pkgtool: remove won't work

onelastwish · 12-22-2007, 03:32 AM

so when i open up pkgtool and go down to "remove" and hit enter, it goes directly to a screen that says:

Quote:

PACKAGE REMOVAL COMPLETE
The packages have been removed. A
complete log of the files that
were removed has been created in
/var/log/setup/tmp:
PKGTOOL.REMOVED.

PKGTOOL.REMOVED contains:

Quote:

No such package: /var/log/setup/tmp/rmscript:. Can't remove.
No such package: line. Can't remove.
No such package: 1:. Can't remove.
No such package: /usr/bin/dialog:. Can't remove.
No such package: Argument. Can't remove.
No such package: list. Can't remove.
No such package: too. Can't remove.
No such package: long. Can't remove.

i googled this problem and found something at http://www.slacky.eu/forum/viewtopic...0408d41d632b5b that looks very similar to my problem. however, it's in italian. i used freetranslate.com but i couldn't really make any sense of it. also, in that thread, it looks like the guys "removepkg" function doesn't work. mine does. so maybe it's different.

i've been using linux for about 4 days now, so i'm pretty new to it, but i am gaining a much bigger understanding of it and like to think that i'm pretty good with computers.

any help would be greatly appreciate.

thank you,
eric

onebuck · 12-22-2007, 07:33 AM

Hi,

Quote:

excerpt from;
:~# man pkgtool
Formatting page, please wait...
pkgtool [ -sets #a#b#c# ] [ -source_mounted ] [ -ignore_tagfiles ] [
-tagfile tagfile ] [ -source_dir directory ] [ -target_dir directory ]
[ -source_device device ]

DESCRIPTION
pkgtool is the standard package maintenance tool provided with the
Slackware Linux distribution. It allows the user to install, remove,
or view software packages through an interactive menu system. Pkgtool
can also be used to re-run the menu-driven scripts normally executed at
the end of a Slackware installation. This is useful for doing basic
reconfiguration (like changing the mouse type).

OPTIONS
Most users will not want to use any options when running pkgtool.
These are generally used only when pkgtool is run during the initial
system installation. Feel free to try them, but be careful.

What packages have you installed as user that you want to remove? If system packages then you must be root to remove anything. You can use 'su' or setup your 'sudo'.

Quote:

SU(1) SU(1)

NAME
su - change user ID or become super-user

SYNOPSIS
su [-] [username [args]]

DESCRIPTION
su is used to become another user during a login session. Invoked with-
out a username, su defaults to becoming the super user. The optional
argument - may be used to provide an environment similiar to what the
user would expect had the user logged in directly.

Additional arguments may be provided after the username, in which case
they are supplied to the user´s login shell. In particular, an argument
of -c will cause the next argument to be treated as a command by most
command interpreters. The command will be executed by the shell speci-
fied in /etc/passwd for the target user.

The user will be prompted for a password, if appropriate. Invalid pass-
words will produce an error message. All attempts, both valid and
invalid, are logged to detect abuses of the system.

As you can see from the above the 'su' should be used with caution. Allows you to become another user but you will need to know the password of that user. Be root or anyone else.

You should use 'man' to find out about commands. You could look at Linux Newbie Admin Guide to get a good reference.

You could also reference 'Slackware-Links'

onelastwish · 12-22-2007, 09:43 PM

i'm pretty sure i already was root, because i can't even start pkgtool if i'm not root.

i think i might have something to do with installing gnome. i was trying to get it to work from gnome slackbuild, but it was going crazy so i uninstalled it and now pkgtool works fine.

thanks for the help though.

gnashley · 12-23-2007, 03:07 AM

I saw someone reporting this problem awhile back -exactly after installing gnome. It's not a problem with gnome, but that the list of packages is too long. If you 'decode' the error message it gave you taking just the second field:
/var/log/setup/tmp/rmscript: line 1: /usr/bin/dialog: Argument list too long. I supposed that the problem had been addressed as it seemed that it might begin to show up even with a standard installation (now that X is nearly 300 packages).
Yeah, I just found the thread here:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...kgtool-576207/

There is a link to a patch but the link is incorrect. Here's the corrected link to the patch:
http://www.inghi.it/download/prova-pkgtool.tar.bz2

I haven't checked to see if this actually works so proceed at your own risk.

onelastwish · 12-23-2007, 03:13 AM

i see. well thanks. i'll keep that in mind.

eric

Alien_Hominid · 12-23-2007, 04:21 AM

Get pkgtool from current. It's already fixed.