Arch Linux

skorpan

Member

Registered: 2007-11-09

Posts: 81

Pacman segmentation fault

This just happened to me when I did tupac -Syu:

==> Software upgrade (new version) :
core/filesystem 2008.07-1 -> 2009.01-1
core/mkinitcpio 0.5.20-1 -> 0.5.21-1
core/readline 5.2-8 -> 5.2.013-1
extra/ffmpeg 20080715-3 -> 20081220-1
extra/x264 20080625-1 -> 20090108-1

==>  Continue installing ? [Y/n]
==>  [V]iew package detail [M]anualy select packages
==>   ----------------------------------------------
==>y

:: Starting full system upgrade...
warning: pacman-color: local (3.2.2-3) is newer than archlinuxfr (3.2.2-2)
resolving dependencies...
looking for inter-conflicts...

Targets (6): x264-20090108-1  ffmpeg-20081220-1  filesystem-2009.01-1  mkinitcpio-0.5.21-1  mplayer-1.0rc2-10  readline-5.2.013-1  

Total Download Size:    14.70 MB
Total Installed Size:   36.31 MB

Proceed with installation? [Y/n] 
:: Retrieving packages from core...
 filesystem-2009.01-...    12.6K  308.7K/s 00:00:00 100%
 mkinitcpio-0.5.21-1...    16.0K  310.7K/s 00:00:00 100%
 readline-5.2.013-1-i686  360.4K  975.4K/s 00:00:00 100%
:: Retrieving packages from extra...
 x264-20090108-1-i686     750.7K 1399.5K/s 00:00:01 100%
 ffmpeg-20081220-1-i686     4.9M 1338.8K/s 00:00:04 100%
 mplayer-1.0rc2-10-i686     8.7M 1782.3K/s 00:00:05 100%
checking package integrity...
(6/6) checking for file conflicts 100%
(1/6) upgrading x264 100%
(2/6) upgrading ffmpeg 100%
(3/6) upgrading filesystem 100%
warning: /etc/profile installed as /etc/profile.pacnew
warning: /etc/group installed as /etc/group.pacnew
(4/6) upgrading mkinitcpio 100%
error: segmentation fault
Internal pacman error: Segmentation fault.
Please submit a full bug report with --debug if appropriate.

Now when I try to use pacman again, I get this:

$ sudo pacman -Syu
:: Synchronizing package databases...
error: failed to init transaction (unable to lock database)
  if you're sure a package manager is not already
  running, you can remove /var/lib/pacman/db.lck

I don't dare removing the lock, because I have no idea what's going on. What should I do?

chimeric

Member

From: Munich, Germany

Registered: 2007-10-07

Posts: 254

Website

Re: Pacman segmentation fault

You can see if a process is still "owning" /var/lib/pacman/db.lck by using:

lsof | grep /var/lib/pacman/db.lck

If that's not the case it's safe to remove the lock file (if not you can kill the process, and remove it afterwards).

Last edited by chimeric (2009-01-20 15:45:30)

skorpan

Member

Registered: 2007-11-09

Posts: 81

Re: Pacman segmentation fault

I just so happen not to have installed lsof... Obviously, I can't now.

chimeric

Member

From: Munich, Germany

Registered: 2007-10-07

Posts: 254

Website

Re: Pacman segmentation fault

I just so happen not to have installed lsof... Obviously, I can't now.

D'oh. Well, another, not so nice way though, to make sure no process accesses the lock anymore is to reboot, then remove it.

skorpan

Member

Registered: 2007-11-09

Posts: 81

Re: Pacman segmentation fault

I'll try that... I'm curious though as to why stuff like this even happens. Pacman (or *possibly* tupac, but not without a doubt so) has failed on me twice in the last couple of days, resulting in a locked database file. First it was "pam" which completely broke down in the package manager and now this. I mean, really, segmentation fault?

foutrelis

Developer

From: Athens, Greece

Registered: 2008-07-28

Posts: 705

Website

Re: Pacman segmentation fault

I'd suggest that you check your RAM (with memtest86+) as soon as possible. It's a bit unlikely that your memory is at fault here, but is certainly worth checking. I had this happen to me in the past and the symptoms were segfaults and hangs.

vandrona

Member

Registered: 2009-01-21

Posts: 2

Re: Pacman segmentation fault

I had the same problem.  Unfortunately, I had also cleaned the package sources, so I ended up downloading the sourcecode for 3.2.1 (based on instructions here: http://www.archlinux.org/pacman/), installing by hand, then upgrading with --ignore pacman.

-- On second thought, that didn't work very well either.  I decided to test a bit more and installed a few more packages and, eventually, I got a segfault with the older pacman as well.  I'll keep looking, I guess.  Haven't run the memory test - will do when I reboot.

Last edited by vandrona (2009-01-21 01:18:35)