An appstream 0.9.4-1 package will cause freezing apt update.
This issue is not happen from GUI of "Software Update".
An appstream comunity has already fixed this issue.
And fixed appstream package is release in Ubuntu 16.04.
But you cannot update fixed appstream package because of broken appstream.
This article will describe installing fixed appstream package.
Table of Contents
1 Freezing apt update
Running apt update will be freezed.
$ sudo apt update Hit:1 http://jp.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial InRelease Hit:2 http://jp.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates InRelease Hit:3 http://jp.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-backports InRelease Hit:4 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security InRelease # No output and freeze
When checking with top command, an appstreamcli command use 100% CPU.
$ top <snip> PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 1884 root 20 0 103396 15592 8224 R 99.3 1.5 0:59.27 appstreamcli <snip>
2 Install fixed appstream package
Below command will install fixed appstream package.
$ sudo killall -KILL apt.systemd.daily $ sudo mv /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50appstream /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50appstream.disable $ sudo apt update -y $ sudo apt upgrade -y $ sudo mv /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50appstream.disable /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50appstream $ sudo apt update -y