cannot reinstall upstart

Question

I followed a fix for another issue but now the reboot and shutdown executables are missing. I have tried

sudo apt-get install --reinstall upstart

But I get this line at the end

/var/lib/dpkg/info/upstart.postinst: 38: 
/var/lib/dpkg/info/upstart.postinst: telinit: not found

And the executables are still missing.

This is the output of /bin/sh -e -x /var/lib/dpkg/info/upstart.postinst

+ ischroot
+ initctl+ tr -d )
 version
+ awk {print $3}
+ UPSTART_VERSION_RUNNING=1.12.1
+ dpkg --compare-versions 1.12.1 ge 1.9
+ telinit u
/var/lib/dpkg/info/upstart.postinst: 38: 
/var/lib/dpkg/info/upstart.postinst: te           linit: not found
+ :
+ [  = configure ]
+ dpkg-maintscript-helper rm_conffile /etc/init/upstart-dbus-bridge.conf 
1.9.1-0           ubuntu4 --
dpkg-maintscript-helper: error: couldn't identify the package

ran sudo apt-get install --reinstall systemd-sysv upstart and got the following warning in the output

WARNING: Failed to connect to lvmetad. Falling back to internal scanning.
/run/lvm/lvmetad.socket: connect failed: No such file or directory

then had kernel panic when starting the machine including the line

Target filesystem doesn't have requested /sbin/init.

managed to get to login by choosing 3.13.0.65 (upstart)

at login I am shown this message

[24.187631] system-logind[1553]: Failed to start user service, ignoring: Unknown unit: user@1000.service

I cannot connect remotely to the machine, nor to the plex server running on it

the previous issue was that I was getting these "Unknown Multi-Arch type 'no' for package ***" messages when trying to run apt-get update... and the new problem occurs since performing the solution posted in the top answer here... https://askubuntu.com/questions/760071/errors-upgrading-from-14-04-to-16-04-about-unknown-multi-arch-type-for-compiz-l — Mattychops, Dec 27 '17 at 08:01
Could you add the output of /bin/sh -e -x /var/lib/dpkg/info/upstart.postinst — J. Starnes, Dec 27 '17 at 08:18
The answers in Error “/run/lvm/lvmetad.socket: connect failed: No such file or directory” - but not Grub related may be useful for the new error. Could you add what release you are on. — J. Starnes, Dec 30 '17 at 20:43
Do you have a recent backup of the important files from this system? Do you have a liveusb? Is the important data encrypted? — J. Starnes, Dec 30 '17 at 21:33
The system is used to store all my media on plex. Files are on 4 drives in a raid5 array so I hope could all be recovered — Mattychops, Dec 30 '17 at 21:58
Should I create and liveusb and do a completely fresh install? — Mattychops, Dec 31 '17 at 07:03
If I were in your position I would use a liveusb to check that the raid data was fine and accessible. If so then a fresh install not touching the raid if possible. — J. Starnes, Dec 31 '17 at 15:16
I've done a fresh install and re-mounted the raid array no problem. Everything working fine now. Thanks for your help J — Mattychops, Jan 01 '18 at 09:36

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 30 '17 at 19:36

You seem to need to reinstall systemd-sysv which provides telinit. Additional steps may be necessary if other errors are revealed, if so update your question.
Run the following command to reinstall both:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall systemd-sysv upstart

You can find what package supplies telinit by running dpkg with the search flag, see How do I find the package that provides a file?

dpkg -S telinit
systemd-sysv: /sbin/telinit
systemd-sysv: /usr/share/man/man8/telinit.8.gz
upstart: /lib/sysvinit/telinit

cannot reinstall upstart

1 Answers1