[PLUG] Xubuntu Software Updater Fails

[Dick Steffens]

This hasn't been critical, and I've been too busy to address it before 
today, but I finally have some free time, so here goes.

I've been experiencing failures when trying to run Software Updater on 
Xubuntu 18.04 on my ThinkPad X200 Tablet. (Lenovo calls it a tablet, but 
it's a laptop.)

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Security updates
   MariaDB database server binaries

Package operation failed.
   The installation or removal of a software package failed.
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There have been some other indications that something's not right. Right 
now I have five USB icons on the Desktop that are grayed out. Three of 
them are labeled Volume, and two of them are labeled 4.1KB Volume.

Asking Mr. Google about it turns up a couple of Ubuntu Forum posts from 
March that observe the problem, but don't resolve it:
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2414983
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2415085

Looking at /var/log/apt/history.log I see a number of attempts to 
install ttf-mscorefonts-installer. I remember trying to do this at the 
beginning of August (08-03). As I recall, there was an issue with a 
lock. I tried deleting the lock file(s) and re-running the installer. 
Eventually  got

      Upgrade: ttf-mscorefonts-installer: amd64 (3.6ubuntu2, 3.6ubuntu2)
      Error: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

 From time to time during the month there were a number of 
unattended-upgrades. Some of these seem to have succeeded. Ones related 
to mariadb-server-10.1:amd64:amd64 (1:10.1.40-0buntu0.18.04.1, 
1:10.1.40-0buntu0.18.04.1) failed with the same error as above, Error: 
Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1). This unattended 
upgrade thing happens every couple of days.

Another indication that something's not right is related to 
gnome-sudoku. I used Synaptic to lock it to an earlier version. But the 
lock is not working. And now, when I try to reinstall the old version, I 
get (in the log)

      Downgrade: gnome-sudoku:amd64 (1:3.28.0-1, 1:3.10.2-0buntu3.1
      Error: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

So, where do I start to unravel this one? If worse comes to worse, I can 
copy a few files and reinstall. But "you guys" have always said that 
there should be a way to fix this from the command line. So, before I 
nuke it and reinstall, I figured I'd ask.



-- 
Regards,

Dick Steffens