apt dying with "Failed to exec method /usr/lib/apt/methods/"

[David Bruce]

Hi,

Running a fairly new i386 Sid install, nothing special in sources.list
- for the last week or so, "sudo aptitude safe-upgrade" dies with:

E: Method  has died unexpectedly!E: Sub-process  returned an error
code (100)E: Method /usr/lib/apt/methods/ did not start
correctlyFailed to exec method /usr/lib/apt/methods/E: Method  has
died unexpectedly!E: Sub-process  returned an error code (100)E:
Method /usr/lib/apt/methods/ did not start correctlyE: Internal error:
couldn't generate list of packages to download

From googling, it seems there were errors like this reported a year or

so ago related to the old "volatile" archive, but I don't use that.
Here's my
/etc/apt/sources.list:

#

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.2.1 _Squeeze_ - Official i386
NETINST Binary-1 20110628-13:01]/ squeeze main

#deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.2.1 _Squeeze_ - Official i386 NETINST
Binary-1 20110628-13:01]/ squeeze main

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main

# squeeze-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
#deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ squeeze-updates main
#deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ squeeze-updates main

Any thoughts? In response to some searching, I've tried "sudo
dpkg-reconfigure apt" and "sudo apt-get install --reinstall apt", with
no effect.


Thanks,
--
David Bruce

For all your software needs, visit The Apt Store:
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian stable main

[Matías Palomec]

Post by David Bruce
/usr/lib/apt/methods/

Do you still have the problem?

If so, send me the ls of the /usr/lib/apt/methods

Did you have any problems with the FS (lost data, IO errors, somebody
deleted some files, etc).


Here is my ls -l /usr/lib/apt/methods/total 424
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 19616 Oct 14 07:27 bzip2
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 32032 Oct 14 07:27 cdrom
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 15920 Oct 14 07:27 copy
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 15704 Oct 14 07:27 file
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 57592 Oct 14 07:27 ftp
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 32488 Oct 14 07:27 gpgv
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 16360 Oct 14 07:27 gzip
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 69464 Oct 14 07:27 http
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 5 Oct 14 07:25 lzma -> bzip2
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 90232 Oct 14 07:27 mirror
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 28768 Oct 14 07:27 rred
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 26232 Oct 14 07:27 rsh
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 Oct 14 07:25 ssh -> rsh
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 5 Oct 14 07:25 xz -> bzip2


Some years ago, a friend of me deleted some directories of the
apt/dpkg, and the only solution that I found to that, was to reinstall
(backup the etc, reinstall and then recover the etc and the installed
programs --dpkg --get-selections/--set-selections--).
--
Atentamente, yo <Matías>
http://programado.org/
My last cigarette at 1305445200
Let one walk alone, commit no sin, with few wishes,
like an elephant in the forest

[Selim T. Erdogan]

Post by David Bruce
Hi,
Running a fairly new i386 Sid install, nothing special in sources.list
E: Method  has died unexpectedly!E: Sub-process  returned an error
code (100)E: Method /usr/lib/apt/methods/ did not start
correctlyFailed to exec method /usr/lib/apt/methods/E: Method  has
couldn't generate list of packages to download

From googling, it seems there were errors like this reported a year or

so ago related to the old "volatile" archive, but I don't use that.
Here's my
#
# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.2.1 _Squeeze_ - Official i386
NETINST Binary-1 20110628-13:01]/ squeeze main
#deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.2.1 _Squeeze_ - Official i386 NETINST
Binary-1 20110628-13:01]/ squeeze main
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main
# squeeze-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
#deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ squeeze-updates main
#deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ squeeze-updates main
Any thoughts? In response to some searching, I've tried "sudo
dpkg-reconfigure apt" and "sudo apt-get install --reinstall apt", with
no effect.

I don't use aptitude and I didn't get the same error but what happened
to me might be related, or might provide a lead to help you fix things.

During an update to sid last week or the week before, my
/var/lib/dpkg/status became corrupt somehow. Eventually, I fixed my
issue by copying the /var/lib/dpkg/status-old file over the bad
/var/lib/dpkg/status.

Long version, with details:
I use dselect usually. Last week, at the end of the updating step,
there was an error message saying that the
/var/lib/dpkg/available file had a problem: Some package named
libart-2.0-2 had more than one priority field. I looked at the file in
an editor and what had happened was that the information for that
package was cut off in the middle of the textual description, running
together with the next package's info --- resulting in one big paragraph
with some fields reappearing. I tried to see if putting a blank line
right there would get me further. It didn't. In fact, after this
try, when I looked in the file, the same problem was there again.
Presumably it gets automatically generated based on new package info
that's downloaded. Anyway, then I decided to try plain apt-get update
and apt-get upgrade, which got me some messages about unsatisfied
dependencies so I decided to wait a couple of days. After a few days,
the dependency problems were gone but apt-get update or apt-get upgrade
now gave me a message saying /var/lib/dpkg/status was problematic.
(Actually, what gave me the message could have been using dselect's
select step after a successful apt-get update. Can't remember for
sure.) That led me to the dpkg man page and finally to replacing
/var/lib/dpkg/status with the older version. (Besides status-old,
there are more backups of that file in /var/backups.)