{"id":22878,"date":"2023-03-24T07:57:34","date_gmt":"2023-03-24T07:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=22878"},"modified":"2023-03-24T07:57:56","modified_gmt":"2023-03-24T07:57:56","slug":"e-could-not-open-file-var-lib-apt-lists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=22878","title":{"rendered":"E: Could Not Open File \/var\/lib\/apt\/lists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In this post, I’ll show how I solved a failure, that occurred during an Azure Image Builder (Packer) build with a Ubuntu 20.04 image, which resulted in a bunch of errors that contained E: Could not open file \/var\/lib\/apt\/lists\/<\/em> with a bunch of different file names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disclaimer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I am Linux-disabled. I started my career programming on UNIX but switched to being a Microsoft infrastructure person a year later – and that was a long time ago. I am not a frequent Linux user but I do acknowledge its existence and usefulness. In other words, I figured out a fix for me, but it might not be a fix for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Problem<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I was using Azure Image Builder, which is based on Packer, to allow the regular creation of a Ubuntu 20.04 image with the latest updates and bits for acting as the foundation of a self-hosted DevOps agent VM Scale Set in a secure Azure network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had simple needs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Install Unzip<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Install Terraform<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    What makes it different is that I need the installations to be non-interactive. Windows has a great community with that kind of challenge. After a lot of searching, I realise that Linux does not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I set up the tasks in the image template and for a month, everything was fine. Images built and rebuilt. A few days ago, a weird issue started where the first version of a template build was fine, but subsequent builds failed. When I looked at the build log, I saw a series of errors when apt (the package installed) ran that started with:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    E: Could not open file \/var\/lib\/apt\/lists\/<\/em>…<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    The Solution<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    I tried a lot of things, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    apt-get update\napt-get upgrade -y<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
    But guess, what – the errors just moved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    I was at the end of my tether when I decided to try something else. The apt package installation for WinZip worked some of the time. What was wrong the rest of the time? Time – that was the key word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Something needed more time before I ran any apt commands. I decided to embed a bunch of sleep commands to let things in Ubuntu catchup with my build process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    I have two tasks that run before I install Terraform. The first prepares Linux:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
                {\r\n                \"type\": \"Shell\",\r\n                \"name\": \"Prepare APT\",\r\n                \"inline\": [\r\n                    \"echo ABCDEFG\",\r\n                    \"echo sleep for 90 seconds\",\r\n                    \"sleep 1m 30s\",\r\n                    \"echo apt-get update\",\r\n                    \"apt-get update\",\r\n                    \"echo apt-get upgrade\",\r\n                    \"apt-get upgrade -y\",\r\n                    \"echo sleep for 90 seconds\",\r\n                    \"sleep 1m 30s\"\r\n                ]\r\n            },<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
    The second task installs WinZip and some other tools that assist with downloading the latest Terraform zip file:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
                {\r\n                \"type\": \"Shell\",\r\n                \"name\": \"InstallPrereqs\",\r\n                \"inline\": [\r\n                    \"echo ABCDEFG\",\r\n                    \"echo sleep for 90 seconds\",\r\n                    \"sleep 1m 30s\",\r\n                    \"echo installing unzip\",\r\n                    \"sudo apt install --yes unzip\",\r\n                    \"echo installing jq\",\r\n                    \"sudo snap install jq\"\r\n                ]\r\n            },<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
    I’ve ran this code countless times yesterday and it worked perfectly. Sure, the sleeps slow things down, but this is a batch task that (outside of testing) I won’t be waiting on so I am not worried.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
    In this post, I’ll show how I solved a failure, that occurred during an Azure Image Builder (Packer) build with a Ubuntu 20.04 image, which resulted in a bunch of errors that contained E: Could not open file \/var\/lib\/apt\/lists\/ with a bunch of different file names. Disclaimer I am Linux-disabled. I started my career programming … Continue reading “E: Could Not Open File \/var\/lib\/apt\/lists”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[170,470,184,468,511],"class_list":["post-22878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-azure","tag-azure-image-builder","tag-linux","tag-packer","tag-ubuntu"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t