Error while installing, upgrading or autoremove: insserv warning: script 'K01runlcactivator' and 'runlcactivator'

Question

I am seeing these errors while trying to install Inkscapeor install any software for that matter.

When I try to use sudo apt-get install language-pack-en-base it shows the same error .

I also tried sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales and then tried to installInkscape - but it is not working.

abhilash@abhilash-Inspiron-3542:~$ sudo apt-get install inkscape
[sudo] password for abhilash: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  gawk libgsl2 libgtkmm-2.4-1v5 libgtkspell0 libimage-magick-perl
  libimage-magick-q16-perl libmagick++-6.q16-5v5 libwmf-bin python-numpy
  transfig
Suggested packages:
  gawk-doc pstoedit dia | dia-gnome libsvg-perl libxml-xql-perl
  python-uniconvertor ruby gsl-ref-psdoc | gsl-doc-pdf | gsl-doc-info
  | gsl-ref-html imagemagick-doc gfortran python-dev python-nose
  python-numpy-dbg python-numpy-doc xfig
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  gawk inkscape libgsl2 libgtkmm-2.4-1v5 libgtkspell0 libimage-magick-perl
  libimage-magick-q16-perl libmagick++-6.q16-5v5 libwmf-bin python-numpy
  transfig
0 upgraded, 11 newly installed, 0 to remove and 158 not upgraded.
8 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/16.9 MB of archives.
After this operation, 107 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Setting up util-linux (2.27.1-6ubuntu3.3) ...
insserv: warning: script 'K01runlcactivator' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'runlcactivator' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: There is a loop between service plymouth and procps if started
insserv:  loop involving service procps at depth 2
insserv:  loop involving service udev at depth 1
insserv: Starting runlcactivator depends on plymouth and therefore on system facility `$all' which can not be true!
insserv: Starting runlcactivator depends on plymouth and therefore on system facility `$all' which can not be true!
insserv: Starting runlcactivator depends on plymouth and therefore on system facility `$all' which can not be true!
insserv: Starting runlcactivator depends on plymouth and therefore on system facility `$all' which can not be true!    
insserv:  loop involving service networking at depth 4
insserv: There is a loop between service plymouth and urandom if started
insserv:  loop involving service urandom at depth 4
insserv:  loop involving service mountdevsubfs at depth 2
insserv: There is a loop at service runlcactivator if started
insserv: Starting runlcactivator depends on plymouth and therefore on system facility `$all' which can not be true!
insserv: Starting runlcactivator depends on plymouth and therefore on system facility `$all' which can not be true!
insserv: Starting runlcactivator depends on plymouth and therefore on system facility `$all' which can not be true!
insserv: Starting runlcactivator depends on plymouth and therefore on system facility `$all' which can not be true!
insserv: There is a loop between service runlcactivator and dns-clean if started
insserv:  loop involving service dns-clean at depth 1
insserv: Starting runlcactivator depends on plymouth and therefore on system facility `$all' which can not be true!
insserv: exiting now without changing boot order!
update-rc.d: error: insserv rejected the script header
dpkg: error processing package util-linux (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 util-linux
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
abhilash@abhilash-Inspiron-3542:~$ 

I have been told -

the problem is that you are stuck at the boot sequencing.

Here is what I see when I viewed the file [runlcactivator]

Now please suggest how do I "completely purge the program and scripts from /etc/init.d/ and /etc/rc? files." - as is suggested in the answer? What is the command line to do this?

I am not familiar with codes, so if instructions are specific I can just follow them as it is. Thanks for helping!

Answer 1

First of all, the problem is that you are stuck at the boot sequencing.

The boot sequencing method is decided during installation or upgrades. If there are no loops in the dependencies declared by the LSB headers of all installed init.d scripts and no obsolete scripts, the system is converted to dependency based boot sequence. We have to check for

1. Loop in dependencies: Occurs when >

   • There are missing LSB tags in some scripts or error in LSB tags like missing Required-Start: or Required-Stop: tags

   • Some scripts depend on other scripts which depend on the system facility $all, which cannot be true because the script depending on $all is loaded last at starting. Since it loads last, nothing can depend on it. Hence, it messes up the dependency based boot sequence.

2. Obsolete scripts: Occur when

   • Some packages being upgraded to newer versions which may not use a script in /etc/init.d/ and the maintainer may have missed the code to remove the old script. Not our mistake.

The cause is surely foreign. Go to /etc/init.d and view the file corresponding to runlcactivator and confirm that it has an LSB comment with Provides,Required-Start/Required-Stop (at least empty), Default-Start/Default-Stop in it as below.

### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides :          runlcactivator
# Required-Start :
# Required-Stop :
# Default-Start :     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop  :     0 1 6
# Short-Description : runlcactivator
# Description :       runlcactivator
### END INIT INFO

If it's not there you can either add the LSB comment or completely purge the program and scripts from /etc/init.d/ and /etc/rc? files. There are two scripts: K01runlcactivator and runlcactivator

Please note that I have cribbed this answer shamelessly from Unable to install anything using apt-get because of insserv on Unix & Linux SE.

Answer 2

I was having same kind of issue which started occuring when I tried installing Airtel 4G dongle on my ubuntu system, though it never worked.

I moved or say removed

/etc/init.d/runlcactivator

file from the location and then tried installing software packages and I was able to install the packages again smoothly.