Bug#88842: apt-get -> debconf goes into endless loop of asking for passwords for existing user
Package: install
Version: ??
System info:
apt 0.3.19 for i386 compiled on May 12 2000 21:17:27
perl, version 5.005_03 built for
i386-linux
Linux bike 2.2.17 #6 Fri Aug 18 07:45:35 PDT 2000 i686
unknown
libc Version:
2.1.3-10
Hardware: Thinkpad 770X, 256MB, 8GB disk, xircom PCMCIA 10/100Mb ether,
reluctantly running vmaware w/ win2k.
I tried to do an apt-get upgrade on a Debian 2.2 system (working fine
before and since with the exception that I'm reporting - EXCELLENT job!)
the upgrade went smoothly with the exception of the KDE packages that
were held back. I had done a separate dselect install of an earlier kde
package that went smoothly, but instead of informing me of this, it goes
into the endless password loop described below.
root@bike:/root
5 % apt-get upgrade
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following packages have been kept back
abbrowser amor ark arts kab kabalone kaiman karm kasteroids katomic
kblackbox kcalc kcharselect kchart kcron kdebase kdebase-libs kdelibs3
kdepasswd kedit keystone kfind kfloppy kfract kghostview khexedit
killustrator kit kjots kjumpingcube klaptopdaemon kljettool klpq
kmahjongg
kmail kmid kmidi kmines kmix kmoon knode knotes kodo koffice-libs
konqueror
konquest konsole korganizer korn kpackage kpat kpixmap2bitmap kpm
kpoker
kppp kpresenter kreversi ksame kscd kshisen ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris
ksnake
ksnapshot ksokoban kspaceduel kspread ksysctrl ksysv ktalkd kteatime
ktimemon ktron ktuberling kuser kview kword kworldwatch libkonq3
libmng
libmng-dev libqt2.2 lskat pcmcia-modules-2.2.17 secpolicy task-kde
70 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 87 not
upgraded.
Need to get 0B/30.8MB of archives. After unpacking 7622kB will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
Configuring packages ...
Debian System Configuration
---------------------------
Empty password was entered.
You seem to have entered nothing for the password. That is not secure!
Please
try again.
[repeat loop starts here]
A good password will contain a mixture of letters, numbers and
punctuation and
will be changed at regular intervals.
Enter a password for the new user: lk
Please enter the same user password again to verify you have typed it
correctly.
Re-enter password to verify: lk
adduser: The user `hjm' already exists.
Empty password was entered.
and on and on and on.
I was 1st using the KDE Konsole term and the interface was writing odd
characters all over the screen, so I switched to a xterm which solved
that problem, but still had the one I'm mentioning here.
I switched debconf to use the straight text interface which allowed
bettter
control over killing the session, but it still repeats and after
perusing the
bug list and looking thru the included docs, I cannot figure out what
the problem is..
Hoping you can.
--
Cheers,
Harry
Harry J Mangalam (949) 856 2847(v&f) hjm@ncgr.org || mangalam@home.com
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