package openssh-server 1:6.6p1-2ubuntu2.3 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1

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

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better.

Since it seems likely to me that this is a local configuration problem, rather than a bug in Ubuntu, I'm marking this bug as Incomplete.

If indeed this is a local configuration problem, you can find pointers to get help for this sort of problem here: http://www.ubuntu.com/support/community

Or if you believe that this is really a bug, then you may find it helpful to read "How to report bugs effectively" http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html. We'd be grateful if you would then provide a more complete description of the problem, explain why you believe this is a bug in Ubuntu rather than a problem specific to your system, and then change the bug status back to New.

Does this mean there will be no fix? I and others did NOT change our configuration. It's that this new update is failing.

I'm having similar problems with this package on 2 different servers. When updating, dpkg hangs on the post install script of the openssh-server package. The process becomes defunct and stops responding.

I edited the /var/lib/dpkg/info/openssh-server.postinst file and adjusted set -e to set -x to see the output.
When running dpkg --configure -a, it hangs again when trying to restart the SSH service:

+ [ -d /run/systemd/system ]
+ [ -x /etc/init.d/ssh ]
+ [ ! -e /etc/init/ssh.conf ]
+ [ -n 1:6.6p1-2ubuntu2 ]
+ _dh_action=restart
+ invoke-rc.d ssh restart

This step just never happens. The problem is the same on both servers, the ssh restart step hangs.

Hate to add a "Me too" to this, but I just updated my system using apt-get dist-upgrade and am now affected by this as well.

At this point trying to run an upgrade spits out the following error to console:
------------------------
Setting up openssh-server (1:6.6p1-2ubuntu2.3) ...
invoke-rc.d: initscript ssh, action "restart" failed.
dpkg: error processing package openssh-server (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of ssh:
 ssh depends on openssh-server (>= 1:6.6p1-2ubuntu2.3); however:
  Package openssh-server is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package ssh (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.
                                                                                                          Errors were encountered while processing:
 openssh-server
 ssh
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
-------------------

dpkg --configure -a provides the following:
-------------------
Setting up openssh-server (1:6.6p1-2ubuntu2.3) ...
invoke-rc.d: initscript ssh, action "restart" failed.
dpkg: error processing package openssh-server (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of ssh:
 ssh depends on openssh-server (>= 1:6.6p1-2ubuntu2.3); however:
  Package openssh-server is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package ssh (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 openssh-server
 ssh

> Does this mean there will be no fix? I and others did NOT change our configuration. It's that this new update is failing.

It seems more likely to me that some subset of users had some kind of local configuration problem that would have failed on _any_ update of openssh (ie. any run of the postinst maintainer script). If there really was a regression caused by the update, given the number of users of the ssh service out there I would expect to see a massive flood of regression reports, rather than just five, even though it has been weeks after the update came out. So, on balance, I still think these are local configuration problems - possibly different for each reporting user - and not a regression in the openssh package caused by the update. Or it could be a bug or number of bugs that only manifest in obscure situations.

To make any progress with "fixing" this, developers need to see steps to reproduce. Otherwise there is no action that can be taken on this bug since there is not enough information here for developers to go on. If you don't understand why I'm saying this, it might be helpful for you to read "How to report bugs effectively" (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html) which explains this situation well.

I'm marking this bug back as Incomplete to make sure that users don't get the mistaken impression that developers could be working on this bug when they cannot.

We ended up removing the openssh-server package entirely from the system and then installing the latest version again using aptitude (obviously this requires a physical login or some sort of virtual console on the server, you can't do this over SSH itself :-)). The latest version is now running again and dpkg runs without crashing again.

[Expired for openssh (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

OK, so I just did a brand new install, clean machine, brand new drive, downloaded 14.04 from server. Put on USB, Did full install. rebooted.
launced terminal
sudo and set root password
su to root
scp my old sshd_config off another ubuntu machine. version 10 LTS.
apt-get install openssh-server
.
.
.
Unpacking ssh-import-id (3.21-0ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.6.7.1-1ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-16) ...
ureadahead will be reprofiled on next reboot
Processing triggers for ufw (0.34~rc-0ubuntu2) ...
Setting up libck-connector0:amd64 (0.4.5-3.1ubuntu2) ...
Setting up openssh-client (1:6.6p1-2ubuntu2.3) ...
Setting up ncurses-term (5.9+20140118-1ubuntu1) ...
Setting up openssh-sftp-server (1:6.6p1-2ubuntu2.3) ...
Setting up openssh-server (1:6.6p1-2ubuntu2.3) ...
debconf: DbDriver "config": /var/cache/debconf/config.dat is locked by another process: Resource temporarily unavailable
dpkg: error processing package openssh-server (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Setting up ssh-import-id (3.21-0ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.19-0ubuntu6.6) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-16) ...
Processing triggers for ufw (0.34~rc-0ubuntu2) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 openssh-server
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Not sure why .var/cache/debconf/config.dat is locked, but that appears to be why it failed. Seems odd given this is such a clean install.

Is this not a bug.... Even if I wipe my sshd_config off the system (the only thing I brought over) I still get the config.data locked message. This seems pretty much like a bug to me.