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dpkg fatal error aborting during upgrade to Ubuntu 13.04

Asked by Michael Lynch

While updating from Ubuntu 12.10 to Ubuntu 13.04, I suddenly received a fatal error. The update was aborted about halfway through.

Unfortunately, I was unable to copy-and-paste the error message into this window (CTRL-C would not work and would leave my computer in a "broken" state) and, at this point in the install, it seems as though I have no access to any of the error log files that were saved to my /tmp directory.

Has anybody else encountered this problem, and what is the possible fix?

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N1ck 7h0m4d4k15
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Best N1ck 7h0m4d4k15 (nicktux) said : 		#1

Very difficult situation, if dpkg interrupted (or broken) during the update procedure.

Do you have any Live Media of Ubuntu ? (CD/DVD-USB)
If yes, then I suggest to boot from there, save your files (your important ones) to an external HDD and then download the 13.04 iso and burn it to another USB or DVD. Then you can proceed to a clean installation.

Regards
 NikTh

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#2

What is the state of your computer system, does it boot into Ubuntu?
If yes, what release does it show (cat /etc/issue)?
If no, how far does the boot process go until it fails?

Release upgrades leave log files in the directory /var/log/dist-upgrade/
You might check main.log, apt.log and term.log for messages explaining what happened during the upgrade.
(Note, that during a new release-upgrade all old files are moved into a subdirectory of /var/log/dist-upgrade/ with date and time as name - but date and time of the next attempt!)

dpkg is somewhat error tolerant. It might be possible to just restart the release upgrade, or (if the abort was late enough that the key data have already upgraded to the newrelease) update-manager or apt-get might be able to do the last missing steps.

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Michael Lynch (lynchm0965) said : 		#3

I have a feeling I found out the cause of the problem. It seems to be related to my initial install of Ubuntu 12.04, which did not include a very large partition for Ubuntu. Although the update suggested that I had enough space available for the update, that was apparently not the case.

I am trying to install from a DVD now, but for some reason I do not see the option to install Ubuntu alongside Windows (although I don't use Windows often, there are a few things -- like Skyping via Facebook -- which do not seem to work in Ubuntu). Is there are reason why this option is not available, even though all the online installation instructions indicate it should be there?

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N1ck 7h0m4d4k15 (nicktux) said : 		#4

The only reason I can think right now, is if Windows are hibernated (not shutdown correctly).

Regards
 NikTh

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Michael Lynch (lynchm0965) said : 		#5

Thanks. Actually, I found the problem, and it might be helpful if it was included more clearly in the documentation.
I found some instructions online about creating new partitions on my computer. I shrank my primary Windows partition, to allocate space for Ubuntu. Then, I inserted the installation disk and rebooted.
When I began to install, it gave the option to install Ubuntu alongside Windows.
If any of the people responsible for writing official instructions are reading this: Perhaps it would be helpful if the documentation included this information, with a link to instructions for creating new partitions.

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Michael Lynch (lynchm0965) said : 		#6

Thanks NikTh, that solved my question.