System Update froze - UbuntuMATE 16-04

[Bret Busby]

On 20/06/2018, Bret Busby <bret.busby at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 20/06/2018, Sarunas Burdulis <sarunas at math.dartmouth.edu> wrote:
>> On 2018-06-19 13:40, Bret Busby wrote:
>>> Hello.
>>>
>>> I have tried to do a system update on this computer, which is (kind
>>> of) running UbuntuMATE 16.04 .
>>>
>>> The Software Updater shows
>>>
>>> "Installing updates..."
>>>
>>> and, under that, is
>>> "Running post-installation trigger initramfs-tools"
>>>
>>> (it is unfortunate that the window does not allow copying and pasting
>>> of text in the window)
>>>
>>> and it has been sitting there, with no progress for over half an hour
>>> (it is on an i3CPU with 16GB of RAM, not an 8086 with 640kB of RAM).
>>
>> [...]
>>
>>> So, how dio I fix this broken system upgrade?
>> Go to terminal, either an app or via Ctrl-Alt-F2.
>>
>> Become a real user:
>>
>> sudo su -
>>
>> unless you like this 'sudo' litany.
>>
>> Find offending processes and kill them all.
>>
>> Then
>>
>> apt-get update
>> apt-get upgrade
>> apt-get dist-upgrade
>>
>> If any of those fail, run
>>
>> apt-get -f install
>>
>> and repeat 'upgrade' and 'dist-upgrade'
>>
>> You can also do
>>
>> apt-get --purge remove snapd unattended-upgrades
>>
>> at any time
>>
>> Check, that you still have some kernels to boot:
>>
>> update-grub
>>
>> and reboot.
>>
>> --
>> Sarunas Burdulis
>> Systems Administrator, Dartmouth Mathematics
>> math.dartmouth.edu/~sarunas
>>
>>
>
> I tried apt-get update, then apt-get -f install, results below
>
> "
> root at bret-Inspiron-580-UbuntuMATE:/home/bret# apt-get update
> Reading package lists... Done
> E: Could not get lock /var/lib/apt/lists/lock - open (11: Resource
> temporarily unavailable)
> E: Unable to lock directory /var/lib/apt/lists/
> root at bret-Inspiron-580-UbuntuMATE:/home/bret# apt-get update
> Reading package lists... Done
> E: Could not get lock /var/lib/apt/lists/lock - open (11: Resource
> temporarily unavailable)
> E: Unable to lock directory /var/lib/apt/lists/
> root at bret-Inspiron-580-UbuntuMATE:/home/bret# apt-get update
> Reading package lists... Done
> E: Could not get lock /var/lib/apt/lists/lock - open (11: Resource
> temporarily unavailable)
> E: Unable to lock directory /var/lib/apt/lists/
> root at bret-Inspiron-580-UbuntuMATE:/home/bret# apt-get -f install
> E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (11: Resource
> temporarily unavailable)
> E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), is
> another process using it?
> root at bret-Inspiron-580-UbuntuMATE:/home/bret#
> "
>

Okay - I found another pair of processes involving initramfs, so I
killed them, and, then, it let me run apt get update and apt-get
upgrade.

Now, it is stuck again, at the same place.

"
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.23-0ubuntu10) ...
Setting up initramfs-tools (0.122ubuntu8.11) ...
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
Setting up perl-modules-5.22 (5.22.1-9ubuntu0.5) ...
Setting up libperl5.22:amd64 (5.22.1-9ubuntu0.5) ...
Setting up perl (5.22.1-9ubuntu0.5) ...
Setting up imagemagick-common (8:6.8.9.9-7ubuntu5.11) ...
Setting up libmagickcore-6.q16-2:amd64 (8:6.8.9.9-7ubuntu5.11) ...
Setting up libmagickwand-6.q16-2:amd64 (8:6.8.9.9-7ubuntu5.11) ...
Setting up dirmngr (2.1.11-6ubuntu2.1) ...
Setting up gpgsm (2.1.11-6ubuntu2.1) ...
Setting up python3-update-manager (1:16.04.13) ...
Setting up update-manager-core (1:16.04.13) ...
Setting up update-manager (1:16.04.13) ...
Setting up libjavascriptcoregtk-4.0-18:amd64 (2.20.3-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
Setting up libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37:amd64 (2.20.3-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
Setting up libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37-gtk2:amd64 (2.20.3-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
Setting up gir1.2-javascriptcoregtk-4.0:amd64 (2.20.3-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
Setting up gir1.2-webkit2-4.0:amd64 (2.20.3-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
Setting up libexempi3:amd64 (2.2.2-2ubuntu0.1) ...
Setting up libmagickcore-6.q16-2-extra:amd64 (8:6.8.9.9-7ubuntu5.11) ...
Setting up libunity-control-center1 (15.04.0+16.04.20171130-0ubuntu1) ...
Setting up linux-libc-dev:amd64 (4.4.0-128.154) ...
Setting up unity-control-center-faces (15.04.0+16.04.20171130-0ubuntu1) ...
Setting up liblouis-data (2.6.4-2ubuntu0.3) ...
Setting up liblouis9:amd64 (2.6.4-2ubuntu0.3) ...
Setting up libruby2.3:amd64 (2.3.1-2~16.04.10) ...
Setting up python3-louis (2.6.4-2ubuntu0.3) ...
Setting up ruby2.3 (2.3.1-2~16.04.10) ...
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.122ubuntu8.11) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-127-generic

"

-- 

Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia

..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
 Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
 "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
 A Trilogy In Four Parts",
 written by Douglas Adams,
 published by Pan Books, 1992

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