Fixing a broken server update

[Tapas Mishra]

On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 11:30 PM, Hal Burgiss <hal at burgiss.net> wrote:
> Not in the last month or two. There are no errors in the logs. Its a remote
> server that is in production, so some things are more difficult than others.
> And, assuming there is a problem, I still have a broken apt system, I would
> assume.
>
> On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 12:53 PM, Ioannis Vranos <cppdeveloper at ontelecoms.gr>
> wrote:
>>
>> On Wed, 2011-02-09 at 12:17 -0500, Hal Burgiss wrote:
>> >
>> > [...]
>> >
>> > Again, ctl-c. Which gets to the end. Now trying to run 'dpkg
>> > --configure -a', hit hangs indefinitely at:
>> >
>> >
>> >  # dpkg --configure -a
>> >  Setting up initramfs-tools (0.85eubuntu39.3) ...
>> >  update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
>> >
>> >
>> >  Setting up linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-28-server (2.6.24-28.47) ...
>> >
>> >
>> > Right now apt is completely broken. It won't do anything until this
>> > gets fixed. This is a server in use and I am limited what I can do
>> > with it. Any ideas?
>>
>>
>> Have you run fsck?
>>
Hi Hai,
just when you were typing this email I was crying for a similar
situation which now led to complete failure of my server.
Wise people always learn from the fault that others do so consider my
suggestion worth some thing

1) Make a strong backup if possible clone the environment some where
and test your upgrades on this clone.


The instructions here are worth looking
2) https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PackageManagerTroubleshootingProcedure

In case you feel above does not help then you can post some thing
similar to what I did here
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/144560/+login
create a new thread
people there helped me to their best but my luck was not with me.

My backup even was having a buggy update so I ultimately have to format it.