[Bug 1771135] Re: unattended upgrades always fail b/c dpkg status database is always locked

[Balint Reczey]

*** This bug is a duplicate of bug 1789637 ***
    https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1789637

Locking across dpkg frontend is being fixed and the fix will be ported
back to Xenial. I'm setting this bug as a duplicate of the one tracking
the fix of unattended-upgrades. Please follow the state of that bug for
the resolution of the reported issue.

** This bug has been marked a duplicate of bug 1789637
   Proper support for frontend lock

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to unattended-upgrades in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1771135

Title:
  unattended upgrades always fail b/c dpkg status database is always
  locked

Status in apt package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid
Status in unattended-upgrades package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  Hi,

  (Filing this bug against apt since that contains the systemd timers
  and cron job to start unattended-upgrades).

  I'm using unattended-upgrades on several computers.  On the one that
  is on most of the time, updates work as expected.  On the ones that
  are off most of the time, updates are never installed because there is
  always a "dpkg: error: dpkg status database is locked by another
  process".  Running `unattended-upgrade -d` by hand or using aptitude
  works fine.

  I suspect that because these computers are off most of the time, the
  systemd timers for both apt-daily and apt-daily-upgrade are always run
  at the same time during boot and resulting in the dpkg database being
  locked for apt-daily-upgrade.

  I will try disabling the systemd timers and using the cron job instead
  to see if that fixes the problem.

  FYI I also noticed that the cron job will only run when the system is
  on A/C power, whereas the systemd timers do not seem to have any such
  check.

  Thanks.

  - Felix

  ubuntu version: 16.04.4 LTS
  apt version: 1.2.26
  unattended-upgrades version: 0.90ubuntu0.9

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt/+bug/1771135/+subscriptions