Hi

after I compiled a kernel, I booted with it and wanted to remove the old kenrel, and here is what I get towards the end of the messege.

...
dpkg: error processing linux-image-2.6.16.1 (--purge):
subprocess post-removal script returned error exit status 128
Errors were encountered while processing:
linux-image-2.6.16.1
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

could any body give us an idea as to what to do?

thanks

Did you compile the kernel the Debian Way (i.e. create a *.deb and install it) or did you just compile a kernel and install it yourself?

the debian way and according to
http://newbiedoc.sourceforge.net/system/kernel-pkg.html

Did you try

yes I did.

What's the output of dpkg -l | grep -i linux-image-2.6.16.1?

pc linux-image-2.6.16.1 2.6.16.1-10.00.Custom Linux kernel binary image for version 2.6.16

Hmm. I forget what the "pc" on the left stands for. Let's try dpkg --status linux-image-2.6.16.1 (or is the package name (linux-image-2.6.16.1 2.6.16.1-10.00.Custom?). There should be a line in the output that says "Status". Maybe it's only partially installed or something and needs a special command switch with dpkg to purge it...

:~$ dpkg --status linux-image-2.6.16.1
Package: linux-image-2.6.16.1
Status: purge ok config-files
Priority: optional
Section: base
Installed-Size: 43656
Maintainer: Unknown Kernel Package Maintainer <unknown@unconfigured.in.etc.kernel-pkg.conf>
Architecture: i386
Source: linux-source-2.6.16.1
Version: 2.6.16.1-10.00.Custom
Provides: linux-image, linux-image-2.6
Depends: coreutils | fileutils (>= 4.0)
Pre-Depends: debconf (>= 0.2.17) | debconf-2.0
Suggests: lilo (>= 19.1) | grub, fdutils, linux-doc-2.6.16.1 | linux-source-2.6.16.1
Description: Linux kernel binary image for version 2.6.16.1
This package contains the Linux kernel image for version
2.6.16.1.
.
It also contains 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.
.
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. Please look at kernel-img.conf(5),
and /usr/share/doc/kernel-package/README.gz from the package kernel-package
for details on how to tailor the installation of this or any other kernel
image package
fred@debian:~$

Interesting. So what it looks like is that this kernel has been purged ok, but the config files are left. That's right, now I remember the three things are "Desired State" "Error" and "Status" (the dpkg -l output is actually "Desired" "Status" then "Error" so pc --> Desired=purge Status=config-files still present Error=none).

You can try reinstalling said package and purging again. Short of that, I'd try using deborphan. that's weird it didn't purge the config files... I can't seem to find what error 128 means though (i.e. what's causing the purge to fail).

Also, maybe try purging again and use the --log=filename.log switch to see if it tells you exactly what is failing.

MyKernel uninstall / Purge failed due to "Directory not empty"
Upon looking around I found an nvidia folder inside the /lib/modules/<kernel_version> folder

I figured it was because that nvidia folder wasn't created by the kernel install, so the uninstall script choked when it tried to remove it.. I just removed the rest manually.