[SOLVED] Uninstaling a broken/damaged package

vitorsgoncalves · 05-14-2010, 04:29 PM

Hello

I installed postgregresql-8.4 in ubuntu 9.10 some time ago, now I upgraded to 10.04. Everything looked like normal, but when I decided to update my packages via synaptic, postgregresql-8.4 got an error and now it s listed as broken.

I tried to simply uninstall it, but an error appears and says that the package is at a bad state and cannot be uninstalled.

How can I uninstall, update or reinstall the package?

yooy · 05-14-2010, 05:12 PM

try with other that synaptic like dpkg or ubuntu software center

vitorsgoncalves · 05-14-2010, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yooy

try with other that synaptic like dpkg or ubuntu software center

All the same, error messages and cannot uninstall.

yooy · 05-14-2010, 05:35 PM

Quote:

error messages

read that or post it here, error messages help

vitorsgoncalves · 05-14-2010, 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yooy

read that or post it here, error messages help

The message is:

invoke-rc.d: initscript postgresql-8.4, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:

Shadow_7 · 05-14-2010, 05:42 PM

# dpkg --purge --force-all <package>
# apt-get install <new-package>

You'll likely need to install 10.4 again depending on if/how many parts are shared. And --purge removes the .conf files so you'll likely want a backup of those if you did anything fancy.

vitorsgoncalves · 05-14-2010, 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow_7

# dpkg --purge --force-all <package>

The result was the same...

thecarpy · 05-14-2010, 06:39 PM

Check this one out: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1415362.
It is an evil hack ... but apparently, it worked for him/her ...

vitorsgoncalves · 05-14-2010, 06:48 PM

I found a solution:

the problem problably was because the postgre server was running, and for some reason it could not stop, so I removed postgresql from the init.d, restarted the pc, and followed Shadow_7's instructions.

Thank you all

Shadow_7 · 05-15-2010, 08:19 PM

there's also /etc/init.d/<package> stop to stop it. or kill -9 or killall.