[Bug 1883338] Re: unattended-upgrades blocks apt

[ssducf]

Unable to acquire the dpkg frontend lock (/var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend),
is another process using it?

I run fuser /var/lib/dpkg  and the pid that shows up is unattended-
upgrades which is chewing cpu.

If I run ps -ef | grep dpkg
nothing is running.   I don't know what unattended-upgrades is doing other than blocking me from running apt full-upgrade, but it's not actually running updates.   If I kill it, it just restarts.  I have to kill it and immediately start apt full-upgrade or wait an extended period of time for unattended-upgrades to let go.

I can't replicate the problem at this time because I've now manually run all the updates.
I'm not really interested in whatever slowness is in unattended-upgrades, I just want it to abort when I run apt if it isn't actually actively installing something.

unattended-upgrades should be communicating and coordinating with apt,
not blocking it unconditionally.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1883338

Title:
  unattended-upgrades blocks apt

Status in unattended-upgrades package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  Version: Ubuntu 18.04 and all prior versions that include unattended-
  upgrades

  Buggy behavior:

  I boot a laptop that has been off for a while with the intent to install linux updates.
  I type apt-get update; apt full-upgrade  and it fails, finding that unattended upgrades is running in the background for an extended period of time, but not actually running dpkg at all, just holding the lock, preventing me from running updates.

  
  Expected behavior:

  apt full-upgrade, the graphical update manager, and related commands
  should either

  1) Immediately (and silently?) abort whatever unattended-upgrades is
  doing and proceed with running updates in the foreground

  2) Display progress of updates currently running in the background,
  waiting for them to finish, and then proceed with running additional
  updates in the foreground

  Note that it may be necessary to implement both behaviors, depending
  if unattended-upgrades is just spinning or if it has actually started
  running upgrades.

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