I have a system about 3000km away, so I have no access to it. The machine is running ubuntu 13.04 (yes, it's EOL passed long ago), and the python module is completely messed up. when I tried to use do-release-upgrade to upgrade it to 13.10 and then 14.04 (as explained here) I got this error message:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/do-release-upgrade", line 8, in <module>
from DistUpgrade.DistUpgradeVersion import VERSION
ImportError: No module named DistUpgrade.DistUpgradeVersion
Even UFW stopped working. it showed this error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/sbin/ufw", line 26, in <module>
import ufw.frontend
ImportError: No module named ufw.frontend
So I thought I can re-install python, and life is good. Trying to reinstall python did not work at all so I thought maybe I can uninstall python and reinstall it, which also turned out to be a very stupid move! now my python package is reported as purge, trying to do anything with dpkg or apt-get throws a million errors and then exits, and almost none of the tools work!
I dont mind upgrading or installing a fresh copy of ubuntu (which I think I have to do anyway) but I cant find any clue how I can do this over the network? Is it even possible?
Edit 1:
For example when I try to run sudo dpkg --configure -a to fix the problems of the installer, I get an output like this:
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of ubuntu-release-upgrader-gtk:
ubuntu-release-upgrader-gtk depends on update-manager; however:
Package update-manager is not configured yet.
ubuntu-release-upgrader-gtk depends on python3-distupgrade (= 1:0.192.13); however:
Package python3-distupgrade is not configured yet.
ubuntu-release-upgrader-gtk depends on python3-dbus; however:
Package python3-dbus is not configured yet.
ubuntu-release-upgrader-gtk depends on python3-gi; however:
Package python3-gi is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing ubuntu-release-upgrader-gtk (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of apport-gtk:
apport-gtk depends on python3-apport (>= 2.9.2-0ubuntu8.5); however:
Package python3-apport is not configured yet.
apport-gtk depends on python3-gi; however:
Package python3-gi is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing apport-gtk (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of python3-debian:
python3-debian depends on python3-chardet; however:
Package python3-chardet is not configured yet.
python3-debian depends on python3-six; however:
Package python3-six is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing python3-debian (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of update-manager-core:
update-manager-core depends on python3-update-manager (= 1:0.186.2); however:
Package python3-update-manager is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing update-manager-core (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of update-notifier:
update-notifier depends on update-manager-gnome | update-manager (>= 1:0.165); however:
Package update-manager-gnome is not installed.
Package update-manager is not configured yet.
update-notifier depends on ubuntu-release-upgrader-gtk; however:
Package ubuntu-release-upgrader-gtk is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing update-notifier (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of ubuntu-release-upgrader-core:
ubuntu-release-upgrader-core depends on python3-distupgrade (= 1:0.192.13); however:
Package python3-distupgrade is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing ubuntu-release-upgrader-core (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of aptdaemon:
aptdaemon depends on python3-aptdaemon (= 1.0-0ubuntu9); however:
Package python3-aptdaemon is not configured yet.
aptdaemon depends on python3-gi; however:
Package python3-gi is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing aptdaemon (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of python3-gi-cairo:
python3-gi-cairo depends on python3-gi (= 3.8.0-2); however:
Package python3-gi is not configured yet.
python3-gi-cairo depends on python3-cairo (>= 1.10.0+dfsg-3~exp2); however:
Package python3-cairo is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing python3-gi-cairo (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of friends:
friends depends on friends-dispatcher; however:
Package friends-dispatcher is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing friends (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of apport:
apport depends on python3-apport (>= 2.9.2-0ubuntu8.5); however:
Package python3-apport is not configured yet.
apport depends on python3-gi; however:
Package python3-gi is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing apport (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
ubuntu-release-upgrader-gtk
apport-gtk
python3-debian
update-manager-core
update-notifier
ubuntu-release-upgrader-core
aptdaemon
python3-gi-cairo
friends
apport
Or trying to run sudo apt-get install -f outputs a lot of error and stops like this:
dpkg: error processing friends-twitter (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of python3-aptdaemon.pkcompat:
python3-aptdaemon.pkcompat depends on python3-aptdaemon (= 1.0-0ubuntu9); however:
Package python3-aptdaemon is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing python3-aptdaemon.pkcompat (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
dpkg: too many errors, stopping
Errors were encountered while processing:
python3-dbus
language-selector-common
python3-gi
python3-xkit
ubuntu-drivers-common
python3-commandnotfound
ufw
apparmor-utils
python3-problem-report
python3-apport
apport
apport-gtk
python3-software-properties
software-properties-common
python3-defer
Thanks
Best Answer
Well, I ended up creating an AWS instance based on Ubuntu 13.04, and then move all python packages over from EC2 to my server. This did not fix the problem with apt-get and dpkg, but it let me run other python-based commands (e.g. ufw and do-release-upgrade).
Then I used do-release-upgrade to switch to Saucy and then Trusty. There were some errors during upgrade, but overall it updated to 14.04 successfully.
After update was done, I ran
apt-get install -fanddpkg --configure -aagain, and this time got a lot less errors, though still failed. I fixed errors one by one, again by borrowing the broken packages from another server running 14.04.At the end it migrated to 14.04 and all package issues were fixed as well.