[Bug 827942] Re: package dselect (not installed) failed to install/upgrade: unable to create `/etc/dpkg/dselect.cfg.dpkg-new' (while processing `./etc/dpkg/dselect.cfg'): Invalid argument

[Raphaël Hertzog]

On Sun, 21 Aug 2011, Nathan Neal wrote:
> Well, I had originally installed Ubuntu under ext3, but could not
> write to it under Mac OS X, and did some searching online, and I seem
> to remember reading that MOSX works better with ext2 formatting than
> ext3, so I wiped my Linux partition, reformatted as ext2, and
> reinstalled Ubuntu.  MOSX does now allow read/write to the Linux
> partition, whereas under ext3 it did not.  Anyway, all that is just
> some background as why I chose ext2.

It might be related under the hood. Did you write to your linux partition
from MacOS some time before the failure?

> I did as as you suggested, and tried installing dselect again, and
> this time it worked.  I'm copying/pasting the text of the terminal

Weird. Did something change at the kernel level? Did you enable/disable
some security stuff (SMACK) ?

> of an easier way (maybe a cache of some sort), then you could instruct
> me on how to access it.

There's /var/log/dpkg.log but I saw your apt-history file and I don't
think the supplementary packages can explain why it works now. It's more
a kernel level issue or maybe a glibc issue. Somehow I would favor a bug
in the kernel with ext2 possibly related to some unexpected stuff done
by MacOS. But it's just a wild guess. It might also be some issue with
SMACK or similar security modules but I doubt we would get EINVAL as error
code if that was the reason.

Cheers,
-- 
Raphaël Hertzog ◈ Debian Developer

Follow my Debian News ▶ http://RaphaelHertzog.com (English)
                      ▶ http://RaphaelHertzog.fr (Français)

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/827942

Title:
  package dselect (not installed) failed to install/upgrade: unable to
  create `/etc/dpkg/dselect.cfg.dpkg-new' (while processing
  `./etc/dpkg/dselect.cfg'): Invalid argument

Status in “dpkg” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  I don't know a great deal about linux/ubuntu.  I was trying to update
  a library file libc6 to a newer version, and could not see a way to do
  this using apt, so I went through some man pages, found dselect, tried
  to use it, found it was not installed, and tried to install it using
  apt-get....this is when I received this error.  I don't know if it's a
  bug or not, I don't know if I can't use dselect when apt is already
  installed due to some sort of conflict.

  ProblemType: Package
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
  Package: dselect (not installed)
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-10.46-generic 2.6.38.7
  Uname: Linux 2.6.38-10-generic i686
  NonfreeKernelModules: wl
  AptOrdering:
   dselect: Install
   dselect: Configure
  Architecture: i386
  Date: Wed Aug 17 07:00:16 2011
  DpkgTerminalLog:
   Unpacking dselect (from .../dselect_1.16.0~ubuntu7_i386.deb) ...
   dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/dselect_1.16.0~ubuntu7_i386.deb (--unpack):
    unable to create `/etc/dpkg/dselect.cfg.dpkg-new' (while processing `./etc/dpkg/dselect.cfg'): Invalid argument
  ErrorMessage: unable to create `/etc/dpkg/dselect.cfg.dpkg-new' (while processing `./etc/dpkg/dselect.cfg'): Invalid argument
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release i386 (20110427.1)
  SourcePackage: dpkg
  Title: package dselect (not installed) failed to install/upgrade: unable to create `/etc/dpkg/dselect.cfg.dpkg-new' (while processing `./etc/dpkg/dselect.cfg'): Invalid argument
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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