Package: debconf Version: 1.5.28 This happens on Nexenta with unpatched debconf and when running Debian GNU/Linux in a branded zone.
When running various apt tasks (install in particular) on (Open)Solaris the following message is seen, which in a lot of cases will result in the apt task failing. debconf: DbDriver "config": /var/cache/debconf/config.dat is locked by another process: Bad file descriptor This is because "Debconf/DbDriver/File.pm" is trying to acquire an exclusive file lock on a read only file descriptor which the Solaris kernel does not allow (and AFAIK isn't allowed by POSIX either). Even though this doesn't cause issues on Linux systems it would be really nice to have this fixed upstream to avoid patching debconf on every install. On my local machines I am modifying File.pm to open the file descriptor as read/write which fixes the problem (and works on a real Linux kernel too), however I'm not sure if this will affect any other operations of debconf, but as far as I can tell it will not. On line 51 of File.pm change: if (! open ($this->{_fh}, $this->{filename})) { to: if (! open ($this->{_fh}, "+<", $this->{filename})) { Further information: http://blog.jbit.net/2009/12/debconf-issues-on-opensolaris.html - My blog post about the issue and research http://trisk.acm.jhu.edu/etch-zone.html - A tutorial on installing Debian GNU/Linux in a Solaris zone http://www.nexenta.org/diffs-gnusolaris/nexenta-delta-debconf.454083.diff - Nexentas diff (changes the lock type) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org