I made a mistake in attempting to install ytalk - apparantly, my kernel isn't new enough for the version of ytalk I wanted, and apt-get attempted to remove the kernel image. I aborted the installation, but noticed that the kernel image was still marked for removal.
I used aptitude to uncheck the remove flag on the package, but dpkg status still lists it as deinstall. Should I be worried? How can I get rid of the deinstall flag? dselect scares me!
Here's the ytalk install log:
<code>
trogdor:/home/soltrain# apt-get install ytalk
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
libc6 libc6-dev locales talkd tzdata
Suggested packages:
glibc-doc
The following packages will be REMOVED:
base-config initrd-tools kernel-image-2.4.27-1-386
The following NEW packages will be installed:
talkd tzdata ytalk
The following packages will be upgraded:
libc6 libc6-dev locales
3 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 3 to remove and 212 not upgraded.
Need to get 11.7MB of archives.
After unpacking 27.6MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1
ftp://mirrors.kernel.org testing/main tzdata 2006l-1 [311kB]
Get:2
ftp://mirrors.kernel.org testing/main libc6-dev 2.3.6.ds1-4 [2715kB]
Get:3
ftp://mirrors.kernel.org testing/main locales 2.3.6.ds1-4 [3953kB]
Get:4
ftp://mirrors.kernel.org testing/main libc6 2.3.6.ds1-4 [4697kB]
Get:5
ftp://mirrors.kernel.org testing/main talkd 0.17-11 [17.4kB]
Get:6
ftp://mirrors.kernel.org testing/main ytalk 3.3.0-2 [44.9kB]
Fetched 11.7MB in 1m15s (155kB/s)
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 21424 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing base-config ...
Removing kernel-image-2.4.27-1-386 ...
You are running a kernel (version 2.4.27-1-386) and attempting to remove
the same version. This is a potentially disastrous action. Not only
will /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.27-1-386 be removed, making it impossible to boot
it, (you will have to take action to change your boot loader to boot
a new kernel), it will also remove all modules under the directory
/lib/modules/2.4.27-1-386. Just having a copy of the kernel image is not
enough, you will have to replace the modules too.
I repeat, this is very dangerous. If at all in doubt, answer
no. If you know exactly what you are doing, and are prepared to
hose your system, then answer Yes.
Remove the running kernel image (not recommended) [No]?
dpkg: error processing kernel-image-2.4.27-1-386 (--remove):
subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: initrd-tools: dependency problems, but removing anyway as you request:
kernel-image-2.4.27-1-386 depends on initrd-tools (>= 0.1.48).
Removing initrd-tools ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
kernel-image-2.4.27-1-386
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
</code>
Here's dpkg status
<code>
soltrain@trogdor:~$ dpkg --status kernel-image-2.4.27-1-386
Package: kernel-image-2.4.27-1-386
Status: deinstall ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: base
Installed-Size: 27722
Maintainer: Debian Kernel Team <debian-kernel@lists.debian.org>
Architecture: i386
Source: kernel-image-2.4.27-i386
Version: 2.4.27-2
Provides: kernel-image, kernel-image-2.4
Depends: initrd-tools (>= 0.1.48), coreutils | fileutils (>= 4.0), modutils (>= 2.4.19)
Suggests: lilo (>= 19.1) | grub, fdutils, kernel-doc-2.4.27 | kernel-source-2.4.27, kernel-pcmcia-modules-2.4.27-1-386 | pcmcia-modules-2.4.27-1-386
Description: Linux kernel image for version 2.4.27 on 386
This package contains the Linux kernel image for version 2.4.27 on
386,
the corresponding System.map file, and the modules built by the packager.
It also contains scripts that try to ensure that the system is not left in
a unbootable state after an update.
.
If you wish to update a bootdisk, or to use a bootloader to make
installing and using the image easier, we suggest you install the latest
fdutils (for formatting a floppy to be used as boot disk), and LILO, for a
powerful bootloader. Of course, both these are optional.
.
Kernel image packages are generally produced using kernel-package,
and it is suggested that you install that package if you wish to
create a custom kernel from the sources.
</code>
More dpkg status
<code>
soltrain@trogdor:~$ dpkg -l |grep kernel
ii iptables 1.3.1-2 Linux kernel 2.4+ iptables administration to
ri kernel-image-2.4.27-1-386 2.4.27-2 Linux kernel image for version 2.4.27 on 386
ii linux-kernel-headers 2.5.999-test7-bk-17 Linux Kernel Headers for development
ii mbmon 2.05-3 Hardware monitoring without kernel dependenc
ii module-init-tools 3.2-pre1-2 tools for managing Linux kernel modules
</code>
