[Pkg-net-snmp-devel] Bug#453123: snmpd: Upgrade fails even on Debian Etch

[Matthias Wamser]

Package: snmpd
Followup-For: Bug #453123


The last security update on snmpd in debian etch failed.

If snmpd is running, then the foillowing error occurs:

Starting network management services:invoke-rc.d: initscript snmpd,
action "start" failed.
dpkg: error processing snmpd (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 snmpd
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

If snmpd ist not running, the "aptitude upgrade" process hangs forever.
I added an "set -x" in /var/lib/dpkg/info/snmpd.postinst for
debugging purpose. This is the output:

Setting up snmpd (5.2.3-7etch2) ...
+ '[' xconfigure = xconfigure ']'
+ adduser --quiet --system --no-create-home --home /var/lib/snmp snmp
+ chown -R snmp /var/lib/snmp
+ . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
++ '[' '!' '' ']'
++ PERL_DL_NONLAZY=1
++ export PERL_DL_NONLAZY
++ '[' '' ']'
++ exec /usr/share/debconf/frontend /var/lib/dpkg/info/snmpd.postinst
configure 5.2.3-7
+ '[' xconfigure = xconfigure ']'
+ adduser --quiet --system --no-create-home --home /var/lib/snmp snmp
+ chown -R snmp /var/lib/snmp
+ . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
++ '[' '!' 1 ']'
++ '[' -z '' ']'
++ exec
++ '[' '' ']'
++ exec
++ DEBCONF_REDIR=1
++ export DEBCONF_REDIR
+ db_version 2.0
+ _db_cmd 'VERSION 2.0'
+ IFS=' '
+ printf '%s\n' 'VERSION 2.0'
+ IFS='
'
+ read -r _db_internal_line
+ RET=2.0
+ case ${_db_internal_line%%[   ]*} in
+ return 0
+ '[' -x /etc/init.d/snmpd ']'
+ update-rc.d snmpd defaults
++ which invoke-rc.d
+ '[' -x /usr/sbin/invoke-rc.d ']'
+ invoke-rc.d snmpd start
Starting network management services: snmpd snmptrapd.
+ exit 0


"ps axf" show the following process tree:

 \_ apt-get dist-upgrade
    \_ /usr/bin/dpkg --status-fd 24 --configure snmpd
       \_ /usr/bin/perl -w /usr/share/debconf/frontend \
                      /var/lib/dpkg/info/snmpd.postinst configure 5.2.3-7
          \_ [snmpd.postinst] <defunct>



The first one is clear, starting of snmpd exits with error, if
snmpd is running.

But I cant find the resason for the second error (hanging forever)
apart from that the upgrade works if snmp is disabled by default
mechaniosm.


So my workaround to solve this was to disable both snmp daemons in
/etc/default/snmpd

SNMPDRUN and TRAPDRUN set to no

then dist-upgrade

after this

set both to yes again and restart snmpd.

regards, matthias wamser

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 4.0
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (990, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.18-5-686
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)