Trying to build APT: "configure: error: cannot run /bin/bash buildlib/config.sub"
 

I am trying to build APT from source to replace the buggy APT in Ubuntu 10.04 only to run into the error described in the thread title.

I tried Googling it and all I got were a bunch of hard-to-read IRC logs.

When I clicked "Properties" after right-clicking config.sub in Nautilius, I found out that it was a broken symlink to /usr/share/misc/config.sub.

How do I install that /usr/share/misc/config.sub file (and the other config.guess file that also showed up as broken link) without APT?

Assuming you don't want to compile your dependencies from source as well, you'll have to find a way to fetch the required .deb file(s) and install them manually with dpkg. The same goes for any dependencies of those files.

According to apt-file, that file is provided by the package autotools-dev, at least on Debian. For that matter you generally need to have -dev packages installed for all libraries that the program you're installing depends on.

The problem is that my APT (and for that matter dpkg) has an infinite loop in it. This means that trying to install anything from a .deb file will always hang at "Unpacking" - very painstaking indeed. I may have to reinstall Ubuntu 10.10 Alpha 3 altogether (still have my Live USB) and go from there. I may have to wait for an APT update before I go any further, perhaps when the Ubuntu community removes the infinite loop.

Well, that's a problem then. But if dpkg alone is affected, then doesn't that make it a dpkg problem, rather than apt?

I can't say if it would work, but you might be able to temporarily replace your binaries with those from a similar working system. IOW, manually replace the /usr/bin executables themselves from a recent live disk or something. If the dependencies aren't too far off they might run.

Of course there's also the risk that it will hose things even further, but it is an idea.

See this bug report for information on my problem.

Do you have an older version of apt in /var/cache/apt/archives? If you do try using dpkg to remove the current one then install the older version.

Or download aptitude and use it.

I also seem to have a similar problem with Ubiquity.