Bug#1114834: Upgrade to trixie run from GUI Konsole hangs on dbus
Package: release-notes,dbus
Version: 13.0,1.16.2-2
== Summary for users ==
- For upgrading to a new Debian release (e.g. 12 to 13), prefer using a
real text terminal (Ctrl+Alt+F3), not a terminal window within a
graphical desktop (Konsole/gnome-terminal/etc).
- If you have already started such an upgrade and it hung, see
'Recovery' below, preferably before rebooting.
== Detailed description ==
I attempted to upgrade from Debian 12 KDE to 13 using 'sudo apt-get
dist-upgrade' in a Konsole window. (I already suspected that this might
not work, but the obvious documentation (i.e. Release Notes chapter 4)
doesn't actually warn against it.)
At some point during the upgrade, the screen was locked for ~10min, and
when I unlocked it I found the Konsole window no longer scrolling
installed packages and with a 'Not Responding' on the title bar, and the
clock on the desktop stopped.
After waiting a few minutes, I went to a text terminal, where 'ps -e'
found that the apt-get and dpkg processes still existed, but the log
timestamps suggested they had not installed anything for several
minutes. The last package listed in /var/log/apt/term.log was dbus,
which is also the sort of package where an upgrade plausibly might crash
a desktop session.
== Recovery ==
- Use Ctrl+Alt+F3 to switch to a text terminal, and log in there.
- Run the following:
# you only actually need one of these, but doing both may be easier than
remembering which
sudo killall apt-get
sudo killall apt
# this may skip some packages due to dependency problems - ignore that
sudo dpkg --configure -a
# these should succeed
sudo apt-get -f install
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
- If these succeed, only then reboot.
== Unknowns / for maintainers ==
If it isn't practical to actually fix this, the release notes should
probably warn against upgrading from GUI terminals.
I also had another Debian 12 KDE install on another partition of the
same hardware, which I upgraded from a text terminal without this issue,
and one on other hardware, which I haven't tried to upgrade yet.
I don't know whether this issue is reproducible, or if it is, how
widespread it is (KDE or all desktops? does the screen have to be locked
at this point? does it matter that the hardware is old (i5-3xxx)?).
However, the fact that it hasn't already been reported suggests it isn't
very widespread.
I don't know what would happen if the system was rebooted in this
half-upgraded state (e.g. because the user doesn't know about the
Ctrl+Alt+Fn terminals and thinks that's the only option).
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