[Pkg-xen-devel] Bug#691734: xen-utils-common should install successfully even if xen cannot be started

[Stuart Livings]

Package: xen-utils-common
Version: 4.1.3-2
Severity: important


IMPORTANT NOTE:
This bug has been generated using reportbug run from a debian stable system.  The affected debian testing systems are isolated in a lab and do not have internet access.  The issue is wholly reproducible on several different debian testing installations.

xen-utils-common fails to install if xen cannot be started.  Example configurations may include:
- Installing xen-utils-common before the xen kernel is installed.
- Installing xen-utils-common as a dependency for xen-utils in a domU.

In both of the above situations xen-utils-common installation fails and requires a patch to the post-install script to allow installation.  If this patch is not applied xen-utils-common must be removed to allow a sane package management state.

The root cause of the issue appears to be an implicit dependency on the starting of the xen init script in the following section of /var/lib/dpkg/info/xen-utils-common.postinst:
# Automatically added by dh_installinit
if [ -x "/etc/init.d/xen" ]; then
        update-rc.d xen defaults 20 21 >/dev/null
        invoke-rc.d xen start || exit $?
fi
# End automatically added section

Commenting out the 'invoke-rc.d' line and running "apt-get -f install" resolves the installation issue.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 6.0.5
  APT prefers stable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash