Bug#806406: 1.1 regression: apt-get hangs forever, due to missing "_apt" user
On Fri, Nov 27, 2015 at 11:20:53AM +0000, Iain Lane wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 27, 2015 at 11:56:03AM +0100, Julian Andres Klode wrote:
> > Control: severity -1 important
> >
> > On Fri, Nov 27, 2015 at 09:27:05AM +0100, Martin Pitt wrote:
> > > Package: apt
> > > Version: 1.1
> > > Severity: grave
> > >
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > after dist-upgrading my sid schroot today, apt-get hangs forever. I
> > > suspected some local schroot breakage, so I wiped it and tried to
> > > rebuild one, but "mk-sbuild sid" hangs there too when it did the
> > > initial bootstrap and runs "apt-get update" in the schroot. Killing
> > > them, trying to chroot into the half-created env myself and running
> > > with debugging gives the output below.
> > >
> > > Dist-upgrading a jessie schroot to sid works on the other hand.
> > >
> > > Michael figured out that this is because apt expects the "_apt" system
> > > user. This isn't present in a fresh debootstrap, and also gets wiped
> > > with schroot as that usually copies /etc/passwd and friends from the
> > > host (which does not have the _apt user).
> >
> > Why is it not present in a fresh debootstrap? APT is not essential,
> > so it is not supposed to be run without its postinst being run
> > first.
> >
> > And in fact, I just did a debootstrap of sid, and everything
> > worked fine, and the _apt user was created as it should be.
> >
> > Maybe sbuild is doing something messed up.
>
> AFAICT schroot is copying /etc/passwd from the host system into the
> schroot each time, which clobbers the _apt user.
>
Right, and that's a really horrible thing to do, because it breaks
as soon as your chroot has any custom user.
It should just merge any non-system users into the chroot's
passwd.
In any case, APT should not hang, and mvo is working on fixing
that. We'll just not drop privileges if the user does not
exist (and print a warning).
--
Julian Andres Klode - Debian Developer, Ubuntu Member
See http://wiki.debian.org/JulianAndresKlode and http://jak-linux.org/.
When replying, only quote what is necessary, and write each reply
directly below the part(s) it pertains to (`inline'). Thank you.
Reply to: