Ubuntu
aptdaemon package

configuration file //.config/debconf-kde-helperrc not writable

Bug #1887432 reported by Niklas Sombert
18
This bug affects 4 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Aptdaemon
New
Undecided
Unassigned
aptdaemon (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

I'm using "aptdcon --refresh" and "aptdcon --full-upgrade" to update my system.

I'm getting the following informational message on every upgrade (twice on start and twice on end):

debconf-kde-helper - KDialog
Configuration file "//.config/debconf-kde-helperrc" not writable.
Please contact your system administrator.

This may be the same bug as #1851573, but I'm not sure.
Also, the bug may be in debconf-kde-helper instead of aptdaemon, but again, I'm not sure.

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Release: 20.04
$ env LANG=C apt-cache policy aptdaemon
aptdaemon:
  Installed: 1.1.1+bzr982-0ubuntu32.1
  Candidate: 1.1.1+bzr982-0ubuntu32.1
  Version table:
 *** 1.1.1+bzr982-0ubuntu32.1 500
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1.1.1+bzr982-0ubuntu32 500
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/main i386 Packages

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: aptdaemon 1.1.1+bzr982-0ubuntu32.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-42.46-generic 5.4.44
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-42-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.4
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CurrentDesktop: KDE
Date: Mon Jul 13 22:22:44 2020
InstallationDate: Installed on 2011-11-29 (3149 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release amd64 (20111011)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: aptdaemon
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to focal on 2020-05-16 (58 days ago)
modified.conffile..etc.apport.crashdb.conf: [modified]
mtime.conffile..etc.apport.crashdb.conf: 2019-11-16T19:21:10.126162

Revision history for this message
Niklas Sombert (ytvwld) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Niklas Sombert (ytvwld) wrote :

I don't get this message when using pkcon, so I figured it might be interesting to compare the different environments debconf-kde-helper runs in when invoked by each of those.

When invoked by pkcon, it has access to a whole load of environment variables.
When invoked by aptdcon, it only sees the following:
DEBCONF_DB_OVERRIDE=Pipe{infd:none outfd:none}
DISPLAY=:0
DEBIAN_FRONTEND=kde
QT_LOGGING_RULES=org.kde.debconf.debug=false
PWD=/home/niklas
DEBCONF_DB_REPLACE=configdb

I'm a bit confused on how this came to be as DebconfProxy._get_debconf_env copies os.environ first. But I couldn't figure out where this function was really called from.

So, one possible solution would be to pass at least $HOME and $XDG_CONFIG_HOME. (I'm not exactly sure how kconfig determines where to place the config file, but I guess it's these two.)
Or just pass the whole environment.

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in aptdaemon (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
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