Re: apt & dselect failure to remove mozilla
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On Thursday 21 November 2002 10:17 am, you wrote:
> Hello:
>
> I was unable to get mozilla to run. It did not complain when I attempted
> to launch from an xterm, nor did it run. I finally decided to remove
> mozilla and its parts and reinstall it. That is where I ran into problems.
> During the reinstall, x crashed while downloading mozilla and mozilla-psm.
> I restarted x and then dselect in another xterm. dselect complained that
> the mozilla-psm file was corrupt. I tried to purge it so I could start
> over but it simply will not. I will paste some details below.
>
> Question, is there a way to force a package that is now selected for
> removal out of the system? I have gone so far as looking into dpkg (force
> items) and it still fails. Right now, it looks like it is trying to
> *create* symlinks (like it was being installed) even though apt is trying
> to remove it. Any help would be much appreciated.
>
> pts/1$ > apt-get dist-upgrade
> Reading Package Lists... Done
> Building Dependency Tree... Done
> Calculating Upgrade... Done
> The following packages will be REMOVED:
> mozilla-psm
> 0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
> 1 packages not fully installed or removed.
> Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 537kB will be freed.
> (Reading database ... 78654 files and directories currently installed.)
> Removing mozilla-psm ...
> Updating mozilla chrome registry...ln: creating symbolic link
> `/usr/lib/mozilla/chrome/overlayinfo'
> to `/var/lib/mozilla/chrome/overlayinfo': No such file or directory
> dpkg: error processing mozilla-psm (--remove):
> subprocess post-removal script returned error exit status 1
> Errors were encountered while processing:
> mozilla-psm
> localepurge: processing locale files ...
> localepurge: processing man pages ...
> E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
> ~ pts/1$ >
This one time, at band camp, Jaye Inabnit ke6sls said:
> Hello:
>
> I was unable to get mozilla to run. It did not complain when I attempted
to
> launch from an xterm, nor did it run. I finally decided to remove mozilla
> and its parts and reinstall it. That is where I ran into problems. During
> the reinstall, x crashed while downloading mozilla and mozilla-psm. I
> restarted x and then dselect in another xterm. dselect complained that the
> mozilla-psm file was corrupt. I tried to purge it so I could start over
but
> it simply will not. I will paste some details below.
>
> Question, is there a way to force a package that is now selected for
removal
> out of the system? I have gone so far as looking into dpkg (force items)
and
> it still fails. Right now, it looks like it is trying to *create* symlinks
> (like it was being installed) even though apt is trying to remove it. Any
> help would be much appreciated.
- ----reply via list----
Try apt-get remove --purge mozilla
That should force the removal of mozilla-psm and anything else that
depends on it.
As for your first problem, mozilla not running, let's see what we can
do. Debian uses the alternatives system for mozilla (so you could have
multiple versions installed, if you want), so:
steve:~$ ls -l /usr/bin/mozilla*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 25 2002-09-16 22:05 /usr/bin/mozilla
- -> /etc/alternatives/mozilla
- -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 5870 2002-09-13 08:22
/usr/bin/mozilla-1.1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 40 2002-09-16 22:05
/usr/bin/mozilla-xremote-client -> /etc/alternatives/mozilla-xremote-client
- -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 8836 2002-09-13 08:23
/usr/bin/mozilla-xremote-client-1.1
(sorry for the ugly wrap)
Once you get mozilla successfully purged and reinstalled, check that the
symlinks point to an actual binary that can be run. If not (as root)
use update-alternatives to fix it.
- --
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Stephen Gran | The first Rotarian was the first man to |
| steve@lobefin.net | call John the Baptist "Jack." -- H.L. |
| http://www.lobefin.net/~steve | Mencken |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- ----end list reply----
Stephen:
I already tried this approach. I also attempted to use dselect, then, as a
last ditch resort, I tried with dpkg directly. These all failed. BTW, I
always use the --purge option anyway to make sure I remove any config files.
This is why I am asking for more fundamental help. I can try to find the deb
and deleting it, but that will not satisfy the package management system and
will only confuse it. What I need is a way to force Debian to get over this
failed install/removal and purge it.
Is there a way? At this point, I think this breakage will effect my system's
ability to follow updates/upgrades since it will always stop at this point
with mozilla.
BTW, I am reading debian-user via the web archive since I am not currently
subscribed. Sorry if it is ugly.
tia
- --
Jaye Inabnit<ARS ke6sls>A Debian-Gnu/Linux user
If it's stupid, but works, it ain't stupid. I SHOUT JUST FOR FUN.
Free software, in a free world, for a free spirit. Please Support freedom!
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