renewing broken debconf database?
I had a system crash which hosed some files in /var. I've been trying to
reapply "apt-get upgrade" to restore the record of what's installed where.
Unfortunately debconf is not cooperating. It seems to be unable to re-ask
its questions in order to restore the ones which got lost during the crash.
For instance, exporting DEBCONF_DEBUG='.*', then installing xserver-xorg,
say, I get
# dpkg -i xserver-xorg_1%3a7.0.18_all.deb
(Reading database ...
197883 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking xserver-xorg (from xserver-xorg_1%3a7.0.18_all.deb) ...
debconf (db): making DbDriver of type File
debconf (db config): started; filename is /var/cache/debconf/config.dat
debconf (db config): loading database
debconf (db): making DbDriver of type File
debconf (db passwords): started; filename is /var/cache/debconf/passwords.dat
debconf (db passwords): loading database
debconf (db): making DbDriver of type Stack
debconf (db): making DbDriver of type File
debconf (db templatedb): started; filename is /var/cache/debconf/templates.dat
debconf (db templatedb): loading database
debconf (developer): frontend started
debconf (user): trying frontend Dialog
debconf (developer): frontend running, package name is xserver-xorg
debconf (developer): starting /var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/config configure
debconf (db): making DbDriver of type File
debconf (db config): started; filename is /var/cache/debconf/config.dat
debconf (db config): loading database
debconf (db): making DbDriver of type File
debconf (db passwords): started; filename is /var/cache/debconf/passwords.dat
debconf (db passwords): loading database
debconf (db): making DbDriver of type Stack
debconf (db): making DbDriver of type File
debconf (db templatedb): started; filename is /var/cache/debconf/templates.dat
debconf (db templatedb): loading database
debconf (db configdb): trying to owners(passwd/root-password-crypted) ..
debconf (db config): cache miss on passwd/root-password-crypted
debconf (db configdb): owners done by passwords
debconf (db configdb): trying to owners(passwd/user-password-crypted) ..
debconf (db config): cache miss on passwd/user-password-crypted
debconf (db configdb): owners done by passwords
debconf (db configdb): trying to owners(passwd/root-password) ..
debconf (db config): cache miss on passwd/root-password
debconf (db configdb): owners done by passwords
debconf (db configdb): trying to owners(passwd/root-password-again) ..
debconf (db config): cache miss on passwd/root-password-again
debconf (db configdb): owners done by passwords
debconf (db configdb): trying to owners(passwd/user-password-again) ..
debconf (db config): cache miss on passwd/user-password-again
debconf (db configdb): owners done by passwords
debconf (db configdb): trying to owners(passwd/user-password) ..
debconf (db config): cache miss on passwd/user-password
debconf (db configdb): owners done by passwords
debconf (db configdb): trying to owners(gnumeric) ..
debconf (db configdb): owners done by config
debconf (db configdb): trying to owners(ssl-cert) ..
debconf (db configdb): owners done by config
...
debconf (db configdb): trying to owners(adduser) ..
debconf (db configdb): owners done by config
debconf (developer): <-- GET xserver-xorg/config/inputdevice/mouse/emulate3buttons
debconf (developer): --> 10 xserver-xorg/config/inputdevice/mouse/emulate3buttons doesn't exist
debconf (developer): <-- GET xserver-xorg/config/inputdevice/mouse/zaxismapping
debconf (developer): --> 10 xserver-xorg/config/inputdevice/mouse/zaxismapping doesn't exist
debconf (developer): <-- GET xserver-xorg/config/monitor/selection-method
debconf (developer): --> 10 xserver-xorg/config/monitor/selection-method doesn't exist
dpkg: error processing xserver-xorg_1%3a7.0.18_all.deb (--install):
subprocess pre-installation script returned error exit status 10
Errors were encountered while processing:
xserver-xorg_1%3a7.0.18_all.deb
This example used xserver-xorg, but the same type of error appears with any
debconf using package.
So as far as I can tell the installation is failing because debconf cannot
find xserver-xorg/config/monitor/selection-method or many other debconf
entries, but it does not seem to be willing to create those entries anew.
Any permution I try seems to fail in the same way. I've tried
dpkg --force-all -i
dpkg-reconfigure --force
dpkg-preconfigure
They all refuse to finish configuring the packages, saying
"10 debconf/question doesn't exist".
I haven't filed a bug against debconf yet since I'm not certain it is a bug
in debconf. I hope you can provide useful clues.
Drew
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