Questions[vps](ubuntu)

I'm trying to configure static IPv6 with netplan on a cloud server (public cloud from OVH) running Ubuntu 18.04

I have created a /etc/netplan/66-ipv6.yaml yaml file in addition to the existing /etc/netplan/50-cloud-init.yaml :

network:
    version: 2
    ethernets:
        ens3:
            match:
              name: ens3
            addresses: 
              - '2001:what:ever::1234/128'
            gateway6: '2001:what:ever::1'

Wether manually with netplan generate; netplan apply or on reboot, the interface get its static IPv6 address but gateway6: seems to have no effect at all.

me@server:~$ ip -6 route
2001:what:ever::1234 dev ens3 proto kernel metric 256 pref medium
fe80::/64 dev ens3 proto kernel metric 256 pref medium

Obviously the server can't reach any public IPv6 address at this point.

me@server:~$ ping6 google.com
connect: Network is unreachable

Manually adding the default route works fine.

me@server:~$ sudo ip -6 route add 2001:what:ever::1 dev ens3
me@server:~$ sudo ip -6 route add default via 2001:what:ever::1 dev ens3
me@server:~$ ip -6 route
2001:what:ever::1 dev ens3 metric 1024 pref medium
2001:what:ever:1234 dev ens3 proto kernel metric 256 pref medium
fe80::/64 dev ens3 proto kernel metric 256 pref medium
default via 2001:what:ever::1 dev ens3 metric 1024 pref medium
me@server:~$ ping6 -c 1 google.com
PING google.com(par10s27-in-x0e.1e100.net (2a00:1450:4007:809::200e)) 56 data bytes
64 bytes from par10s27-in-x0e.1e100.net (2a00:1450:4007:809::200e): icmp_seq=1 ttl=53 time=7.54 ms

--- google.com ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 received, 0% packet loss, time 0ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 7.544/7.544/7.544/0.000 ms

Am I missing something very obvious ?

Can't set locales, that's pretty it. My VPS gives me a mutilated Ubuntu 16.04 distro:

$ export LC_ALL="en_US.UTF-8"

-bash: warning: setlocale: LC_ALL: cannot change locale (en_US.UTF-8)

$ locale -a

locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_COLLATE to default locale: No such file or directory
C
C.UTF-8
POSIX

$ locale

locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8

$ sudo locale-gen "en_US.UTF-8"

sudo: locale-gen: command not found

$ sudo apt-get install locale-gen

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package locale-gen

What are my options?

UPDATE for Gunnar:

$ sudo apt install --reinstall locales
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 reinstalled, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/3213 kB of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
        LANGUAGE = (unset),
        LC_ALL = (unset),
        LANG = "en_US.UTF-8"
    are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Dialog
debconf: (No usable dialog-like program is installed, so the dialog based frontend cannot be used. at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/FrontEnd/Dialog.pm line 76, <> line 1.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Readline
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 27980 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../locales_2.23-0ubuntu10_all.deb ...
Unpacking locales (2.23-0ubuntu10) over (2.23-0ubuntu10) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
Setting up locales (2.23-0ubuntu10) ...
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Dialog
debconf: (No usable dialog-like program is installed, so the dialog based frontend cannot be used. at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/FrontEnd/Dialog.pm line 76.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Readline
Generating locales (this might take a while)...
Generation complete.

$ locale
locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

$ sudo locale-gen "en_US.UTF-8"
Generating locales (this might take a while)...
  en_US.UTF-8... done
Generation complete.

$ export LC_ALL="en_US.UTF-8"
-bash: warning: setlocale: LC_ALL: cannot change locale (en_US.UTF-8)

I upgraded my server installation form 11.04 to 11.10, then to 12.04 over ssh. All seems almost ok - but there is a small issue with glibc, which is messing up my apt.

I tried sudo apt-get install -f but it does not get what it needs. I am running in a OpenVZ virtual machine.

How can I fix my apt dependencies?

sysadmin@svr:~$ sudo apt-get update 
Ign http://archive.canonical.com precise InRelease
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com precise InRelease
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates InRelease
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-security InRelease
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise Release.gpg [198 B]
Hit http://archive.canonical.com precise Release.gpg 
Get:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates Release.gpg [198 B]
Hit http://archive.canonical.com precise Release      
Get:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-security Release.gpg [198 B]
Hit http://archive.canonical.com precise/partner i386 Packages
Get:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise Release [49.6 kB]
Ign http://archive.canonical.com precise/partner TranslationIndex
Get:5 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates Release [49.6 kB]
Get:6 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-security Release [49.6 kB]               
Get:7 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/main i386 Packages [1274 kB]            
Ign http://archive.canonical.com precise/partner Translation-en                  
Get:8 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/restricted i386 Packages [8431 B]
Get:9 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/universe i386 Packages [4796 kB]
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/main TranslationIndex                                                                                                                       
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/restricted TranslationIndex                                                                                                                 
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/universe TranslationIndex                                                                                                                   
Get:10 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/main i386 Packages [20.2 kB]                                                                                                     
Get:11 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/restricted i386 Packages [770 B]                                                                                                 
Get:12 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/universe i386 Packages [2258 B]                                                                                                  
Get:13 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/main TranslationIndex [72 B]                                                                                                     
Get:14 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/restricted TranslationIndex [71 B]                                                                                               
Get:15 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/universe TranslationIndex [72 B]                                                                                                 
Get:16 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/main i386 Packages [11.8 kB]                                                                                                    
Get:17 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/restricted i386 Packages [14 B]                                                                                                 
Get:18 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/universe i386 Packages [1357 B]                                                                                                 
Get:19 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/main TranslationIndex [72 B]                                                                                                    
Get:20 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/restricted TranslationIndex [70 B]                                                                                              
Get:21 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/universe TranslationIndex [71 B]                                                                                                
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/main Translation-en                                                                                                                         
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/restricted Translation-en                                                                                                                   
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/universe Translation-en                                                                                                                     
Get:22 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/main Translation-en [9145 B]                                                                                                     
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/restricted Translation-en                                                                                                           
Get:23 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/universe Translation-en [1344 B]                                                                                                 
Get:24 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/main Translation-en [3549 B]                                                                                                    
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/restricted Translation-en                                                                                                          
Get:25 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/universe Translation-en [760 B]                                                                                                 
Fetched 6279 kB in 57s (109 kB/s)                                                                                                                                                 
Reading package lists... Done
sysadmin@svr:~$ sudo apt-get ugrade
E: Invalid operation ugrade
sysadmin@svr:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 libc6 : Depends: libc-bin (= 2.13-20ubuntu5.1) but 2.15-0ubuntu10 is installed
 libncurses5 : Depends: libtinfo5 (= 5.9-1ubuntu5) but 5.9-4 is installed
 libnih-dbus1 : Depends: libnih1 (= 1.0.3-4ubuntu9) but 1.0.3-4ubuntu2 is installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f.
sysadmin@svr:~$ sudo apt-get install -f
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  libswscale0 libavutil50 python-support g++-4.5 libboost-program-options1.42.0 librpmio1 libpostproc51 libavformat52 libstdc++6-4.5-dev libavfilter1 libavcodec52
  libboost-filesystem1.42.0 libboost-system1.42.0 libavdevice52
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following extra packages will be installed:
  libc-dev-bin libc6 libc6-dev libncurses5 libnih1
Suggested packages:
  glibc-doc
The following packages will be upgraded:
  libc-dev-bin libc6 libc6-dev libncurses5 libnih1
5 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 335 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/9099 kB of archives.
After this operation, 1618 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? 
locale: /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.15' not found (required by locale)
Preconfiguring packages ...
Setting up libc-bin (2.15-0ubuntu10) ...
(Reading database ... 31190 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace libc6-dev 2.13-20ubuntu5.1 (using .../libc6-dev_2.15-0ubuntu10_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libc6-dev ...
Preparing to replace libc-dev-bin 2.13-20ubuntu5.1 (using .../libc-dev-bin_2.15-0ubuntu10_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libc-dev-bin ...
Preparing to replace libc6 2.13-20ubuntu5.1 (using .../libc6_2.15-0ubuntu10_i386.deb) ...
locale: /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.15' not found (required by locale)
Checking for services that may need to be restarted...
Checking init scripts...
runlevel:/var/run/utmp: No such file or directory
Checking for services that may need to be restarted...
Checking init scripts...
runlevel:/var/run/utmp: No such file or directory
WARNING: init script for samba not found.
Stopping some services possibly affected by the upgrade (will be restarted later):
  cron: stopping...done.

WARNING: this version of the GNU libc requires kernel version
2.6.24 or later. Please upgrade your kernel before installing
glibc.

The installation of a 2.6 kernel _could_ ask you to install a new libc
first, this is NOT a bug, and should *NOT* be reported. In that case,
please add lenny sources to your /etc/apt/sources.list and run:
  apt-get install -t lenny linux-image-2.6
Then reboot into this new kernel, and proceed with your upgrade
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.15-0ubuntu10_i386.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess new pre-installation script returned error exit status 1
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                              Processing triggers for man-db ...
locale: /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.15' not found (required by locale)
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.15-0ubuntu10_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
sysadmin@svr:~$ 

Problem: I occasionally have network issues with my Ubuntu VPS. I cannot SSH to the box, I cannot ping the box by IP address. I can access the box via host Serial terminal. When I access the box via serial, I can't ping out anywhere (far as I can tell), even when pinging by IP address. After some amount of time the network comes back, sometimes without my intervention. Sometimes it comes back when I am fiddling around. But it is hard to tell why. (Edit: It is very consistently out for 1 hour)

Questions: How can I proceed in troubleshooting this issue? What things can I do in order to rule out configuration/software problems in my control so that I can feel more comfortable bringing up the issue to my VPS host?

Things I have tried:

• Bring eth0 down and up
• Disable firewall temporarily
• Checked VPS host advisories for network issues - haven't seen any
• Reboot the server via Web console
• Note: None of these have worked for me

Details:

• Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS
• Hosted with Xen virtualization
• Have root access (SSH) to perform my own upgrades, installs, etc.
• I have the VPS setup as a VPN server so that I can connect to it "Road Warrior" style and forward all my traffic through the VPS first. So that is the junk with 10.8.X.X
• All traffic including DNS lookups are forwarded through the VPS
• Use uncomplicated firewall (ufw) with some basic rules
• Also acts as a server for some services including Mumble and web server
• I setup a script on the VPS as a cron job to ping some common internet entities by IP address every 5 minutes. If there is failure in the ping, then it logs it to a file. Simple enough. Consistently the network outage lasts for an hour. It does not always happen at the same time of day. On almost all of the occurrences, the network is down for an hour and then it "magically" comes back.
• Memory usage on my VPS is typically very high. Usually I am maxed out and using some swap. The memory hog is java, if that detail helps.
• My provider has been very unhelpful. It has ranged from "we are sorry, we had an unfortunate issue" to "there is no problem now". This is frustrating to me because typically I make a ticket when there is a problem, but the problem is gone by the time the ticket is addressed. The most recent communication has been that they suggest reformatting my VPS and starting over, which i am not keen about.
• Consistently network outages start on the hour (within 5-10 minutes). That is, network outages do not start around XX:30, XX:45, etc.

netstat -rn

    Kernel IP routing table  
    Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags   MSS Window  irtt Iface  
    10.8.0.2        0.0.0.0         255.255.255.255 UH        0 0          0 tun0  
    XX.57.166.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.255.128 U         0 0          0 eth0  
    192.168.50.0    10.8.0.2        255.255.255.0   UG        0 0          0 tun0  
    10.8.0.0        10.8.0.2        255.255.255.0   UG        0 0          0 tun0  
    0.0.0.0         XX.57.166.1     0.0.0.0         UG        0 0          0 eth0  

ip route list

    10.8.0.2 dev tun0  proto kernel  scope link  src 10.8.0.1  
    XX.57.166.0/25 dev eth0  proto kernel  scope link  src XX.57.166.59  
    192.168.50.0/24 via 10.8.0.2 dev tun0  
    10.8.0.0/24 via 10.8.0.2 dev tun0  
    default via XX.57.166.1 dev eth0  metric 100

cat /etc/network/interfaces

    auto eth0  
    iface eth0 inet static  
        address XX.57.166.59  
        gateway XX.57.166.1  
        netmask 255.255.255.128  
    auto lo  
    iface lo inet loopback

I installed Dwarf Fortress on my Linux VPS to use with dfterm. It's running Ubuntu 10.04 Server x86-32. I'm fairly certain I have all the dependencies:

I've installed:

• ncurses
• ncursesw
• libsdl
• libsdl-image
• libgtk
• libglu
• libopenal1

I had to turn sound off or it will instantly segfault, and I set the display mode to text. I've made no other changes to the config.

However, even before I go near dfterm, it won't run properly. It just displays a blank screen. What could be causing this? Is there a dependency I missed? Is there something else I should have changed in the config?

Given that it is a server, there is a good chance that if there is a missing dependency, it's something that the devs went "Sure, everyone has that" and didn't bother to list.

Other ncurses applications (vim, irssi use it, I think?) work fine.