Re: Okay to remove obsolete required packages like "base"?

[George Bonser <grep@shorelink.com>]

On Mon, 1 Mar 1999, Mark Phillips wrote:

> I've just done an upgrade to slink, but when I go into dselect I
> observe that there are a number of obsolete packages:
> 
>     --- Obsolete and local packages present on system ---
>     ----- Obsolete/local Required packages -----
>     ------- Obsolete/local Required packages in section base -------
>  *__ Req base     base         1.1.0-14    <none>                              
> 
> Can I purge them all?
> 
> Now when I try and purge "base", I get:
> 
> # dpkg --remove base 
> dpkg: error processing base (--remove):
>  This is an essential package - it should not be removed.
> Errors were encountered while processing:
>  base
> 
> Now I presume I should do some kind of forced purge, but I'm a bit
> reluctant to remove an "essential" package --- is it okay to do this?



NO!!!!!!!! DO NOT REMOVE BASE! IT WILL KILL YOUR SYSTEM!!!

Just wait, that is a known bug and is on the list of bugs that must be
fixed. Leave it until there is a solution for the problem. Otherwise you
will remove several vital packages.