I have just hit this problem upgrading from hardy 8.04 to lucid 10.04, so you don't need to go back as far as dapper to see it. I now have a partially upgraded system, and a
aptitude safe-upgrade gives Preconfiguring packages ... tar: ./postinst: Cannot utime: Bad file descriptor tar: ./preinst: Cannot utime: Bad file descriptor tar: ./prerm: Cannot utime: Bad file descriptor tar: ./postrm: Cannot utime: Bad file descriptor tar: ./conffiles: Cannot utime: Bad file descriptor tar: ./md5sums: Cannot utime: Bad file descriptor tar: ./control: Cannot utime: Bad file descriptor tar: .: Cannot utime: Bad file descriptor tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors dpkg-deb: subprocess tar returned error exit status 2 dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/bash_4.1-2ubuntu3_i386.deb (--unpack): subprocess dpkg-deb --control returned error exit status 2 Errors were encountered while processing: /var/cache/apt/archives/bash_4.1-2ubuntu3_i386.deb E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) Tar version is 1.22-2, and /bin/tar is the same as the binary on another working 10.04.1 system gnulib is not installed - same as on another working 10.04.1 system One difference is that the working system has: > ldd `which tar` linux-gate.so.1 => (0x00f66000) librt.so.1 => /lib/tls/i686/cmov/librt.so.1 (0x00574000) libc.so.6 => /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6 (0x00ad0000) libpthread.so.0 => /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libpthread.so.0 (0x00665000) /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x007b8000) whereas the "broken" one has: # ldd `which tar` linux-gate.so.1 => (0xffffe000) librt.so.1 => /lib/librt.so.1 (0xb7fcc000) libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0xb7e83000) libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0xb7e6b000) /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x80000000) -- tar/gnulib bug prevents bootstraping Lucid on Dapper, causes Lucid upgrade to abort on older linux kernels (e.g. in a chroot or Xen VM) https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/539814 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs