Re: how to remove a broken package (long)

["Charles Lewis" <lewisc@swau.edu>]

Wow! Thanks for the quick replies! Unfortunately, I had already tried these
suggestions (except for one which didn't do it either). I have a sinking
feeling that something is very wrong with my system. :(

>From: Marcin Kurc <siemce@linux.indtech.edu>
> try dpkg --force-help

I did read the man pages on this but I wasn't sure which one to use.
--force-remove-reinstreq seems to be the right one, but for instance,
dpkg --purge --force-remove-reinstreq squid gives me the following result:

Removing squid ...
dpkg: error processing squid (--purge):
 subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 squid

>From: Bryan Allen <harb@happy.digitaldune.net>
> dpkg -r <packagename> kills the package that isn't working.. also,
> apt-get -f install works wonders for packages that just aren't happy..
> dependency problems or whatever.

dpkg -r is what got me the errors in my original post (I think, but even so
I have tried it several times already), and as you can see it's not killing
the package for some reason.  And apt-get -f install (which I hadn't tried
yet) gave the following output (sorry for the spam):

delta:/# apt-get -f install
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  apache-common
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  apache-common
0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
2 packages not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B/443kB of archives. After unpacking 849kB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
Selecting previously deselected package apache-common.
(Reading database ... 11873 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking apache-common (from .../apache-common_1.3.3-7_i386.deb) ...
Setting up apache-common (1.3.3-7) ...
/usr/lib/apache/suexec not found
dpkg: error processing apache-common (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of apache:
 apache depends on apache-common (>= 1.3.3); however:
  Package apache-common is not configured yet.
 apache depends on apache-common (<< 1.3.4); however:
  Package apache-common is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing apache (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Setting up squid (2.1.2-1) ...
dpkg: error processing squid (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 apache-common
 apache
 squid
E: Sub-process returned an error code (1)