upgrade to 24.04 freezes at install of thunderbird when trying to switch the app to a snap

Terminal: sudo dpkg --configure -a
This should restart your update.

Thanks for the prompt response Bernard. However when I tried to access
the terminal I just get the app loading indication at the top of the
screen but nothing happens. The disk light is not flickering at all so
the apps cannot seem to access the hard drive. This is a major  problem
now as I have critical data I need urgent access to.

Tried to launch a backup and same thing happens app tries to launch but
nothing happens. Strangely Firefox still works okay.

On 02/09/2024 22:45, Bernard Stafford wrote:
> Your question #818632 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/818632
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Bernard Stafford proposed the following answer:
> Terminal: sudo dpkg --configure -a
> This should restart your update.
>

You can launch a terminal with CTRL + ALT + T

HTH

Ctrl+Alt+ T was the first Thing I tried but nothing happens at all.

cant access any core functions files or email or libre office.

Its as if the system locked me out during the update. but since it has
frozen  at Thunderbird transfer to a snap I cant get back in anywhere
other than Firefox.

Have not turned the computer off since it froze. Afraid i might not get
back in at all. Do you think its worth risking a straight reboot of the
system.

On 03/09/2024 11:30, actionparsnip wrote:
> Your question #818632 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/818632
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> actionparsnip proposed the following answer:
> You can launch a terminal with CTRL + ALT + T
>
> HTH
>

Are you using Wayland? If so then at log in select Xorg instead. May help

I have exactly the same problem, right now. The update froze at the very same step (installing the thunderbird snap). But I was able to open a terminal; I did "sudo dpkg --configure -a", but it gives me this:

dpkg: error: dpkg frontend lock was locked by another process with pid 2472

Note: removing the lock file is always wrong, and can end up damaging the locked area and the entirde system.

What can I do? Help!

I just had the same problem upgrading using terminal, but it didn't freeze at all. I could still scroll the terminal. I think it's just installing but not logging anything. Just wait and it will continue.

When this happened to me, I viewed the hung upgrade processes in htop and realized it was blocking on whiptail, a command to display dialog boxes from shell scripts. I simply killed the process, and fortunately that didn't cause the package script to fail, and the upgrade proceeded without further issues.

I guess the developers should have used Debconf for the confirmation, as that supports GUI, terminal, and even non-interactive installs.