apt full-upgrade causes system lock-up

[Aaron Rainbolt]

On Thu, Jun 2, 2022 at 10:29 AM Bo Berglund <bo.berglund at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Thu, 2 Jun 2022 12:06:22 +0100, Colin Law <clanlaw at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >> dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
> >>  loading files list file for package 'linux-headers-5.4.0-105': cannot read
> >> /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-headers-5.4.0-105.list (Input/output error)
> >> Bus error
> >> E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)
> >> W: Problem unlinking the file /var/cache/apt/pkgcache.bin - pkgDPkgPM::Go (30:
> >> Read-only file system)
> >
> >I suspect there is a problem with the hardware.  For some reason it
> >has put the disc into read only mode as a protective measure.  If you
> >can reboot then first check the SMART data for the disc.  If that
> >doesn't show any problems then check syslog to see why it put the
> >drive into read only.  However, if there is any important data that is
> >not backed up that is really important then you might want to take
> >alternative action, such as taking the disc out and recovering the
> >data rather than rebooting, in case you lose everything.
>
> In all cases so far (three if I remember correctly) this has hit me during
> apt-upgrades and I could do nothing at all via SSH or other means of
> communication afterwards.
>
> The first time it sat there until I could visit the site a month later, at which
> time I just pulled and reinserted the power line and all was well and dandy.
> I could successfully do the apt update && apt full-upgrade too.
> No problems then.
>
> I had prepared for the visit and acquired a Shelly Plug which can be controlled
> via WiFi to be put on the outlet feeding power to the computer.
> So next time it happened I could remotely power cycle it, same today.
>
> Note that the system is apparently fine after the forced power cycle and is
> working well with the normal automation tasks.
>
> But now I want to get to the bottom of it, since I wnat to be able to manage
> updates via apt...
>
> So I looked for the apt log from today, unfortunately it contains only two
> logged commands:
>
> Start-Date: 2022-06-02  07:40:25
> Commandline: /usr/bin/apt autoremove
>
> Start-Date: 2022-06-02  07:42:16
> Commandline: /usr/bin/apt upgrade
>
> Both were done AFTER the crash and power cycle, and succeeded without problems.
>
> And syslog seems not to contain any line concerning manual start of apt, such as
> the command line "apt full-upgrade" or similar so I cannot pinpoint the timing
> of the command leading up to the crash.
> Syslog itself is too massive to browse through manually using only command line
> tools...
>
>
> --
> Bo Berglund
> Developer in Sweden

I agree that this looks like hardware problems. I'd check dmesg for
any I/O errors. Also consider making backups ASAP if you don't have
them already.