Software updates stuck at 42% on libhpmud0

[Yamipirogoeth]

I installed Kubuntu 11.10 into VMWare Player 4.0.2 and after successfully completing the installation I started to update all the software. It downloads them just fine but then when it hits 42% and libhpmud0 it just stays there...it's been like that for the past 24 hours too.

That machine it's on is a 64bit machine with 6GB of RAM (gave 2 of it for Kubuntu) with a 2.2GHz quad core processor

Let me know if you need more info or anything that I should try...cause the last time it did this I thought it was stuck so I forced a reboot...bad idea...had to reinstall Kubuntu...don't really want to do that again

[Snowhog]

Welcome.

Are you updating from a console/terminal, or from the graphical package manager?

[Yamipirogoeth]

I am running the updates via the graphical package manager

[Snowhog]

Go ahead and kill it. Press Ctl+Alt+Esc which will produce a Skull mouse cursor. Move it over the package manager and click. It will kill it. Open a console and type:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -f

[Yamipirogoeth]

I would like to, but everytime I do that it just kicks me out of VMWare and back to my desktop...clicking the X has no effect and also right clicking the top of the window and telling it to close has no effect either...so I'm not sure how to kill it at the moment

[Snowhog]

Do you know which package manager you are running?

[JontheEchidna]

Run "killall qaptworker", then "sudo fuser -vki /var/lib/dpkg/lock;sudo dpkg --configure -a".

[Yamipirogoeth]

@Snowhog - I have no idea honestly...I'm not sure where to find that in Kubuntu

@JontheEchidna - I would if I could figure out where I can type that into a terminal...closest thing I found was in KickOff Application Launcher - Computer - Run Command...but that brings up a bar at the top of the screen and regardless of what I type in there, as soon as I either click on or hit enter it disappears and nothing has changed

[Snowhog]

Press Alt+F2 and type: konsole and press Enter. This will launch Konsole. Then type the two commands JontheEchidna said to run:

killall qaptworker
sudo fuser -vki /var/lib/dpkg/lock;sudo dpkg --configure -a

[Yamipirogoeth]

Thanks Snowhog

Ok, I killed the updater that was running and ran both of the sudo commands. Doesn't seem to be any errors listed in konsole. After a reboot it seems to be working pretty well now. I noticed there are still more security and software updates. Is that something I should I should allow the graphical package manager to run or is that something I should be running through konsole given how it's acted before?

[Snowhog]

I *never* use the graphical package manager to do any package management. I only use it to 'find' things. I do all my package management from the console. It has never failed me. So, I suggest that you do likewise. Open a console and type:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

If you follow this procedure, you should not have any issues.

When you get a notification of updates in the Task Manager, just open it and then close it. Open a console and run the commands above.

[Yamipirogoeth]

Cool, thank you again for your help Snowhog, also JontheEchidna, I'm glad this was a simple fix for me

[GreyGeek]

When running the graphical updater, and several other graphical apps that post a dialog to get a user response, I've noticed that the dialog pops UNDER the parent app, instead of appearing on top of it (probably because the parent app was set to "keep above others" and the dialog was not. When the main app windows is moved by dragging it with the mouse, or iconized, the dialog is usually found under it, patiently waiting for user input.

When a dialog opens up for user input it can be one of two types, depending on the type of data entered. IF the data required by the dialog is necessary for the parent app to continue the dialog is called a "modal" dialog. Modal dialogs capture the input and prevents the parent app from continuing until the modal dialog is satisfied and control is returned to the parent app. A "Modeless" dialog does not capture the input so the user can do other things with the parent app even though the dialog is waiting for a user response. Whether a dialog is modal or modeless depends entirely on how the developer coded it.

[Yamipirogoeth]

Interesting, so how can I set it for any modal dialogue to post on top instead of underneath?

[GreyGeek]

Interesting, so how can I set it for any modal dialogue to post on top instead of underneath?

You can't. That is the task (and design) of the developer. The Qt class "QDialog" contains the boolean property "Modal" along with the public function:

void	setModal ( bool modal )

Modal Dialogs

A modal dialog is a dialog that blocks input to other visible windows in the same application. Dialogs that are used to request a file name from the user or that are used to set application preferences are usually modal. Dialogs can be application modal (the default) or window modal.
When an application modal dialog is opened, the user must finish interacting with the dialog and close it before they can access any other window in the application. Window modal dialogs only block access to the window associated with the dialog, allowing the user to continue to use other windows in an application.
The most common way to display a modal dialog is to call its exec() function. When the user closes the dialog, exec() will provide a usefulreturn value. Typically, to get the dialog to close and return the appropriate value, we connect a default button, e.g. OK, to the accept() slot and a Cancel button to the reject() slot. Alternatively you can call the done() slot with Accepted or Rejected.
An alternative is to call setModal(true) or setWindowModality(), then show(). Unlike exec(), show() returns control to the caller immediately. Calling setModal(true) is especially useful for progress dialogs, where the user must have the ability to interact with the dialog, e.g. to cancel a long running operation. If you use show() and setModal(true) together to perform a long operation, you must callQApplication:rocessEvents() periodically during processing to enable the user to interact with the dialog. (See QProgressDialog.)
Modeless Dialogs

A modeless dialog is a dialog that operates independently of other windows in the same application. Find and replace dialogs in word-processors are often modeless to allow the user to interact with both the application's main window and with the dialog.
Modeless dialogs are displayed using show(), which returns control to the caller immediately.
If you invoke the show() function after hiding a dialog, the dialog will be displayed in its original position. This is because the window manager decides the position for windows that have not been explicitly placed by the programmer. To preserve the position of a dialog that has been moved by the user, save its position in your closeEvent() handler and then move the dialog to that position, before showing it again.

The default position for a dialog windows is the center of the screen. That the dialog pops "under" the parent application window is a bug that the developer did not intend to create, obviously.

What you can do is minimize or move the app window to reveal the dialog, then interact with the dialog.