Error Upgrading ubuntu-advantage-tools

Question

Sat down at work to do a routine apt update && apt upgrade and encountered some issue with ubuntu-advantage-tools.

I'm not sure what this package is for, but it came in with Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS (GNU/Linux 5.4.72-microsoft-standard-WSL2 x86_64).

I've tried the usual apt purge and tried to install again, but it still doesn't succeed.

$ sudo apt install ubuntu-minimal
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  ubuntu-advantage-tools
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  ubuntu-advantage-tools ubuntu-minimal
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/847 kB of archives.
After this operation, 3233 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously unselected package ubuntu-advantage-tools.
(Reading database ... 58786 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../ubuntu-advantage-tools_27.2.1~20.04.1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking ubuntu-advantage-tools (27.2.1~20.04.1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package ubuntu-minimal.
Preparing to unpack .../ubuntu-minimal_1.450.2_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking ubuntu-minimal (1.450.2) ...
Setting up ubuntu-advantage-tools (27.2.1~20.04.1) ...
ERROR: File not found '/run/cloud-init/instance-data.json'. Provide a path to instance data json file using --instance-data
dpkg: error processing package ubuntu-advantage-tools (--configure):
 installed ubuntu-advantage-tools package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.
                                                                                                          dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of ubuntu-minimal:
 ubuntu-minimal depends on ubuntu-advantage-tools; however:
  Package ubuntu-advantage-tools is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package ubuntu-minimal (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for man-db (2.9.1-1) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 ubuntu-advantage-tools
 ubuntu-minimal
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I just show the example of installing ubuntu-minimal because this was (i think) the only thing depending on ubuntu-advantage-tools, and removing ubuntu-advantage-tools also removed ubuntu-minimal.

I can re-create my Ubuntu WSL thing but its kind of a PITA. I'm not getting commercial support from Canonical, do I need to worry about this package being borky? More worried about that ubuntu-minimal metapackage being broken, actually.

Thanks!

I did end up 'resetting' my WSL Ubuntu install, did an initial "apt update && apt full-upgrade -y && apt autoremove -y" and the error came back. Maybe Ubuntu has a buggy package right now?

[... bunch of other apt output here ...]

Setting up ubuntu-advantage-tools (27.2.1~20.04.1) ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/ubuntu-advantage/uaclient.conf ...
ERROR: File not found '/run/cloud-init/instance-data.json'. Provide a path to instance data json file using --instance-data
dpkg: error processing package ubuntu-advantage-tools (--configure):
 installed ubuntu-advantage-tools package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1

[... bunch of other apt output here ...]

Errors were encountered while processing:
 ubuntu-advantage-tools
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Answer 1

In my case (Ubuntu 18.04) this caused a catch 22 because the package requires some Python3 packages which were not installed and apt could not complete installation.

The fix for me was hard remove of ubuntu-advantage-tools to install python3 packages then reinstall

To hard remove ubuntu-advantage-tools reference from apt:

sudo mv /var/lib/dpkg/info/ubuntu-advantage-tools* /tmp

Answer 2

ubuntu-advantage-tools upgrade fails configure Bug #1938097

sudo vim +295 /var/lib/dpkg/info/ubuntu-advantage-tools.postinst
# or use gedit, nano, or else

change line 295 to

cloud_id=$(cloud-id || true)

making this change and then

run dpkg --configure -a

An alternative workaround is uninstalling the cloud-init package. If this package is not installed, cloud-init cannot be found, so the error does not happen.