[SOLVED] Upgrade having issue with wvdial

[confusedcatgirl]

Hello Together,
first post, so I might make some mistakes.

I have a laptop with Kubuntu. It's pretty much a stock Dell Latitude 5424 Rugged (Not the Extreme version), but with a second battery and different SSD.
This machine never had issues. It runs extremely well, even for a machine that is now turning 6 this year.
However, wvdial, never installs, thus preventing the Upgrade from finishing up completely. I have the new kernel, and everything else is upgraded too. However, wvdial is causing issues, also blocking the desktop from upgrading.
During the installation, it will just hang on "Configuring wvdial". I tried both with "apt" and as a deb directly from the ubuntu packages page, both have the exact same issues. I am stuck permanently, and I have waited for around half an hour on the first attempt.
It becomes really infurating and I don't wanna leave it hanging open.

[Snowhog]

Upgrades to Kubuntu 26.04 can hang when configuring wvdial due to dependency conflicts. This typically leaves the package manager broken and may cause kernel panics on reboot. To resolve an interrupted or hung upgrade, switch to a TTY (Ctrl + Alt + F3) and run sudo apt --fix-broken install. [1, 2, 3, 4]
For tips on how to properly handle interrupted package managers and repair your dependencies during release upgrades:
18:20
Fixing upgrade problems Ubuntu - Oh no! Something has gone wrong.

YouTube • Penguin Tutor
Known Issues & Troubleshooting

• The wvdial / wvstreams Conflict: wvdial relies on the wvstreams library, which saw changes and deprecations in the 26.04 package repositories.
  • Fix: If you are not actively using dial-up modems, you may want to remove wvdial prior to upgrading (sudo apt remove wvdial).
  • If the upgrade has already hung, terminate the process or reboot into recovery mode and run sudo dpkg --configure -a or sudo apt --fix-broken install to bypass or fix the wvdial configuration.
• General Release Bugs: Because Kubuntu 26.04 utilizes heavily updated core tools and the KDE Plasma 6.6 desktop, upgrading users have reported several post-upgrade quirks:
  • System Settings not Saving: Users report certain settings failing to persist after reboots.
  • Missing Modules: Some core system symlinks can become misaligned during version jumps.
• Workarounds: Always run sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade before attempting a major distribution upgrade, as resolving pending packages clears the path for smoother dependency resolution. If upgrading in-place is failing repeatedly, consider backing up your /home directory and performing a clean installation with the 26.04 ISO. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

Before proceeding with fixes, it is highly recommended to check community forums for the latest discussions on these issues. You can review ongoing troubleshooting threads on the Ask Ubuntu or discuss solutions on the Ubuntu Community Hub.

[confusedcatgirl]

Upgrades to Kubuntu 26.04 can hang when configuring wvdial due to dependency conflicts. This typically leaves the package manager broken and may cause kernel panics on reboot. To resolve an interrupted or hung upgrade, switch to a TTY (Ctrl + Alt + F3) and run sudo apt --fix-broken install. [1, 2, 3, 4]
For tips on how to properly handle interrupted package managers and repair your dependencies during release upgrades:
18:20
Fixing upgrade problems Ubuntu - Oh no! Something has gone wrong.

YouTube • Penguin Tutor
Known Issues & Troubleshooting

• The wvdial / wvstreams Conflict: wvdial relies on the wvstreams library, which saw changes and deprecations in the 26.04 package repositories.
  • Fix: If you are not actively using dial-up modems, you may want to remove wvdial prior to upgrading (sudo apt remove wvdial).
  • If the upgrade has already hung, terminate the process or reboot into recovery mode and run sudo dpkg --configure -a or sudo apt --fix-broken install to bypass or fix the wvdial configuration.
• General Release Bugs: Because Kubuntu 26.04 utilizes heavily updated core tools and the KDE Plasma 6.6 desktop, upgrading users have reported several post-upgrade quirks:
  • System Settings not Saving: Users report certain settings failing to persist after reboots.
  • Missing Modules: Some core system symlinks can become misaligned during version jumps.
• Workarounds: Always run sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade before attempting a major distribution upgrade, as resolving pending packages clears the path for smoother dependency resolution. If upgrading in-place is failing repeatedly, consider backing up your /home directory and performing a clean installation with the 26.04 ISO. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

Before proceeding with fixes, it is highly recommended to check community forums for the latest discussions on these issues. You can review ongoing troubleshooting threads on the Ask Ubuntu or discuss solutions on the Ubuntu Community Hub.

So overall, I do not need dial up modems (I don't think I can even plug em into this machine).
When wvdial is not installed, dpkg --configure -a will send me into "wvdial is not installed but kubuntu-desktop depends on it", and "apt --fix-broken install" sends me back to the wvdial Installation.
I can skip it during the configure, but then during upgrade it will attempt to configure it AGAIN, causing issues.
Thank you for the amazing help, but it sadly does not solve my issue.

[claydoh]

Which Kubuntu version did you upgrade from?

The first step here should be to finish running whatever install processes did not happen, *then* try to install missing packages. Which you have done.

I am going to guess that kubuntu-desktop is still at the 24.04 version.

apt policy kubuntu-desktop

This will show what versions are installed and available, just so we can see what is up.

kubuntu-desktop as a meta-package is just a list of dependencies, nothing more.


so when you have run

sudo dpkg --configure -a

Report the very specific errors here - this would hopefully direct us to a more specific cause. The actual errors might be some lines above the end.

What we need to see is where wvdial is specifically failing. Hopefully, this is simply a file that had moved to a different package, or similar thing, which is a very easy fix, using info from the error messaging.

[confusedcatgirl]

Which Kubuntu version did you upgrade from?

The first step here should be to finish running whatever install processes did not happen, *then* try to install missing packages. Which you have done.

I am going to guess that kubuntu-desktop is still at the 24.04 version.

apt policy kubuntu-desktop

This will show what versions are installed and available, just so we can see what is up.

kubuntu-desktop as a meta-package is just a list of dependencies, nothing more.


so when you have run

sudo dpkg --configure -a

Report the very specific errors here - this would hopefully direct us to a more specific cause. The actual errors might be some lines above the end.

What we need to see is where wvdial is specifically failing. Hopefully, this is simply a file that had moved to a different package, or similar thing, which is a very easy fix, using info from the error messaging.

The first command outputs the following:

kubuntu-desktop:
  Installed: 1.496
  Installationcandidate: 1.496
  Versiontable:
 *** 1.496 500
    500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute/universe amd64 Packages
    100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

So I guess the new version is installed. Sorry for the rough translations but my system is in german so I gotta translate.

However, the configure command only outputs the following:

wvdial /1.61-8build1) is being configured ...

Nothing else. It just gets stuck.

[claydoh]

However, the configure command only outputs the following: Code:Copy Code

wvdial /1.61-8build1) is being configured ...
Nothing else. It just gets stuck.

Nothing above it at all, or after? Odd. Quite strange actually.
Have you done anything like rebooting at all? I am wondering if the package has a postinstall script that is stuck running in the background? No idea what it would be.
The process might be called debconf.
I do not really know what to do, tbh.


So what about errors when running sudo apt -f install?
This might have more info. It should be longer at least.

[confusedcatgirl]

Nothing above it at all, or after? Odd. Quite strange actually.
Have you done anything like rebooting at all? I am wondering if the package has a postinstall script that is stuck running in the background? No idea what it would be.
The process might be called debconf.
I do not really know what to do, tbh.


So what about errors when running sudo apt -f install?
This might have more info. It should be longer at least.

I need to force a reboot to get the installation progress to stop, because not even CTRL + Z quits it (which I think is a technical reason with apt). So nope, reboots don't fix it.
And the command results in the exact same output I provided before, nothing extra other than obsolete packages.

[die.boer]

while the install is frozen on: wvdial (1.61-8build1) is being configured ...
run in another terminal

sudo pstree -ap $(pidof dpkg)

and post output here
also try to run this (if strace exists on system)

sudo strace -f -p $(pidof dpkg)

and post the last 20 lines here
if you cannot open another terminal at the frozen install , open a TTY with Ctrl+Alt+F3 (or F2/F4/F5)
Log in there with your username/password , and run the commands
To return to the graphical session afterward: Ctrl + Alt + F1 or sometimes Ctrl + Alt + F2 (Ctrl + Alt + F2 works for me)

[confusedcatgirl]

while the install is frozen on: wvdial (1.61-8build1) is being configured ...
run in another terminal

sudo pstree -ap $(pidof dpkg)

and post output here
also try to run this (if strace exists on system)

sudo strace -f -p $(pidof dpkg)

and post the last 20 lines here
if you cannot open another terminal at the frozen install , open a TTY with Ctrl+Alt+F3 (or F2/F4/F5)
Log in there with your username/password , and run the commands
To return to the graphical session afterward: Ctrl + Alt + F1 or sometimes Ctrl + Alt + F2 (Ctrl + Alt + F2 works for me)

So, strace IS installed. After doing some digging, I found out that the Process itself is hanging on "wait4(2435)", which means it's waiting on the process with the PID 2435.
Digging around, I eventually managed to find out that it is hanging on the configure script, see below outputs.

pstree returns:

dpkg,2434 --configure -a
  `-frontend,2435 /usr/share/debconf/frontend /var/lib/dpkg/info/wvdial.postinst configure 1.61-8
      `-wvdial.postinst,2445 /var/lib/dpkg/info/wvdial.postinst configure 1.61-8
          `-wvdialconf,2447 /etc/wvdial.conf

ps -Flww -p 2435 returns:

F S UID          PID    PPID  C PRI  NI ADDR SZ WCHAN    RSS PSR STIME TTY          TIME CMD
0 S root        2435    2434  0  80   0 -  8085 -      22976   1 21:07 pts/2    00:00:00 /usr/bin/perl /usr/share/debconf/frontend /var/lib/dpkg/info/wvdial.postinst configure 1.61-8

[die.boer]

ok , in the hanging terminal , do Ctrl + C or sudo kill -9 2435 2445 2447
then run

sudo mv /var/lib/dpkg/info/wvdial.postinst /var/lib/dpkg/info/wvdial.postinst.real

then

printf '#!/bin/sh\nexit 0\n' | sudo tee /var/lib/dpkg/info/wvdial.postinst

Make executable:

sudo chmod +x /var/lib/dpkg/info/wvdial.postinst

now run

sudo dpkg --configure -a

and then

sudo apt -f install

the entire upgrade should now complete normally ...

Remove wvdial afterward

sudo apt purge wvdial

if APT refuses to purge wvdial because of dependency constraints...then we go from there

[confusedcatgirl]

ok , in the hanging terminal , do Ctrl + C or sudo kill -9 2435 2445 2447
then run

sudo mv /var/lib/dpkg/info/wvdial.postinst /var/lib/dpkg/info/wvdial.postinst.real

then

printf '#!/bin/sh\nexit 0\n' | sudo tee /var/lib/dpkg/info/wvdial.postinst

Make executable:

sudo chmod +x /var/lib/dpkg/info/wvdial.postinst

now run

sudo dpkg --configure -a

and then

sudo apt -f install

the entire upgrade should now complete normally ...

Remove wvdial afterward

sudo apt purge wvdial

if APT refuses to purge wvdial because of dependency constraints...then we go from there

That did end up fixing the issue! Besides that, nothing else needed to be upgraded, so my machine is finally happy! I cannot sadly purge wvdial, as it would also nuke kubuntu-desktop, and I wouldn't wanna figure out what that does. Since I am not using 3g or dialup stuff, it should be probably fine if I leave it slightly broken. Worst case scenario, I gotta reinstall kubuntu.
But thanks a lot!

[die.boer]

I cannot sadly purge wvdial, as it would also nuke kubuntu-desktop

In Ubuntu/Kubuntu, kubuntu-desktop is a metapackage. It mostly exists to pull in a collection of KDE packages.
if you run

sudo apt remove kubuntu-desktop

, watch carefully if
The following packages will be REMOVED:
kubuntu-desktop ,
says only that . That is safe
But if it wants to remove hundreds of KDE packages like:plasma-desktop plasma-workspace sddm dolphin kde-standard

Warning: then stop and do not continue.

PS: have you tried

sudo apt purge wvdial

?

on 2nd thought , you could just leave it as is , unless:future upgrades start failing again / apt reports broken packages / dpkg --configure -a starts complaining again

If none of those happen, you can realistically ignore wvdial indefinitely.