mkdir /var/run/PolicyKit

Hi Gert
Thanks for taking the time to report this issue and try to help to make Ubuntu better. Could you please elaborate on your report, maybe provide a log message of the fail, I couldn't find anywhere a rule which make abort the installation of the policykit package if the path you mention isn't created, actually the init script create the mentioned directory while launching the service.

Thanks in advance

apt-get distupgrade wouldn't continue telling me it did not find /var/run/PolicyKit. I can't reproduce it because it was easily fixed by doing mkdir /var/run/PolicyKit I will post log files if i can find them.

og started: 2008-02-20 01:47:55
Setting up policykit (0.7-2ubuntu4) ...
chown: cannot access `/var/run/PolicyKit': No such file or directory
dpkg: error processing policykit (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of hal:
 hal depends on policykit (>= 0.7); however:
  Package policykit is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing hal (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of policykit-gnome:
 policykit-gnome depends on policykit; however:
  Package policykit is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing policykit-gnome (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of gnome-mount:
 gnome-mount depends on hal; however:
  Package hal is not configured yet.
 gnome-mount depends on policykit-gnome; however:
  Package policykit-gnome is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing gnome-mount (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of gnome-power-manager:
 gnome-power-manager depends on hal (>= 0.5.10); however:
  Package hal is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing gnome-power-manager (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of gnome-session:
 gnome-session depends on gnome-power-manager; however:
  Package gnome-power-manager is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing gnome-session (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of gnome-volume-manager:
 gnome-volume-manager depends on gnome-mount; however:
  Package gnome-mount is not configured yet.
 gnome-volume-manager depends on hal (>= 0.5.5.1); however:
  Package hal is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing gnome-volume-manager (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of hwdb-client-common:
 hwdb-client-common depends on hal; however:
  Package hal is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing hwdb-client-common (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of hwdb-client-gnome:
 hwdb-client-gnome depends on hwdb-client-common (>= 0.6-0ubuntu23); however:
  Package hwdb-client-common is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing hwdb-client-gnome (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of sound-juicer:
 sound-juicer depends on hal; however:
  Package hal is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing sound-juicer (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of update-notifier:
 update-notifier depends on hal; however:
  Package hal is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing update-notifier (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 policykit
 hal
 policykit-gnome
 gnome-mount
 gnome-power-manager
 gnome-session
 gnome-volume-manager
 hwdb-client-common
 hwdb-clien...

I can confirm that, a sudo mkdir /var/run/PolicyKit solve this problem.
Now the upgrade is running well.

my version is:
 dpkg -l policykit
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Installed/Config-f/Unpacked/Failed-cfg/Half-inst/t-aWait/T-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Beschreibung
+++-=================================-=================================-==================================================================================
ii policykit 0.7-2ubuntu4 framework for managing administrative policies and privileges

Thanks for the confirmation, the previously attached patch should solve this issue, i really don't know if it's what the package maintainer would want, but surely it's a start.

Hi,

The patch would solve the issue, but it isn't the right solution in my opinion.

Firstly, if the directory isn't there then there may be a problem until a
reboot and the directory is created.

Secondly, we don't understand the issue properly, at least I don't.

I have downloaded the package locally, and it contains this
directory. It is then created on dpkg --unpack. This means that
it should be present for the configure step.

The only way I have found so far to trigger this bug is to
do the dpkg --unpack, then remove the directory, and then
do the --configure, and I get the error given above.

Does anyone else have any pointers as to what may be
going on.

Thanks,

James

This bug was fixed in the package policykit - 0.7-2ubuntu5

---------------
policykit (0.7-2ubuntu5) hardy; urgency=low

  * debian/policykit.postinst: Drop the dpkg-statoverride and chown operations
    for /var/run/PolicyKit. /var/run is a tmpfs and thus volatile, stat
    overrides do not make sense on it, and it's the init script's job to
    properly set up the directory. (LP: #193533)
  * debian/policykit.init: Make setup of /var/run/PolicyKit more robust.
  * Disable debian/patches/02_noptrace.patch for now, since it prevents us
    from collecting crash reports for gnome-panel and other PK-using
    applications. This will be re-enabled again just before the hardy release.
    (LP: #202314)

 -- Martin Pitt <email address hidden> Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:05:58 +0100

Just can confirm:
it works now.