Bug#742392: hurd: Hang during apt-get upgrade from last image release

[Petter Reinholdtsen <pere@hungry.com>]

Package: hurd
Version: 1:0.5.git20140320-1
Severity: grave

I am unable to upgrade my virtual test hurd machine because it hang
completely during apt-get upgrade.  I have to "cut the power" on the
machine and reboot it to try to get going.  After the boot, the machine
hang again during boot.  As the file system is messed up, I run fsck
outside the virtual machine like this to fix it:

  kpartx -sa debian-hurd-20140211.img
  fsck -f -y /dev/mapper/loop0p1
  kpartx -d debian-hurd-20140211.img

To reproduce this, I start by downloading the
debian-hurd-20130504.img.tar.gz file, unpack the image and boot it using
virt-manager.  In the booted image, I run 'dhclient /dev/eth0' to get a
IP address, 'apt-get update' to fetch the package lists, install
etckeeper to track changes in /etc, edit /etc/apt/sources.list to drop
the CD source, and next try 'apt-get upgrade'.  After a while the
upgrade hang and the machine uses lots of CPU.

To try to figure out exactly what went wrong, I tried instead of
'apt-get upgrade' to use apt-get --download-only upgrade' and then used
dpkg -i on individual debs to see if I could find the trigger.
Upgrading the hurd package caused the hang after the unpack message is
printed.  Run these commands on a fresh image to reproduce it:

  dhclient /dev/eth0
  apt-get update
  apt-get install -y etckeeper
  vi /etc/apt/get/sources.list
  dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/packages/hurd_*.deb

As far as I know, etckeeper is not vital to reproduce it, but mentioning
it here in the hope that you consider installing it by default. :)

I'm setting severity to grave, as this make the package useless and can
cause data loss when I have to power off the machine and leave the file
system in an inconsistent state.

-- 
Happy hacking
Petter Reinholdtsen