Help Please. I am using etch 4.0 and KDE.

I have been trying to remove/uninstall doodle.
This is the error I keep getting using synaptic, apt-get and dpkg:

E: doodled: subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 1

(Reading database ... 107257 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing doodled ...
Stopping doodle daemon: invoke-rc.d: initscript doodled, action "stop" failed.
dpkg: error processing doodled (--remove):
subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
Starting doodle daemon: doodled.
Errors were encountered while processing:
doodled
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install. Trying to recover:

~~~~~


Then I tried to re-install it and I get this:

E: doodled: subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 1

(Reading database ... 107257 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing doodled ...
Stopping doodle daemon: invoke-rc.d: initscript doodled, action "stop" failed.
dpkg: error processing doodled (--remove):
subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
Starting doodle daemon: doodled.
dpkg: doodle: dependency problems, but removing anyway as you request:
doodled depends on doodle (= 0.6.5-5).
Removing doodle ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
doodled
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install. Trying to recover:

~~~~~


Next I searched all the forums I could find, goggling between
forums and found the only info that looked like it could help
and this is it:

"Dealing with troublesome package upgrades or removals"
Posted by Steve on debian-administration
http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/251/

which is the only thing close to my problem I've found.
I did/tried everything that Steve talks about, NO LUCK YET.
Belive me there is not much out there on this problem that.


I commented out the " # set -e ", that he talks about in the
script files starting one at a time with "prerm" file. Then switching
to apt-get I would do an "apt-get -f install" to straighten it all back
up again.

I then compared doodler's prerm file with many other programs files.
I could not find anything wrong.

Next I did everything that I had already done to the "prerm" file
to the remaining script files and as yet Nothing!

Here is a copy of my "prerm file" with the "set -e" commented out:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#!/bin/sh
# set -e
exit 1
# Automatically added by dh_installinit

if [ -x "/etc/init.d/doodled" ]; then
if [ -x "`which invoke-rc.d 2>/dev/null`" ]; then
invoke-rc.d doodled stop || exit $?
else
/etc/init.d/doodled stop || exit $?
fi
fi
# End automatically added section
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Help! I'm posting this now (it's late) and I'll be back this weekend.
Thank you all for getting to post here.

Why don't you manually stop the service and then try uninstalling it. Your prerm file would be doing that if you didn't have the "exit 1" line which exits the script with an error.

Since posting I've learned how to stop doodle and that
the "exit 1" should be changed to "exit 0". As root I
changed the exit code to "0". Then I used synaptic to
uninstall doodle. IT WORKED!!!!!

When one don't know nothing about programming one lives in
a black hole.

Thank you for all your help and for allowing my post.