Ubuntu – Ubuntu 18.04.1 kernel upgrade stuck at setting up linux-headers-4.15.0-36-generic

18.04kernelupgrade

I am trying to upgrade kernel on my laptop and as I'm doing that very often I never had an issue until last time when I was able to fix the issue with running:

sudo dpkg --configure --pending

As there is a new kernel version, upgrade got stuck again and it's not moving from there:

...
Setting up linux-headers-4.15.0-36-generic (4.15.0-36.39) ...

I have also checked dmesg but I cannot find any issue there.

Command execution were as follows:

sudo apt update
sudo apt list --upgradable
sudo apt upgrade

I would like to skip the "workaround" part and be able to upgrade kernel/packages normally. Hope you can help me!

Please let me know if you need any logs.

Thank you!

Update:

As mentioned by cspan51, I don't have nvidia graphics, I have only intel.

I was able to fix the issue with restart of the laptop, and when fully ready I have started Software Updater, which seems does not have the same problem, tho I am not sure is this correct because under the hood I would say tools are the same.

Solution

Secure boot was the culprit but disabling it does not solve the problem since I don't want to disable it, so actually solution is to do package upgrade with Software Updater (GUI) instead of terminal apt-get/apt .. because in terminal version, it does never asks for secure boot password

Best Answer

I had the exact same problem with my laptop, which has a discrete Nvidia graphics card. I did some research and found that this is problem if fairly common if your machine has an Nvidia graphics card.

I was able to get past this problem by running killing all apt and dpkg processes: sudo killall apt && sudo killall dpkg

Then this to finish configuring the packages:

sudo dpkg --configure -a

After that, the setup finished like it normally does.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Ubuntu 18.04 on kernel 4.15.0-34-generic boots to BusyBox

The problem is that /sbin/cryptsetup is not in initramfs file /boot/initrd.img-4.15.0-36-generic.

You need to add CRYPTSETUP=y in /etc/cryptsetup-initramfs/conf-hook. You also need to add the initramfs option in /etc/crypttab. Then, you have to run update-initramfs, which solves this problem.

Detailed solution:

In an other Ubuntu machine, use "Startup Disk Creator" to create a bootable Ubuntu 18.04 USB drive
Plug in this USB drive in a USB port of the computer that boots to BusyBox
When the live USB Ubuntu is ready, connect to Internet (WiFi or wired)
Open a terminal
```
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo su
```

Find the encrypted block device.

root@ubuntu:~# blkid|grep LUKS
/dev/nvme0n1p3: UUID="4b206e76-1531-48ae-95be-ae0ed7a244c1" TYPE="crypto_LUKS" PARTUUID="21db499d-b87b-41c6-864f-04d1531cb083"

Decrypt the device

root@ubuntu:~# cryptsetup open UUID="4b206e76-1531-48ae-95be-ae0ed7a244c1" nvme0n1p3_crypt
Enter passphrase for /dev/disk/by-uuid/4b206e76-1531-48ae-95be-ae0ed7a244c1:

List mapped devices. control is a file used to send command to the device mapper. nvme0n1p3_crypt is the decrypted device. ubuntu--vg-root is a LVM logical volume in the LVM ubuntu-vg volume group.
```
root@ubuntu:~# ls /dev/mapper/*
/dev/mapper/control  /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root  /dev/mapper/nvme0n1p3_crypt
```
Create mount point. This is where we will mount the / of our system that won't boot.
```
root@ubuntu:~# mkdir -p /mnt/ubuntu-root
```

Mount root logical volume

root@ubuntu:~# mount /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root /mnt/ubuntu-root/

Mount pseudo file systems

root@ubuntu:~# mount -o bind /sys /mnt/ubuntu-root/sys
root@ubuntu:~# mount -o bind /proc /mnt/ubuntu-root/proc
root@ubuntu:~# mount -o bind /dev /mnt/ubuntu-root/dev

Copy DNS information

root@ubuntu:~# cp /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/ubuntu-root/etc/

Change root

root@ubuntu:~# chroot /mnt/ubuntu-root/

Mount /boot, which contains the initramfs file. This partition is unencrypted.
```
root@ubuntu:/# mount /boot/
```
Install binwalk (to see the content of the init ram file system)
```
root@ubuntu:~# apt update
root@ubuntu:~# apt install binwalk
```

Find offset of gzipped initramfs content

root@ubuntu:~# binwalk /boot/initrd.img-4.15.0-36-generic | grep gzip
1605632       0x188000        gzip compressed data, from Unix, last modified: 2018-10-18 13:00:32

The problem is that the initramfs file system does not contain cryptsetup. So, that is why there is no LUKS password prompt.

root@ubuntu:/# cd /root/
root@ubuntu:~# mkdir initramfs-4.15.0-36-generic
root@ubuntu:~# cd initramfs-4.15.0-36-generic
root@ubuntu:~/initramfs-4.15.0-36-generic# dd if=/boot/initrd.img-4.15.0-36-generic bs=1605632 skip=1 | gunzip | cpio -i
root@ubuntu:~/initramfs-4.15.0-36-generic# ls sbin/cryptsetup
ls: cannot access 'sbin/cryptsetup': No such file or directory

To decrypt root at boot, the initramfs needs to contain:

sbin/cryptsetup
lib/modules/4.15.0-36-generic/kernel/drivers/md/dm-crypt.ko

Add the initramfs option in /etc/crypttab

root@ubuntu:/# cat /etc/crypttab 
nvme0n1p3_crypt UUID=4b206e76-1531-48ae-95be-ae0ed7a244c1 none luks,discard,initramfs

Add CRYPTSETUP=y in /etc/cryptsetup-initramfs/conf-hook

Run update-initramfs:

root@ubuntu:~# update-initramfs -k 4.15.0-36-generic -c -v &> update-initramfs-4.15.0-36-generic.cryptsetup.log

Now, we have cryptsetup in initramfs and the Linux kernel module dm-crypt.ko too:

root@ubuntu:~# grep /sbin/cryptsetup update-initramfs-4.15.0-36-generic.cryptsetup.log
Adding binary /sbin/cryptsetup

root@ubuntu:~# grep dm-crypt.ko update-initramfs-4.15.0-36-generic.cryptsetup.log
Adding module /lib/modules/4.15.0-36-generic/kernel/drivers/md/dm-crypt.ko

Now, run update-initramfs, without -c (new) and without -v (verbose):
```
root@ubuntu:~# update-initramfs -k 4.15.0-36-generic -u
```

Verify that the initramfs is actually correct

root@ubuntu:~# binwalk /boot/initrd.img-4.15.0-36-generic | grep gzip
1605632       0x188000        gzip compressed data, from Unix, last modified: 2018-10-18 14:26:29

root@ubuntu:~# dd if=/boot/initrd.img-4.15.0-36-generic bs=1605632 skip=1 2> /dev/null | gunzip | cpio -t 2> /dev/null |grep sbin/crypt 
sbin/cryptsetup

root@ubuntu:~# dd if=/boot/initrd.img-4.15.0-36-generic bs=1605632 skip=1 2> /dev/null | gunzip | cpio -t 2> /dev/null |grep dm-crypt.ko
lib/modules/4.15.0-36-generic/kernel/drivers/md/dm-crypt.ko

Now, reboot.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Ubuntu 18.04 on kernel 4.15.0-34-generic boots to BusyBox

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