Bug#366107: Installing tex-common gets stuck after giving invalid group for owning fonts
Package: tex-common
Version: 0.21
Severity: normal
I did a routine dist-upgrade.
tex-common asked what group should own the font cache, and I
misspelled the group name.
The first thing that happened was chown balking at the invalid
group name, causing a fault in "post-installation".
Retrying the dist-upgrade fails, as it tries to set up
tex-common again without asking the questions. So I tried
dpkg-reconfigure tex-common to fix it. I know the correct
group name after all.
But unfortunately, dpkg-reconfigure refuse to reconfigure
a damaged/not fully installed package. :-(
apt-get -f install also fails, it too blindly tries to
set up tex-common using the bad group name.
My next try, which I consider excessive:
dpkg --force-depends --remove tex-common
apt-get install tex-common
And it _still_ tried to use the bad group without giving
me a chance to fix it.
Final attempt, fortunately tex-common doesn't have
that many settings:
dpkg --force-depends --purge tex-common
apt-get install tex-common
Still no questions asked, preconfiguring failed, but
the package was installed anyway. So I could run
dpkg-reconfigure tex-common and finally get the group name right.
Now, the ideal fix would be a package system that offers
the option of reconfiguring packages that fail post-installation.
A nice fix for tex-common, would be to do minimal validation
of the group name entered. For example, see if
"getent groupname" works. Shellscript test:
if getent group $GROUPNAME ; then echo ok ; else echo bad ; fi
This works for me, of course you want to do better than "echo",
i.e. bring up the group dialog box again on failure.
-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (900, 'testing'), (800, 'unstable'), (800, 'stable'), (700, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.17-rc3-mm1
Locale: LANG=nb_NO.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=nb_NO.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Versions of packages tex-common depends on:
ii debconf [debconf-2.0] 1.5.0 Debian configuration management sy
ii ucf 2.009 Update Configuration File: preserv
tex-common recommends no packages.
Versions of packages tetex-base depends on:
ii dpkg 1.13.18 package maintenance system for Deb
ii ucf 2.009 Update Configuration File: preserv
Versions of packages tetex-bin depends on:
ii debconf [debconf-2.0] 1.5.0 Debian configuration management sy
ii debianutils 2.15.7 Miscellaneous utilities specific t
ii dialog 1.0-20060221-1 Displays user-friendly dialog boxe
ii dpkg 1.13.18 package maintenance system for Deb
ii ed 0.2-20 The classic unix line editor
ii libc6 2.3.6-7 GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii libfontconfig1 2.3.2-5.1 generic font configuration library
ii libfreetype6 2.1.10-3 FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib
ii libgcc1 1:4.1.0-1+b1 GCC support library
ii libice6 6.9.0.dfsg.1-6 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii libjpeg62 6b-12 The Independent JPEG Group's JPEG
ii libkpathsea4 3.0-16 path search library for teTeX (run
ii libpaper1 1.1.14-7 Library for handling paper charact
ii libpng12-0 1.2.8rel-5 PNG library - runtime
ii libpoppler0c2 0.4.5-4 PDF rendering library
ii libsm6 6.9.0.dfsg.1-6 X Window System Session Management
ii libstdc++6 4.1.0-1+b1 The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii libt1-5 5.1.0-2 Type 1 font rasterizer library - r
ii libx11-6 6.9.0.dfsg.1-6 X Window System protocol client li
ii libxaw7 6.9.0.dfsg.1-6 X Athena widget set library
ii libxext6 6.9.0.dfsg.1-6 X Window System miscellaneous exte
ii libxmu6 6.9.0.dfsg.1-6 X Window System miscellaneous util
ii libxp6 6.9.0.dfsg.1-6 X Window System printing extension
ii libxpm4 6.9.0.dfsg.1-6 X pixmap library
ii libxt6 6.9.0.dfsg.1-6 X Toolkit Intrinsics
ii mime-support 3.36-1 MIME files 'mime.types' & 'mailcap
ii perl 5.8.8-4 Larry Wall's Practical Extraction
ii sed 4.1.4-7 The GNU sed stream editor
ii tetex-base 3.0-17 Basic library files of teTeX
ii ucf 2.009 Update Configuration File: preserv
ii whiptail 0.51.6-31 Displays user-friendly dialog boxe
ii zlib1g 1:1.2.3-11 compression library - runtime
Versions of packages tetex-extra depends on:
ii dpkg 1.13.18 package maintenance system for Deb
ii tetex-base 3.0-17 Basic library files of teTeX
ii tetex-bin 3.0-16 The teTeX binary files
ii ucf 2.009 Update Configuration File: preserv
-- debconf-show failed
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