Bug#1129339: apt hangs for 25 seconds before acting if logind isn't running

Control: reassign -1 systemd

On Sun, Mar 01, 2026 at 09:32:42AM +0100, g1 wrote:
> Package: apt
> Version: 3.0.3
> Severity: normal
> X-Debbugs-Cc: [email protected]
> 
> Before invoking dpkg to perform the work, apt-get connects to DBUS in
> order to make the seat-manager inhibit shutdowns.
> 
> If you don't have systemd-logind or elogind running (because e.g. you
> were forced to install elogind as a dependency, but you disabled
> it), this hangs for 25 seconds, until dbus reports timeout on
> org.freedesktop.login1.

This sounds like a bug in systemd or dbus or something; but likely this
is not a supported system configuration.

> 
> A quick and dirty workaround consists in putting 
> 
>     DPkg::Inhibit-Shutdown "false";
> 
> in a file in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d.  I could not find references to that
> option in apt.conf(5), and had to search in the source code
> (apt-pkg/deb/dpkgpm.cc) to discover it.  Therefore I kindly ask the
> developers to document it, 

We are planning to introduce new documentation written in
reStructuredText. There's no need at this point to collect bug reports
about incomplete documentation; the new documentation will include
tooling to ensure completeness.

> maybe together with Binary::apt::Pager [1].

The `Pager` option is for internal use only.

Pager configuration is standardized across the ecosystem using the
PAGER and ${TOOL}_PAGER variables (PAGER, GIT_PAGER, SYSTMEMD_PAGER;
here APT_PAGER). APT implements this standard.

If we wanted paging configurable in apt.conf, it would be `APT::Pager`,
not `Pager`.

The `Binary::apt` prefix makes it apply to the apt(8) binary; this is
being phased out by a more flexible interface versioning scheme but that
is still a WIP. However the new scheme is backward compatible; existing
Binary::apt overrides continue working.

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