and --smallmem are now obselete options, and will print
     a warning if used. Closes: Bug#84905, #67528
   * Initialize unitialized variables.  This should solve several
     segfaults. Closes: Bug#25317(plus 9 others, thru the beauty of
     merges)
   * Found that when working with dependency cycles, and part of the cycle
     was a provide, the provider was not being considered, so the cycle
     could not be broken. Closes: Bug#87985(and 3 others)
   * Update German translation, Closes: Bug#80529,#80532,#87581
   * Update French translation, Closes: Bug#65284,#85035,#87238
   * Update Japanese translation, Closes: Bug#93873
   * Updated all other translations (but no bugs filed)
   * Add Danish translation
   * Remove spurious '%s' in Polish translation, Closes: Bug#74814
   * Add French manpages, courtesy of Philippe Batailler
   * Ingore vim swapfiles in dpkg-source, Closes: Bug#81630
   * remove --import option from dpkg-statoverride, Closes: Bug#81358
   * Replace nfmalloc implementation with obstack. Added obstack.[ch] to
     optlib, for non-GNU systems.
   * dpkg-divert only allows absolute filenames now. Closes: Bug#82419
   * Handle diffs from non-existing files to existing files. Closes: Bug#82708,
     #90982.
   * Small fixes to the buildsystem. Closes: Bug#84361
   * Fix dpkg-statoverride --update for things other then plain files.
     Closes: Bug#84449
   * Fix race with source directory disappearing in dpkg-source.
     Closes: Bug#45511
   * Fix manpage for dpkg-gencontrol. Closes: Bug#84625
   * Add -n option for dpkg-gencontrol to specify a filename. Closes: Bug#75796
   * Use POSIX glob instead of regexp in debian/rules. Closes: Bug#83042,
     #84582
   * fix typo in usage message for dpkg-divert, Closes: Bug#85977
   * Use full path for argv[0] when calling scripts. Closes: Bug#68783
   * Add ia64 support to dpkg-architecture.
   * Minor script changes, Closes: Bug#87485
   * Stop dpkg-genchanges from complaining about missing packages
     when doing a source-only build. Closes: Bug#87571,#15644,#25496
   * Various dpkg-architecture cleanups. Closes: Bug#87505
   * Modify dpkg-architecture to handle gcc versions containing letters.
     Closes: Bug#83083
   * dpkg-buildpackage updates: Closes: Bug#87572,#85847
     + make -C work properly
     + fix test for gpg secret keyring
     + improve source messages
     + skip signing pause when building unsigned packages
     + test for invalid signinterface. Closes: Bug#87579
     + remove debsign support, it's useless and doesn't work
     + Use correct architecture when naming .changes file. Closes: Bug#88015
   * Fix wording in dpkg-statoverride manpage for --add. Closes: Bug#85080
   * Fix typo in start-stop-daemon manpage. Closes: Bug#88225
   * Add dpkg-checkbuilddeps to check if build dependencies are satisfied
     and modify dpkg-buildpackage to call it if wanted.
     Closes: Bug#86453,#83812,#60717,#74372,#67896,#60717,#13961
   * dpkg-parsechangelog can read a changelog from stdin now. Closes: Bug#80142
   * Fix confusing wording for dpkg-buildpackage -uc option in manpage.
     Closes: Bug#83468
   * dpkg-statoverride now exits with exitcode 1 if we do a --list but don't
     output anything. Closes: Bug#84328
   * Remove Linux reference from all scripts, they should run fine on
     other OSes as well.
   * Mark last argument in dpkg-scanpackages usage info as optional.
     Closes: Bug#86658
   * Fix cache in dpkg-scanpackages version comparison. Closes: Bug#90722
   * Fix formatting error in dpkg-source.1. Closes: Bug#82723
   * Change dpkg-gencontrol to fix comma-related syntax errors after
     processing substvars. Closes: Bug#92908
   * Verify package signatures if debsig-verify is installed. Closes: Bug#37017
   * Handle window resize in dselect main menu. Closes: Bug#93559
   * Initialize all parts of the package record.  This should fix several
     segfaults people have been seeing in dpkg.  Closes: Bug#90328.
   * Apply patch from bug#86847, that escapes intl chars in filenames.
     Closes: Bug#83752, #85040, #86847, #89000.
   * Errors during dpkg -s(and other similiar commands) are now printed
     on stderr.  Closes: Bug#88987.
   * Add a --retry option to start-stop-daemon. Closes: Bug#75139
   * Fix regeps to extract Closes magic from a changelog so the #
     is really optional. Closes: Bug#94474
   * Remove useless statement from dpkg-shlibdeps. Closes: Bug#90516
   * Make the debian changelog parser identify itself with $progname.
     Closes: Bug#89409
   * Give a syntax error when we get an unexpected PGP signature in control
     files. Closes: Bug#75562
   * Change dpkg manpage to reflect that --force-statoveride is no enabled
     by default. Closes: Bug#95023
   * Handle dangling symlinks, by ignoring error code 1 from find, when
     processing --recursive. Closes: Bug#4784
   * dpkg -L, -S, -l, -s, and -p now return an error code if any package
     does not exist. Closes: Bug#4974, #72406
   * dselect has a configuration file as well now
   * Get ENOENT value at runtime in dpkg-divert instead of hardcoding it.
     Closes: Bug# 31620
   * Fix wrong ENOENT test in dpkg-divert. Closes: Bug#95088
   * Add support for more SuperH variants (sh[34]{,eb}-linux-gnu)
   * Fix formating and a typo in the dpkg manpage
   * Document the dpkg.cfg configuration file in dpkg(8)
Files: 
 2c6e367d8f9b51cf417ccfb35b858190 618 base required dpkg_1.9.0.dsc
 5c2b99e664b04c744eb93f079b51aef5 1288818 base required dpkg_1.9.0.tar.gz
 91767f85b979ebc86769149d8bb323cc 1018776 base required dpkg_1.9.0_i386.deb
 ea12da65ab5292cdb2b5d95d6b684dcc 1008856 byhand - dpkg-1.9.0_i386.nondebbin.tar.gz
 7f3f84fc919a122d7c492a1712f0b081 99710 devel important dpkg-dev_1.9.0_all.deb
 60bda539ece505c4eb2f7784be118571 10648 doc extra dpkg-doc_1.9.0_all.deb
 5c2b99e664b04c744eb93f079b51aef5 1288818 byhand - dpkg-1.9.0.tar.gz

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