apt/unattended-upgrades stalls shutdown
Solution 1
Looking around to get closer to the root cause
The problem seems to be the script running at shutdown.
I identified the corresponding file with:
find /etc/systemd -name *unattended*
which gaves me the related systemd script:
/etc/systemd/system/shutdown.target.wants/unattended-upgrades.service
which then told me the script executed on shutdown:
/usr/share/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrade-shutdown
Investigating deeper to find the root cause
within this script there is a section in line 120 related to the section in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades -> Unattended-Upgrade::InstallOnShutdown
Line 120 of /usr/share/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrade-shutdown:
if apt_pkg.config.find_b("Unattended-Upgrade::InstallOnShutdown", False):
The problem: it expects the keyword "False" while in the apt conf we should add "false" (exact string comparison)!
Solution
I was able to fix/workaround the stalling shutdown in 3 different ways:
Workaround A
- write "False" instead of "false" in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades
This setting is upgrade safe until a real fix is provided because the file we change here gets not overwritten by an update of unattended-upgrades. Problem: When the root cause gets fixed this will result in a stalling shutdown again so I suggest to combine this with Workaround B.
OR: Workaround B
- decrease the wait time in /etc/systemd/system/shutdown.target.wants/unattended-upgrades.service from default to 15 seconds:
vim /etc/systemd/system/shutdown.target.wants/unattended-upgrades.service
[Service] Type=oneshot ExecStart=/usr/share/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrade-shutdown TimeoutStartSec=15
This setting is NOT upgrade safe because the file we change here may get overwritten by an update of unattended-upgrades. Besides this it is really far away from fixing something but it will ensure that your system will not wait several minutes when shutting down. Keep in mind that after an upgrade of unattended-upgrades you may have to set this again!
OR: Fix C (have to be reported upstream)
- fix /usr/share/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrades-shutdown to expect "false" instead of "False"
patching /usr/share/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrade-shutdown:
--- /tmp/unattended-upgrade-shutdown 2017-02-03 14:53:03.238103238 +0100 +++ /tmp/unattended-upgrade-shutdown_fix 2017-02-03 14:53:17.685589001 +0100 @@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ # run it p = None apt_pkg.init_config() - if apt_pkg.config.find_b("Unattended-Upgrade::InstallOnShutdown", False): + if apt_pkg.config.find_b("Unattended-Upgrade::InstallOnShutdown", false): env = copy.copy(os.environ) env["UNATTENDED_UPGRADES_FORCE_INSTALL_ON_SHUTDOWN"] = "1" logging.debug("starting unattended-upgrades in shutdown mode")
Conclusion
tbh only the last one is a real fix. the both other options are just workarounds until the real fix would be implemented.
This has to be done upstream and as this affects both Debian (tested on Debian Stretch) and Ubuntu (tested on Ubuntu 16.04.1) for both distributions.
I have opened a bug report here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unattended-upgrades/+bug/1661611
Solution 2
This has been fixed in systemd
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unattended-upgrades/+bug/1654600
(original report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unattended-upgrades/+bug/1661611)
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garullon245136
Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
-
garullon245136 almost 2 years
When
unattended-upgrades
is installed, 9 out of 10 shutdowns/reboots hang while "starting unattended upgrades shutdown". This hang stalls the shutdown process for 5-10 mins.If I disable unnattended-upgrades via the
/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades and/or 50unattended-upgrades
, the problems occurs.If I terminate the service before shutdown/reboot (
sudo service unattended-upgrades stop
) the problem still occurs.If I remove the package (
sudo apt remove unattended-upgrades
) the problem no longer occurs.This occurs on a freshly installed version of
Ubuntu Server 16.04.1
(bothunattended-upgrades
installed via install GUI or manual install of unattended-upgrades)Both
Kern.log & syslog
do not show the shutdown process (I believe because the filesystems have already unmounted)Has anyone else seen or fixed this issue? Going crazy trying to troubleshoot it.
-
user535733 over 7 yearsUnable to reproduce in a 16.04.1 test VM. Shutdown is not delayed here.
-
garullon245136 over 7 yearsCould it be hardware based? I'm not entirely sure what happens with
unattended-upgrades
during shutdown. -
user535733 over 7 yearsI'm wondering why u-u is always running at the time of shutdown: u-u is not a daemon; it's merely a script that runs briefly once each day and then terminates.
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garullon245136 over 7 yearsIt seems as though the shutdown process tries to run u-u during the stage where all of the filesystems are being dismounted.This doesn't seem to be controlled by the /etc/rc6.d/ or /etc/rc0.d/ links as I have removed all of the links and the process still runs during shutdown.
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user535733 over 7 years16.04 uses systemd, not sysvinit. The /etc/rc* directories still exist for sysvinit compatibility, they are no longer the primary way of determining boot/shutdown tasks.
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user535733 over 7 yearsLook in /etc/apt/apt/conf.d/50unattended-upgrades for the 'run u-u at shutdown' option (around line 25). Ensure it is 'false' or commented out.
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Brian Murray over 7 yearsapt_pkg.config.find_b() returns a boolean not a string. "find_b(key[, default=False]) → bool Return the boolean value stored at key, or the value given by the bool object default if the requested option is not set." apt.alioth.debian.org/python-apt-doc/library/… So it's not a bug in unattended-upgrade-shutdown as checking for False is correct.
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Admin over 6 yearsAs anyone who follows the above Launchpad bug report link will see, this issue was not in fact caused by a failing string comparison, but instead was due to a systemd sequencing bug that has reportedly now been fixed.