Problems with shutdown & adept updater

[JonPiper]

Problems with Kubuntu 8.04-beta-desktop-i386
Hardware: Toshiba A135-S4467 (Laptop), Intel T5200 Core 2 Duo, 1 GB memory

1. Got an error message (don't remember what context): library files
kcm_audiocd.la not found

2. There is no program "ksynaptics"; "gsynaptics" cannot configure
the touchpad. All you can do is enable/disable the touchpad. It makes
it very inconvenient without "ksynaptics" ctrl-alt-q key sequence, for
those of us with laptops without a touchpad switch.

3. Could Not Commit Changes - Adept updater
Error Message: "There was an error commiting changes. Possibly there was a
problem downloading some packages or the commit would break packages."

The next time you attempt to use Adept (or apt, synaptic) you will get
the following error:
"Another process is using the packaging system database (probably
some other Adept application or apt-get or aptitude).
Would you like to attempt to resolve this problem? Now will enter
read-only mode and Cancel to quit and resolve this issue yourself."

When you select "yes" to to attempt for resolve the problem, it will crash
(crash report attached). I have yet to have it resolve the problem.

After the above error message, if you attempt to use "adept", "synaptic
package manager", or "apt-get" for days it gives another error message
that the program is in use. "ps" fails to show any process relating to
any of these programs. "lsof" doesn't show a file that I can recognize
as belonging to Adept; there is no filename or file location in any error
message. Eventually the problem goes away - days - or weeks later; the
problem persisted for three weeks one time with 7.10.

The above problem is not new; it was present in 6.06 (64 AMD), 7.04 (i386
& 64 AMD), 7.10, and still there in 8.04. This is bad, at this point I
have three computers that can't be updated and three clients with one or
more with the same problem. I just installed 8.04 on 3/27 the message
appeared on my first automatic update of 170 files on 3/28.

Obviously, Adept is not closing its files after it finds a fractured file
causing the crash. If you want to fix this, I can tell you how to stop
this nasty behavior for good!

4. The installation went really smooth but ended up with no sound. This also
is not new. There was sound in 6.06, 7.04 (after a lot of work), but I
never did get sound in 7.10. The installation disk for 8.04 had sound
before it was used to install; I did get sound after a lot of messing
around with the contents of /etc/modules.d/alsa-base and /etc/modules and
the settings in "alsamixer". I could not find the alsa drivers anywhere;
so I attempted to compile alsa-drivers-1.0.15, alsa-lib-1.0.15,
alsa-plugins-1.0.15, & alsa-utils-1.0.15 but none would compile with
either gcc-3.4 or gcc-4.2 -- that is how I got sound in 7.04 (it
didn't work with 7.10).

5. Version 8.04 shutdown: fails to shutdown except when you select hibernate.
It will not shutdown or restart. You have to shut it down with the
off switch -- not good.

6. I finally got Adept Updater to work today. The update today produced at least
one more problem --the internet disappeared immediately after the update!!!
No ethernet - No wireless. Windows Vista on the same machine has the internet
so it's not a hardware problem. I'll have to send this from my trusty Debien box.

Question: How do I get this fixed without the internet and without re-installing?

Thanks,
Jon Piper

P.S. Firefox 3 is for the birds!

[mafitzpatrick]

Re: Problems with shutdown & adept updater

Hi Jon,

I can't help with any of the specific problems but I was wondering if the update had completed successfully (from within Adept). I only ask because I've been having a number of half-finished updates recently, packages getting stuck, borking without errors and the like. The only indication something was wrong was the permanently lit "Full Upgrade" button (which did nothing) and an error any time I tried to install anything else.

If you're running Debian can I assume you know what you're doing with all the command line apt-get / dpkg stuff? I only ask because a) I'd need to look it up and may still be wrong, b) I don't want you to show me up

If you give that a shot (ask if you have no idea what I'm talking about)... it certainly did the trick for me. Obviously if the net access is borked it gets trickier but perhaps we can figure out a way to find the packages you're missing. Best of luck.

[misfire99]

Re: Problems with shutdown & adept updater

adept is such a piece of crap. The reason you are having problems with adept after it crashes, some might call it quitting after an error condition but that's bs if it leaves the system in an unusable state, is it is leaving database handles open and locked. This is poor programming practice.

To fix this after adept craps on you is to run:
sudo dpkg --configure -a

This will "fix" the problem. Personally I think fixing the problem should be a rewrite of adept.

[JonPiper]

Re: Problems with shutdown & adept updater

Hi Kubuntu users with Problems With Adept:
Sorry folks, I forgot to reply to my own post.

You have experienced what I call Adept hell. At one time I had two of my machines and two of my client machine that could not be updated. All fixed. I have found a cure, part of which one of you posted. This problem appears when Adept can't (because of a bad file, etc.) can't complete an install. I got this from the Ubuntu forums, I think.

Here it is:
sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install
sudo apt-get autoremove

I hope someone fixes this. I would love to do it but I don't have the time. I have been dealing with accounting database programming for almost 30 years. In the days before built-in transaction processing, I would save each record in a transaction error to a file, which would be deleted when the transactions finished or remained in the error file if it didn't - posted records would be backed out and the cause could be corrected and then reposted. So the error would not stop processing. The same sort of procedure could work with Adept but somebody needs to do it.

Basically, I think Adept is a good piece of software, but it needs to be tweaked. I have yet to see a program that didn't need to be loved on a bit.

Keep truckin.
Jon Piper