package cups 1.3.9-17ubuntu3.6 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1 - chown: changing ownership of `/etc/cups/printers.conf': Operation not permitted

Thanks for your report.

The relevant error is :
---
Setting up cups (1.3.9-17ubuntu3.6) ...
chown: changing ownership of `/etc/cups/printers.conf': Operation not permitted
dpkg: error processing cups (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1

I can't see why changing ownership should be a problem for Update Manager. Update Manager runs as root and I can change
 ' /etc/cups/printers.conf' as root. I am curious about one line in this .conf file. The line 'AuthInfoRequired username,password' is commented out and I don't remember why. It's not like me to make a change in a file and not provide a comment and it would have been done some time ago under Hardy Heron.

apparmor may protect the file even against root.
could you please attach the file /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.cupsd and the output of the command:
$ sudo grep audit\( /var/log/kern.log

Thanks.

Jean-Baptiste,

Yes, I'll do so tomorrow. I've had several glasses of a very fine but
everyday wine and alcohol and software engineering don't mix.

Thank you for your kind attention to this issue and have a great
weekend.

Robin

On Fri, 2010-03-05 at 22:32 +0000, Jean-Baptiste Lallement wrote:
> apparmor may protect the file even against root.
> could you please attach the file /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.cupsd and the output of the command:
> $ sudo grep audit\( /var/log/kern.log
>
> Thanks.
>

setting status to 'confirmed' due to duplicate reports.

Jean-Baptiste,

Attached are two files. 1) /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.cupsd
2) results of "sudo grep audit/( /var/log/kern.log" piped to file
bug_532053. The first was last modified 6/18/2009.

Thank you for your help.

Robin

On Fri, 2010-03-05 at 22:32 +0000, Jean-Baptiste Lallement wrote:
> apparmor may protect the file even against root.
> could you please attach the file /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.cupsd and the output of the command:
> $ sudo grep audit\( /var/log/kern.log
>
> Thanks.
>

I recently followed the instructions at http://brainextender.blogspot.com/2009/01/ubuntu-intrepid-too-many-failed.html to fix a printing issue, and now I have this upgrade problem. Has making printers.conf immutable caused it?

Hi,

I have seen some posts which say to execute (as root):

chattr -i /etc/cups/printers.conf

after commenting out the password line, to stop the automatic cups authentication from incorrectly changing it (due to some other cups authentication problem). If you have in fact done that at some time, you will get:

lsattr /etc/cups/printers.conf
----i-------------- /etc/cups/printers.conf

If you have the i flag set, the file cannot be deleted - even by root.
To fix it, execute:

chattr -i /etc/cups/printers.conf

You should then get:

lsattr /etc/cups/printers.conf
------------------- /etc/cups/printers.conf

HTH
Andrew

Andrew,

Thank you and everyone for your kind attention.

Andrew, you hit exactly the problem. You as well, Rebecca, but I didn't realize it. The problem described in the brainexterder blog is quite different from the printing problem I was experiencing so I failed to make the connection.

Therefore what I reported was not a bug: error status 1 is correctly reported from the upgrade subprocess when it is unable to change ownership of printers.conf. Of course there is the underlying problem with cups authentication but I'll leave that to the bug administration to decide the fate of bug 532053.

Robin