Raspbian will no longer successfully upgrade, nor reboot properly.

[Wizardling]

pi@zebes:~ $ sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade -y && sudo reboot now
Get:1 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org jessie InRelease [14.9 kB]
Get:2 http://archive.raspberrypi.org jessie InRelease [22.9 kB]
Get:3 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org jessie/main armhf Packages [9,536 kB]
Hit http://archive.raspberrypi.org jessie/main armhf Packages
Hit http://archive.raspberrypi.org jessie/ui armhf Packages
Ign http://archive.raspberrypi.org jessie/main Translation-en_NZ
Ign http://archive.raspberrypi.org jessie/main Translation-en
Ign http://archive.raspberrypi.org jessie/ui Translation-en_NZ
Ign http://archive.raspberrypi.org jessie/ui Translation-en
Get:4 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org jessie/contrib armhf Packages [43.3 kB]
Get:5 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org jessie/non-free armhf Packages [84.2 kB]
Get:6 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org jessie/rpi armhf Packages [1,356 B]
Ign http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org jessie/contrib Translation-en_NZ
Ign http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org jessie/contrib Translation-en
Ign http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org jessie/main Translation-en_NZ
Ign http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org jessie/main Translation-en
Ign http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org jessie/non-free Translation-en_NZ
Ign http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org jessie/non-free Translation-en
Ign http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org jessie/rpi Translation-en_NZ
Ign http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org jessie/rpi Translation-en
Fetched 9,703 kB in 56s (171 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
4 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
curl libcurl3 libcurl3-gnutls libcurl4-openssl-dev
4 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 969 kB of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/ jessie/main libcurl4-openssl-dev armhf 7.38.0-4+deb8u8 [314 kB]
Get:2 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/ jessie/main curl armhf 7.38.0-4+deb8u8 [196 kB]
Get:3 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/ jessie/main libcurl3 armhf 7.38.0-4+deb8u8 [233 kB]
Get:4 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/ jessie/main libcurl3-gnutls armhf 7.38.0-4+deb8u8 [226 kB]
Fetched 969 kB in 5s (190 kB/s)
Reading changelogs... Done
(Reading database ... 90215 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../libcurl4-openssl-dev_7.38.0-4+deb8u8_armhf.deb ...
Unpacking libcurl4-openssl-dev:armhf (7.38.0-4+deb8u8) over (7.38.0-4+deb8u7) ...
Preparing to unpack .../curl_7.38.0-4+deb8u8_armhf.deb ...
Unpacking curl (7.38.0-4+deb8u8) over (7.38.0-4+deb8u7) ...
Preparing to unpack .../libcurl3_7.38.0-4+deb8u8_armhf.deb ...
Unpacking libcurl3:armhf (7.38.0-4+deb8u8) over (7.38.0-4+deb8u7) ...
Preparing to unpack .../libcurl3-gnutls_7.38.0-4+deb8u8_armhf.deb ...
Unpacking libcurl3-gnutls:armhf (7.38.0-4+deb8u8) over (7.38.0-4+deb8u7) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1~bpo8+1) ...
Setting up libcurl3:armhf (7.38.0-4+deb8u8) ...
Setting up libcurl4-openssl-dev:armhf (7.38.0-4+deb8u8) ...
Setting up curl (7.38.0-4+deb8u8) ...
Setting up libcurl3-gnutls:armhf (7.38.0-4+deb8u8) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.19-18+deb8u10) ...

At which point the SSH connection is terminated. Trying to update via keyboard and monitor results in ages of being stuck at the same point, before it errors out.

Also, I often now have to use sudo systemctl --force --force reboot to force a reboot. Anything else often errors out with:
Failed to open initctl FIFO: No such device or address
Failed to talk to init daemon.

Is there any way to recover this installation and get it working smoothly again? :-)

[Wizardling]

Still sticking at Processing triggers for libc-bin

[jonnykesh]

@wizardling apt and apt-get are slightly different commands and manage package installation differently. (Don't ask me to explain please as I'm no Linux expert, lots of info online).
I would suggest you run.
sudo apt-get update
then:
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
and see how that works out.

[Wizardling]

@jonnykesh said in Raspbian will no longer successfully upgrade, nor reboot properly.:

@wizardling apt and apt-get are slightly different commands and manage package installation differently. (Don't ask me to explain please as I'm no Linux expert, lots of info online).
I would suggest you run.
sudo apt-get update
then:
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
and see how that works out.

I'll be darned, that worked! :-) Thank you thank you thank you Jonny! :-)

[jonnykesh]

@wizardling No problem, glad I could help.

[Wizardling]

@jonnykesh said in Raspbian will no longer successfully upgrade, nor reboot properly.:

@wizardling No problem, glad I could help.

You are my tech hero today. Seriously - I've been struggling with this for a couple weeks, and coming up with nothing helpful despite extensive Googling. It seemed crazy I'd need to nuke, pave, and reinstall for a stuck/broken package. But I was very near to doing so, till you helped me out!

[jonnykesh]

@wizardling Shucks, I'm blushing here. But seriously no problem at all, just browsing the forum and saw your post and noticed you were using apt and was aware it sometimes can cause issues like this.
The "problem" is that Linux will do exactly what you tell it to do and if you aren't fully versed in exactly how things work it can cause problems. I honestly couldn't tell you why it works, other than it handles installation of packages and dependencies differently.