System Update froze - UbuntuMATE 16-04

[Bret Busby]

On 20/06/2018, Bret Busby <bret.busby at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 20/06/2018, Bret Busby <bret.busby at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 20/06/2018, Bret Busby <bret.busby at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 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 15:04, Bret Busby wrote:
>>>>> [...]
>>>>>> Now, I do not know how many hours this
>>>>>>
>>>>>> update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-127-generic
>>>>>>
>>>>>> step is supposed to take, but I think something is wrong there.
>>>>>
>>>>> It may take a while, depending on a system. I have seen it take up to
>>>>> 20
>>>>> min. on some very low RAM cloud instances (even then there are
>>>>> informative messages given), but you seem to have plenty of RAM.
>>>>>
>>>>> I don't know what's the root of the problem in your case. You may have
>>>>> to investigate, whether the process is actually doing something (disk
>>>>> activity, resource usage), attache to it via strace -p <processID>,
>>>>> etc.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Sarunas Burdulis
>>>>> Systems Administrator, Dartmouth Mathematics
>>>>> math.dartmouth.edu/~sarunas
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> It has now been running (or, frozen) for more than an hour.
>>>>
>>>> Running strace -p <pid> returns
>>>> "wait4(1, "
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> "
>>> root at bret-Inspiron-580-UbuntuMATE:/home/bret# ps -ax | grep initramfs
>>>  2692 pts/1    S+     0:00 grep --color=auto initramfs
>>> 29029 pts/7    Ss+    0:00 /usr/bin/dpkg --status-fd 57 --configure
>>> initramfs-tools:all
>>> 29034 pts/7    S+     0:00 /bin/sh
>>> /var/lib/dpkg/info/initramfs-tools.postinst triggered update-initramfs
>>> 29035 pts/7    S+     0:00 /bin/sh /usr/sbin/update-initramfs -u
>>> root at bret-Inspiron-580-UbuntuMATE:/home/bret# strace -p 29034
>>> strace: Process 29034 attached
>>> wait4(-1,
>>> "
>>>
>>> "
>>> root at bret-Inspiron-580-UbuntuMATE:/home/bret# ps -ax | grep initramfs
>>>  2692 pts/1    S+     0:00 grep --color=auto initramfs
>>> 29029 pts/7    Ss+    0:00 /usr/bin/dpkg --status-fd 57 --configure
>>> initramfs-tools:all
>>> 29034 pts/7    S+     0:00 /bin/sh
>>> /var/lib/dpkg/info/initramfs-tools.postinst triggered update-initramfs
>>> 29035 pts/7    S+     0:00 /bin/sh /usr/sbin/update-initramfs -u
>>> root at bret-Inspiron-580-UbuntuMATE:/home/bret# strace -p 29034
>>> strace: Process 29034 attached
>>> wait4(-1, ^Cstrace: Process 29034 detached
>>>  <detached ...>
>>> root at bret-Inspiron-580-UbuntuMATE:/home/bret# strace -p 29035
>>> strace: Process 29035 attached
>>> wait4(-1,
>>> "
>>>
>>
>> And, after 3 hours, no change.
>>
>> It is unfortunate.
>>
>> I was going to update both my running 16.04 systems, for the Ubuntu
>> base security updates, but it seems too risky.
>>
>
> Five hours - no change...
>

After about 9 1/2 hours of no change, killed the initramfs processes.

I think it safer to leave the v16.04 Ubuntu base "security" updates,
until 16.04.(n+1) is released.

-- 
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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