Public bug reported:
Title:
unattended-upgrades hangs during shutdown, repeatedly receives SIGTERM, and
leaves dpkg in an interrupted state with hundreds of unconfigured packages
Description:
Ubuntu/Kubuntu 26.04.1 LTS hangs during shutdown when unattended-
upgrades is active.
Instead of completing the package transaction cleanly or aborting it at
a safe point, the shutdown process remains stuck on:
"Unattended-upgrade in progress during shutdown, please don't turn off
the computer"
During the affected shutdown, unattended-upgrades repeatedly logged:
WARNING SIGTERM received, will stop
approximately every 3 seconds for several minutes.
After rebooting, dpkg was left in an interrupted state with a very large
number of packages unpacked but not configured.
This included critical system components such as:
- systemd
- grub
- Linux kernel packages
- NVIDIA 580 driver packages
- libc
- PipeWire
- AppArmor
- udev
- LibreOffice
- Python
- OpenSSL
- fwupd
- many other system libraries
One package, libinput-bin, was explicitly reported by dpkg as requiring
reinstallation.
This should not happen as a result of requesting a normal system
shutdown.
System information:
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS
Release: 26.04
Codename: resolute
unattended-upgrades:
Installed: 2.12ubuntu9
Candidate: 2.12ubuntu9
apt:
Installed: 3.2.0
Candidate: 3.2.0
unattended-upgrades.service:
[Unit]
Description=Unattended Upgrades Shutdown
After=network.target local-fs.target systemd-logind.service
RequiresMountsFor=/run /var/log /var/run /var/lib /boot
Documentation=man:unattended-upgrade(8)
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/share/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrade-shutdown
--wait-for-signal
KillMode=process
TimeoutStopSec=1800
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
apt-daily-upgrade.service:
[Unit]
Description=Daily apt upgrade and clean activities
Documentation=man:apt(8)
ConditionACPower=true
After=apt-daily.service network.target network-online.target
systemd-networkd.service NetworkManager.service connman.service
[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStartPre=-/usr/lib/apt/apt-helper wait-online
ExecStart=/usr/lib/apt/apt.systemd.daily install
KillMode=process
TimeoutStopSec=900
Timeline:
2026-09-19 18:27 CEST
apt-daily-upgrade.timer had run.
Around 18:37-18:40 CEST
A normal shutdown was requested.
The machine displayed:
"Unattended-upgrade in progress during shutdown, please don't turn off
the computer"
The shutdown did not complete.
During this period /var/log/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrades.log
repeatedly contained:
WARNING SIGTERM received, will stop
The warning was repeated approximately every 3 seconds for several
minutes.
Examples:
2026-09-19 18:37:56 WARNING SIGTERM received, will stop
2026-09-19 18:37:59 WARNING SIGTERM received, will stop
2026-09-19 18:38:02 WARNING SIGTERM received, will stop
2026-09-19 18:38:05 WARNING SIGTERM received, will stop
...
2026-09-19 18:40:23 WARNING SIGTERM received, will stop
The dpkg log shows a large package transaction in progress, including
LibreOffice packages.
Examples:
2026-09-19 18:42:44 upgrade libreoffice-draw:amd64
2026-09-19 18:42:45 upgrade libreoffice-writer:amd64
2026-09-19 18:42:46 upgrade libreoffice-base-core:amd64
2026-09-19 18:42:46 upgrade ure:amd64
2026-09-19 18:42:46 upgrade libuno-cppuhelpergcc3-3t64:amd64
2026-09-19 18:42:46 upgrade uno-libs-private:amd64
2026-09-19 18:42:46 upgrade libreoffice-math:amd64
2026-09-19 18:42:47 upgrade libreoffice-common:all
2026-09-19 18:42:48 upgrade python3-uno:amd64
2026-09-19 18:42:49 upgrade libuno-cppu3t64:amd64
2026-09-19 18:42:49 upgrade libreoffice-kf6:amd64
2026-09-19 18:42:49 upgrade libreoffice-qt6:amd64
2026-09-19 18:42:49 upgrade libuno-sal3t64:amd64
Several packages reached states such as:
status half-configured
status half-installed
status unpacked
The transaction did not complete normally before the shutdown/reboot.
State after reboot:
Running:
sudo dpkg --audit
reported one package requiring reinstallation:
libinput-bin
input device management and event handling library - udev
It also reported a very large number of packages as unpacked but not
configured.
Examples included:
accountsservice
apparmor
bluez
curl
firefox
fwupd
google-chrome-stable
grub-common
grub-pc
grub-pc-bin
grub2-common
libc6
libc6-dev
libnvidia-cfg1-580
libnvidia-common-580
libnvidia-compute-580
libnvidia-decode-580
libnvidia-encode-580
libnvidia-gl-580
libnvidia-fbc1-580
libnvidia-extra-580
libpython3.14
libreoffice-base-core
libreoffice-calc
libreoffice-core
libreoffice-draw
libreoffice-impress
libreoffice-kf6
libreoffice-math
libreoffice-qt6
libreoffice-writer
linux-image-7.0.0-31-generic
linux-modules-7.0.0-31-generic
linux-modules-nvidia-580-open-7.0.0-31-generic
nvidia-dkms-580-open
nvidia-driver-580-open
nvidia-utils-580
openssl
pipewire
polkitd
python3.14
systemd
systemd-coredump
systemd-resolved
systemd-sysv
udev
udisks2
ubuntu-minimal
ubuntu-standard
and many others
There were also pending triggers for:
dbus
desktop-file-utils
fontconfig
hicolor-icon-theme
initramfs-tools
libc-bin
libreoffice-common
man-db
plymouth
procps
shared-mime-info
and others
apt-get check result immediately after the incident:
E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'sudo dpkg --configure
-a' to correct the problem.
Manual recovery required:
sudo dpkg --configure -a
After that, dpkg --audit still reported:
libinput-bin
as requiring reinstallation.
I then had to manually run:
sudo apt install --reinstall libinput-bin
This reinstalled/upgraded:
libinput-bin 1.31.1-1ubuntu1.2
libinput10 1.31.1-1ubuntu1.2
After manual recovery:
sudo dpkg --audit
returned no errors.
And:
sudo apt-get check
completed successfully.
Therefore the package database is now repaired, but only after manual
intervention.
Expected behavior:
If shutdown is requested while unattended-upgrades / apt / dpkg is
performing a package transaction, the system should protect the
integrity of the package database.
It should either:
1. wait for the current dpkg transaction to finish safely,
or
2. stop unattended-upgrades only at a safe transaction boundary and then
complete shutdown.
A normal shutdown request must not leave hundreds of packages unpacked,
half-installed, half-configured, or pending configuration.
Actual behavior:
Shutdown hung for several minutes.
unattended-upgrades repeatedly received SIGTERM approximately every 3
seconds.
The package transaction was left incomplete.
After reboot, dpkg required manual recovery.
A critical input-related package (libinput-bin) was left in a state
requiring explicit reinstallation.
The machine contained a large set of unconfigured packages, including
systemd, grub, kernel and NVIDIA driver packages.
Why this is serious:
This is more than a cosmetic shutdown delay.
Interrupting a package transaction in this way can leave critical boot
and system packages in an inconsistent state.
In this case the interrupted transaction included:
- Linux kernel packages
- initramfs-related triggers
- GRUB
- systemd
- udev
- NVIDIA kernel/driver packages
A less experienced user could easily end up with a system that fails to
boot or requires recovery-mode/chroot repair.
A normal GUI shutdown should not be capable of leaving dpkg in this
state.
Possible area to investigate:
There may be a race or shutdown-handling problem involving:
/usr/share/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrade-shutdown
and/or:
apt-daily-upgrade.service
Both services use:
KillMode=process
and have long shutdown timeouts:
unattended-upgrades.service:
TimeoutStopSec=1800
apt-daily-upgrade.service:
TimeoutStopSec=900
The repeated "SIGTERM received, will stop" messages suggest that the
upgrade process receives termination requests during shutdown but does
not transition to a clean/safe termination state.
It may be worth checking whether the parent unattended-upgrade process
is terminated while dpkg or package-maintainer child processes continue
running, or whether shutdown signals are being resent while a dpkg
transaction is still inside an unsafe state.
I am not claiming this is definitely the root cause, but this appears to
be the relevant code path.
Reproduction scenario:
1. Allow apt-daily-upgrade / unattended-upgrades to start a sufficiently large
package upgrade.
2. While packages are being unpacked/configured, request a normal system
shutdown from the desktop environment.
3. Observe the shutdown screen.
4. In my case the system displayed:
"Unattended-upgrade in progress during shutdown, please don't turn
off the computer"
5. The machine remained in this state for several minutes.
6. unattended-upgrades repeatedly logged SIGTERM messages.
7. After reboot, run:
sudo dpkg --audit
sudo apt-get check
8. Observe that dpkg was left interrupted and a large number of packages
were unpacked but not configured.
I can provide the complete unattended-upgrades log, dpkg log and apt
history from the affected transaction if required.
Please let me know which additional diagnostics would be useful.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 26.04
Package: unattended-upgrades 2.12ubuntu9
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 7.0.0-31.31-generic 7.0.14
Uname: Linux 7.0.0-31-generic x86_64
.var.log.unattended-upgrades.unattended-upgrades.log:
ApportVersion: 2.34.1-0ubuntu0.1
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
CurrentDesktop: KDE
Date: Sat Sep 19 19:07:12 2026
InstallationDate: Installed on 2024-03-16 (917 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 23.10 "Mantic Minotaur" - Release amd64 (20231010)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: unattended-upgrades
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to resolute on 2026-05-18 (124 days ago)
modified.conffile..etc.apt.apt.conf.d.10periodic:
APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists "1";
APT::Periodic::Download-Upgradeable-Packages "1";
APT::Periodic::AutocleanInterval "0";
APT::Periodic::Unattended-Upgrade "1";
mtime.conffile..etc.apt.apt.conf.d.10periodic: 2026-06-25T03:18:28.764257
** Affects: unattended-upgrades (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Tags: amd64 apport-bug resolute wayland-session
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2167771
Title:
unattended-upgrades hangs during shutdown, repeatedly receives
SIGTERM, and leaves dpkg in an interrupted state with hundreds of
unconfigured packages
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