Re: "Unpacking replacement..." hangs in apt-get.

[Adam Soltan <soltan@infra.kth.se>]

Thibaut Paumard wrote:
> Le vendredi 14 juillet 2006 à 15:10 +0200, Adam Soltan a écrit :
>
> > I have an annoying problem with apt-get. When I run for instance
> > apt-get upgrade it shifts into gear and starts downloading
> > packages but it then hangs while unpacking some of them.
> > Twin ctrl-c:s seem to skip the offending packages and move on
> > with other ones. Below is a listing of what it can look like.
> > Any tips?.. I am running debian 3.1r0a AMD64.
> >
> > [...]
> > Preparing to replace mozilla-browser 2:1.7.8-1sarge5 (using 
> > .../mozilla-browser_2%3a1.7.8-1sarge6_amd64.deb) ...
> > Unpacking replacement mozilla-browser ...
> > <CTRL-C><CTRL-C>
> > dpkg: error processing 
> > /var/cache/apt/archives/mozilla-browser_2%3a1.7.8-1sarge6_amd64.deb 
> > (--unpack):
> > dpkg: warning - old post-removal script killed by signal (Interrupt)
>
>
> FWIW, since it seems it has something to do with removing the previous
> version rather than installing the new one, I would try and "aptitude
> remove --purge" the offending packages first (and see what happens).
>
> That may be a pain if you have a lot of packages depending on them
> though, or e.g. if you manually installed plugins in system directories.
>
> Naturally, if you find that you have to do something unusual to perform
> the upgraded, please submit a bug report...
>
> T.

Now I get the dreaded "Package is in a very bad inconsistent state -
you should reinstall it before attempting a removal." message. There
seems to be some kind of evil mix up in the apt-database. I tried all
sorts of stuff even dpkg -r --force-remove-reinstreq mutt but no
luck. I just get

dpkg - warning, overriding problem because --force enabled:
 Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should
 reinstall it before attempting a removal.
(Reading database ... 105643 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing mutt ...

... and it hangs there.

/Adam Soltan