apt-get upgrade problem

[jacquesvdm]

Hi Everyone,

Im trying to upgrade some packages on my Debain 3.1 dist

when running apt-get upgrade it gets all the packages it needs to upgrade. When I say yes to upgrade i get the following error on one of the packages its trying to upgrade.

Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 41039 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace login 1:4.0.3-31sarge5 (using .../login_1%3a4.0.3-31sarge9_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement login ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/login_1%3a4.0.3-31sarge9_i386.deb (--unpack):
unable to make backup link of `./bin/login' before installing new version: Operation not permitted
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/login_1%3a4.0.3-31sarge9_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Would anyone be able to help with this problem as I am a bit stuck and dont know where to go from here. I thought of removing the login package but then a whole bunch of packages will be removed with it.

How do i get apt-get to make the backup link so that all my packages can be upgrade?

Thanks to everyone in advance

[antidrugue]

First, try to clean the local database :

apt-get clean
apt-get autoclean

And try the upgrade again :

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

If that doesn't work, post back the error message like you just did.

[jacquesvdm]

Hi,

I did as you said and it is still coming up with the same as before

83 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/69.8MB of archives.
After unpacking 1117kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 41241 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace login 1:4.0.3-31sarge5 (using .../login_1%3a4.0.3-31sarge9_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement login ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/login_1%3a4.0.3-31sarge9_i386.deb (--unpack):
unable to make backup link of `./bin/login' before installing new version: Operation not permitted
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/login_1%3a4.0.3-31sarge9_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

[antidrugue]

Are you running Sarge only, or mixing repostirories ?

Can you post the content of :

cat /etc/apt/sources.list

As well, what is the output of

ls -l /bin/login

Then perhaps try :

dpkg --clear-avail
apt-get update

[jacquesvdm]

Yup, im only using sarge, kernel 2.6.8-3-686

Here are my apt sources

deb ftp://ftp.is.co.za/debian/ stable main contrib non-free
deb-src ftp://ftp.is.co.za/debian/ stable main contrib non-free
deb http://volatile.debian.net/debian-volatile sarge/volatile main
deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main contrib

Listing of /bin/login

ls -l /bin/login
-rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 35512 2005-05-18 08:33 /bin/login


apt-get update
Get:1 http://volatile.debian.net sarge/volatile/main Packages [3888B]
Get:2 http://volatile.debian.net sarge/volatile/main Release [110B]
Hit http://security.debian.org stable/updates/main Packages
Hit http://security.debian.org stable/updates/main Release
Hit http://security.debian.org stable/updates/contrib Packages
Hit http://security.debian.org stable/updates/contrib Release
Hit ftp://ftp.is.co.za stable/main Packages
Hit ftp://ftp.is.co.za stable/main Release
Hit ftp://ftp.is.co.za stable/contrib Packages
Hit ftp://ftp.is.co.za stable/contrib Release
Hit ftp://ftp.is.co.za stable/non-free Packages
Hit ftp://ftp.is.co.za stable/non-free Release
Hit ftp://ftp.is.co.za stable/main Sources
Hit ftp://ftp.is.co.za stable/main Release
Hit ftp://ftp.is.co.za stable/contrib Sources
Hit ftp://ftp.is.co.za stable/contrib Release
Hit ftp://ftp.is.co.za stable/non-free Sources
Hit ftp://ftp.is.co.za stable/non-free Release
Fetched 3998B in 4s (882B/s)
Reading Package Lists... Done

I ran apt-get upgrade again, and i still got the exact same error when trying to upgrade after Ive done the dpkg --clear-avail

[TruthSeeker]

Sorry if this isn't helpful but you should use
# apt-get dist-upgrade
instead of
# apt-get upgrade
because it take care of dependencies.

How about just
# apt-get install login
does that give the same error?

[antidrugue]

How about just
# apt-get install login
does that give the same error?

Good point.

Or perhaps :

dpkg-reconfigure login

if that doesn't work. Then

apt-get install login

again.

[jacquesvdm]

Ive tried installing the new login package only, still comes up with the same error. I did run apt-get upgrade in the beginning to upgrade all my packages.

This is what happens when i run the commands as per the previous posts

apt-get install login
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
login
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 82 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/576kB of archives.
After unpacking 10.2kB of additional disk space will be used.
(Reading database ... 41241 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace login 1:4.0.3-31sarge5 (using .../login_1%3a4.0.3-31sarge9_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement login ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/login_1%3a4.0.3-31sarge9_i386.deb (--unpack):
unable to make backup link of `./bin/login' before installing new version: Operation not permitted
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/login_1%3a4.0.3-31sarge9_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

dpkg-reconfigure login

This went fine with no erros at all

I then ran "apt-get install login" again

apt-get install login
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
login
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 82 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/576kB of archives.
After unpacking 10.2kB of additional disk space will be used.
(Reading database ... 41241 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace login 1:4.0.3-31sarge5 (using .../login_1%3a4.0.3-31sarge9_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement login ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/login_1%3a4.0.3-31sarge9_i386.deb (--unpack):
unable to make backup link of `./bin/login' before installing new version: Operation not permitted
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/login_1%3a4.0.3-31sarge9_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Im really lost here with this problem and I need to desperately upgrade all the packages on the server. I dont know where to go from here. I can remove the package but then a lot will be removed with it.

[jacquesvdm]

I realized that the error that i got was actually telling me that we cant change, edit or do anything with the package.

I ran the follwing command to check the attributes on the package

lsattr /bin/login

and found that it was immutable.

I ran the follwing command to remove the immutable attribute on /bin/login

chattr -i /bin/login

this allowed me to finally do the upgrade.

All went ok 100%

Thanks to everyone who helped