Public bug reported:
Binary package hint: gconf2
This is a problem in Edgy, as upgraded from Dapper. I did not see it in
Dapper.
A long time ago, during the installation of some package that uses
gconf, the configuration phase of the installation failed with the
following error:
Failed to write "/var/lib/gconf/defaults/%gconf-tree.xml": Error writing
file "/var/lib/gconf/defaults/%gconf-tree.xml.new": File exists
I forget which package originally triggered the error, I just started
noticing it during upgrades at some point.
Since then, every package that uses gconf (and tries to install a
schema) fails to configure with that same error. Investigating, I found
no evidence of a %gconf-tree.xml.new file. I tried all sorts of things,
including starting from an empty %gconf-tree.xml file and manually
installing all the schemas. Nothing worked, so I put the /var/lib/gconf
directory back the way I found it.
I have another similarly-configured Edgy box that was also upgraded from
Dapper that does not exhibit this problem. I installed all the same
gconf-using packages on that box, and then copied the entire
/var/lib/gconf directory from the working box to the broken box. No
dice.
In desperation, I reinstalled the system -- this time, a clean Edgy
install. I didn't reformat the hard drive, but I moved everything out of
the way and then directed the installer to use the existing filesystem.
After this, packages that wanted to install gconf schemas worked fine --
UNTIL TODAY.
I upgraded evince from 0.6.1-0ubuntu1.1 to 0.6.1-0ubuntu1.2 today, and
during the configuration phase, I got the same error! Re-configuriung
(with dpkg --configure --pending) doesn't help, and again there's no
%gconf-tree.xml.new file in /var/lib/gconf.
The line in evince.postinst that triggers the bug is:
gconf-schemas --register evince-thumbnailer-djvu.schemas evince-thumbnai
ler-dvi.schemas evince-thumbnailer.schemas evince.schemas
This is a fairly disruptive bug for some packages, since they can't
install their gconf schemas at all, and any configuration that happens
after gconf-schemas is called doesn't happen.
** Affects: gconf2 (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: Unconfirmed
--
update-schemas: Error writing file
"/var/lib/gconf/defaults/%gconf-tree.xml.new": File exists
https://launchpad.net/bugs/74699
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