dpkg in uninterruptible sleep

Posted by Khaled on Ask Ubuntu See other posts from Ask Ubuntu or by Khaled
Published on 2012-09-20T09:09:19Z Indexed on 2012/09/20 9:51 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 266

Filed under:

10.04

|

server

|

dpkg

|

process

I have several Ubuntu servers 10.04. Today, I tried to upgrade some packages on one of these servers and the process got stuck. I logged in using another SSH session and I found that dpkg is in D state (uninterruptible sleep).

According to what I have read, this state results generally from I/O waiting like waiting for NFS share. I can not understand why dpkg will block in this state. I can not see any obvious problems other than this.

Here is the output of ps to show the blocking process:

$ ps axo pid,cmd,s,wchan | grep dpkg
22571 /usr/bin/dpkg --status-fd 2 D call_rwsem_down_read_failed

This process can not be killed even with kill -9. So, I will not be able to install/upgrade any package unless I reboot the server. What makes it worse is that the remote reboot does not succeed in such a case (having processes in D state).

Can anyone help with this? How can I avoid this in the future.

© Ask Ubuntu or respective owner

Related posts about 10.04

An increase to 3 Gig of RAM slows down Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have Ubuntu 10.04 running from an external hard drive (installed on an enclosure) connected via USB port. Like a month or so ago, I increased RAM on my pc from 2 Gigs to 3 Gigs. This resulted on extremely long boot times and slow application loads. While I was understanding the nature of my problem… >>> More
Default /etc/apt/sources.list?

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I need default source list for ubuntu 10.04. Can anybody help me? Here is Mine:--- Ubuntu supported packages deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid main restricted multiverse universe deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-backports main restricted universe multiverse deb http://archive… >>> More
SSH main process ended

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have a running ubuntu server 10.04.1. When I tried to login to the server via ssh, I could not. Instead, I got connection refused error. I tried to ping the machine and I got reply! So, the clear reason is that SSH daemon is stopped. After reboot, I was able to login to my server via ssh. After… >>> More
Postgresql fails to start on Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I installed postgresql 9.2 from add-apt-repository ppa:pitti/postgresql using apt-get install postgresql-9.2 At the end of the install and every time I try to launch postgresql by using the following command /etc/init.d/postgresql start or service postgresql start I get this error: Error:… >>> More
PPA causing 404 error?

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I need default source list for ubuntu 10.04. Can anybody help me? Here is Mine:--- Ubuntu supported packages deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid main restricted multiverse universe deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-backports main restricted universe multiverse deb http://archive… >>> More

Related posts about server

SQL SERVER – Server Side Paging in SQL Server 2011 Performance Comparison

as seen on SQL Authority - Search for 'SQL Authority'
Earlier, I have written about SQL SERVER – Server Side Paging in SQL Server 2011 – A Better Alternative. I got many emails asking for performance analysis of paging. Here is the quick analysis of it. The real challenge of paging is all the unnecessary IO reads from the database. Network traffic was… >>> More
Should I switch my server to Ubuntu Server from Windows Server 2003

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have a server thats primarily used for SRCDS, I host a few Team Fortress 2 servers on it and I would much prefer a ssh-like (more so the no-gui part) for something like this, mostly because I can't navigate with my phone on VNC very well and also because there really is no need for a gui in this… >>> More
Windows web server and SQL Server on same dedicated server

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I'm currently trying to decide on the best approach to handle hosting a few moderate traffic websites for production e-commerce and online applications. We'd like to move to a dedicated server and are looking at this as the most likely machine: Quad Core Intel Core2Quad Q9550 Processor, 2.83 Ghz… >>> More
Windows 7 Desktop/Start Menu Redirection: Server O/S: Windows Server 2003 And Server 2008

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Hi, I am new here so I am might be asking a question which has already been answered [however I can't see it in the suggested answers above] I manage a network which is split into a parent domain and a child domain. Recently I have been looking at when to migrate to Windows 7. The child domain… >>> More
Windows 7 Desktop/Start Menu Redirection: Server O/S: Windows Server 2003 And Server 2008

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hi, I am new here so I am might be asking a question which has already been answered [however I can't see it in the suggested answers above] I manage a network which is split into a parent domain and a child domain. Recently I have been looking at when to migrate to Windows 7. The child domain… >>> More