systemd/udev fails to upgrade from 232-8 to 232-9

[Viktor Jägersküpper]

Dear systemd maintainers,

on my up-to-date unstable system (amd64) the update from version 232-8 to 232-9 fails, I'm not sure if it is actually systemd or udev, but I suspect the latter. Here is what I get:

# apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  espeak-ng-data iproute libadns1 libboost-atomic1.61.0 libboost-chrono1.61.0 libboost-date-time1.61.0 libboost-filesystem1.61.0
  libboost-iostreams1.61.0 libboost-system1.61.0 libboost-thread1.61.0 libespeak-ng1 libespeak1 libmimic0 libopencv-contrib2.4v5
  libopencv-legacy2.4v5 libopencv-ml2.4v5 libpcaudio0 libunicode-collate-perl
Use 'apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages have been kept back:
  icedove icedove-l10n-de iceowl-extension iceowl-l10n-de
The following packages will be upgraded:
  libpam-systemd libsystemd0 libudev1 systemd systemd-sysv udev
6 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 4 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/4207 kB of archives.
After this operation, 4096 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Retrieving bug reports... Done
Parsing Found/Fixed information... Done
Reading changelogs... Done
(Reading database ... 361097 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../libsystemd0_232-9_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libsystemd0:amd64 (232-9) over (232-8) ...
Setting up libsystemd0:amd64 (232-9) ...
(Reading database ... 361097 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../libpam-systemd_232-9_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libpam-systemd:amd64 (232-9) over (232-8) ...
Preparing to unpack .../systemd_232-9_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking systemd (232-9) over (232-8) ...
Preparing to unpack .../archives/udev_232-9_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking udev (232-9) over (232-8) ...
Preparing to unpack .../libudev1_232-9_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libudev1:amd64 (232-9) over (232-8) ...
Setting up libudev1:amd64 (232-9) ...
Setting up systemd (232-9) ...
addgroup: The group `systemd-journal' already exists as a system group. Exiting.
Failed to try-restart systemd-networkd.service: Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.systemd1': timed out
See system logs and 'systemctl status systemd-networkd.service' for details.
Failed to try-restart systemd-resolved.service: Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.systemd1': timed out
See system logs and 'systemctl status systemd-resolved.service' for details.
Failed to try-restart systemd-timesyncd.service: Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.systemd1': timed out
See system logs and 'systemctl status systemd-timesyncd.service' for details.
(Reading database ... 361097 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../systemd-sysv_232-9_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking systemd-sysv (232-9) over (232-8) ...
Setting up systemd-sysv (232-9) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.24-8) ...
Setting up udev (232-9) ...
addgroup: The group `input' already exists as a system group. Exiting.
Failed to reload daemon: Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.systemd1': timed out
Failed to reload daemon: Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.systemd1': timed out
Failed to retrieve unit: Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.systemd1': timed out
Failed to restart udev.service: Connection timed out
See system logs and 'systemctl status udev.service' for details.
invoke-rc.d: initscript udev, action "restart" failed.
Failed to get properties: Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.systemd1': timed out
dpkg: error processing package udev (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.6.1-2) ...
Processing triggers for dbus (1.10.14-1) ...
Setting up libpam-systemd:amd64 (232-9) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 udev
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Also 'dpkg -l udev' says that udev is half-configured while the other five packages are correctly installed.

Maybe this is a RC bug, so I decided to inform you. If it does not occur on other systems, please let me know. The output is actually the second try to update the six packages, because I managed to downgrade to 232-8 and restart in between. During the downgrade dpkg also failed to configure udev whereas there were no problems with the other packages, but after the restart 'dpkg --configure udev' worked fine.

Cheers,
Viktor