Problem with 'sudo apt-get upgrade'

Question

When I run sudo apt-get upgrade, the following error arises:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  mysql-client-5.5 mysql-server-5.5 mysql-server-core-5.5
The following packages will be upgraded:
  accountsservice apport apt apt-transport-https apt-utils aptitude bash bash-completion bind9-host curl dbus dmsetup dnsutils icedtea-6-jre-cacao
  icedtea-6-jre-jamvm iptables isc-dhcp-client isc-dhcp-common language-selector-common libaccountsservice0 libapt-inst1.4 libapt-pkg4.12 libasound2
  libbind9-80 libc-bin libc-dev-bin libc6 libc6-dev libcups2 libcupsimage2 libcurl3 libcurl3-gnutls libdbus-1-3 libdevmapper1.02.1 libdns81
  libdrm-intel1 libdrm-nouveau1a libdrm-radeon1 libdrm2 libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-glx libglapi-mesa libgnutls26 libisc83 libisccc80 libisccfg82
  liblwres80 libmysqlclient-dev libmysqlclient18 libnspr4 libnss3 libnss3-1d libplymouth2 libservlet2.5-java libssl-dev libssl-doc libssl1.0.0
  libtiff4 libtomcat6-java libudev0 libx11-6 libx11-data libx11-xcb1 libxcb-glx0 libxcb-render0 libxcb-shape0 libxcb-shm0 libxcb1 libxext6
  libxfixes3 libxi6 libxinerama1 libxml2 libxrender1 libxslt1.1 libxt6 libxtst6 libxv1 libxxf86dga1 libxxf86vm1 linux-libc-dev multiarch-support
  mysql-client mysql-client-core-5.5 mysql-common mysql-server nginx nginx-common nginx-full openjdk-6-jre-headless openjdk-6-jre-lib openssh-client
  openssh-server openssl perl perl-base perl-modules plymouth plymouth-theme-ubuntu-text python-apport python-apt python-apt-common python-mysqldb
  python-paramiko python-problem-report rsyslog tomcat6 tomcat6-admin tomcat6-common tomcat6-docs tomcat6-examples udev
112 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/88.4 MB of archives.
After this operation, 204 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Extracting templates from packages: 100%
Preconfiguring packages ...
dpkg-deb: error: subprocess tar was killed by signal (Segmentation fault), core dumped
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/bash_4.2-2ubuntu2.1_i386.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess dpkg-deb --control returned error exit status 2
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/bash_4.2-2ubuntu2.1_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I tried sudo apt-get clean && sudo apt-get --reinstall install bash, and it outputs:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
  bash-doc
The following packages will be upgraded:
  bash
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 114 not upgraded.
Need to get 616 kB of archives.
After this operation, 12.3 kB disk space will be freed.
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main bash i386 4.2-2ubuntu2.1 [616 kB]
Fetched 616 kB in 1s (591 kB/s)
dpkg-deb: error: subprocess tar was killed by signal (Segmentation fault), core dumped
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/bash_4.2-2ubuntu2.1_i386.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess dpkg-deb --control returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/bash_4.2-2ubuntu2.1_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

My problem seems to be with the bash package as alaa said.

Solution

Your problem is with the bash package that's in the cache. Here's what you can try:

1. Do sudo apt-get clean.
2. Do sudo apt-get --reinstall install bash
3. If it installs successfully, do sudo apt-get update, then do sudo apt-get upgrade.

Comments

[douggro]

Try sudo apt-get -f install

[amr.negm]

I tried it but the problem still persists

[Ken Sharp]

Have you run a fsck? Could be corruption or physical damage.

[j0h]

do sudo dpkg -a --configure

[amr.negm]

did not work too

[DnrDevil]

Wouldn't it be: "apt-get install' (before)" --reinstall"? or does this not matter? 'sudo aptitude apt-get install --reinstall bash'

[Alaa Ali]

@DnrDevil shouldn't matter.

[derHugo]

This fixes most problems with broken dependencies but if you read the output you see the OPs problem is not about broken dependencies.