Software Updater has hung while configuring a kernel update; what do I do?
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1566462/software-updater-has-hung-while-configuring-a-kernel-update-what-do-i-do
A few days ago, Software Updater notified me of new updates (including a kernel update), so I pressed the button to begin the update process. Then I ignored it and let it do its thing.
This morning, I noticed that the Software Updater window is still open. I clicked on it, and… it appears it never finished installing the updates. Specifically, it seems to have become stuck while configuring the kernel updates. If I expand “Details,” it looks like this:
Since it’s been stuck like this for days, I really don’t know what to do, now. I’m particularly worried about what will happen the next time the system boots (like, if it loses power or something and needs to restart).
Now, this could be a red herring, but: the only times I’ve previously had the Software Updater hang, it’s had to do with Keybase, where I’ve had problems similar to this: https://github.com/keybase/keybase-issues/issues/4206 The symptoms aren’t the same, though; previously, if Keybase has had to do with why Software Updater hangs, it hangs specifically when configuring an updated Keybase package, not a kernel update.
I’m running Ubuntu 24.04.1 on a ThinkPad P53.
Edit 2026-05-07: Well, following Daniel T’s answer, I opened a terminal window and did sudo killall dpkg and… strangely, it seemed to try again (in Software Updater) to configure the kernel package, once again hanging at the message about os-prober. I tried to capture the output in Software Updater, but I couldn’t seem to copy anything I’d selected. When I finally tried Shift+Ctrl+C (since that’s how you use the “copy” command in the terminal), it interpreted that as Ctrl+C, killed the dpkg process (I assume), and tried again to configure the package, hanging at the os-prober message. …I think I tried Ctrl+C once or twice more, and eventually Software Updater just told me (in its window, with no “Details” expandable) that the process was finished and some packages were left unconfigured (I forget the exact message). So I did sudo dpkg --configure -a in the terminal, and once again it tried to configure the package (this time in the terminal window), hanging at the os-prober message! Here’s the output:
tina@harmonia:~$ sudo dpkg --configure -a
Setting up linux-image-6.17.0-23-generic (6.17.0-23.23~24.04.1) ...
Setting up linux-image-6.17.0-22-generic (6.17.0-22.22~24.04.1) ...
Processing triggers for linux-image-6.17.0-23-generic (6.17.0-23.23~24.04.1) ...
/etc/kernel/postinst.d/dkms:
* dkms: running auto installation service for kernel 6.17.0-23-generic
* dkms: autoinstall for kernel 6.17.0-23-generic
...done.
/etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools:
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.17.0-23-generic
/etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-update-grub:
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub'
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.17.0-23-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.17.0-23-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.17.0-22-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.17.0-22-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.17.0-14-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.17.0-14-generic
Found memtest86+ 64bit EFI image: /boot/memtest86+x64.efi
Warning: os-prober will be executed to detect other bootable partitions.
Its output will be used to detect bootable binaries on them and create new boot entries.
Since it keeps hanging at the os-prober message, I suppose this problem might have something to do with os-prober. I should note that this laptop came with Windows 11, and that I installed Ubuntu with a dual-boot configuration, but I don’t think I’ve used Windows 11 since installing Ubuntu. Anyway, it might be relevant.