--clear-avail did nothing ...

I was afraid of that. I was pretty sure that it was for clearing the list of available apps that you get when you run something like "apt-get update" or "aptitude update".

You have an installed kernel that is not configured. The problem is to get it configured or cleared out in some manner. I do not believe that there is any choice other than to force the completion of configuration.

If your box is working I would council patience and hope that someone who knows their way around dpkg a little better jumps in. Compounding the problem by trying to do more installs is just piling up problems for dpkg.

I belive that you are going to have to define the package to be dealt with specifically to invoke --force. The package is;
If you were to try it by itself the command would be;
This is just going to give you the same results that you are getting now I am sure.

Where --force should be applied to that command I do not know.

There could be a different/better approach to this problem too. Continuing to whack at it with out guidance from someone experienced in this, I feel, is not a wise path.

If you feel that you must continue study the man page for dpkg and the dpkg help files listined in your previous post as suggested by apt.

Still trying to duplicate it. Trying hard to break my system so that I can start getting the same error as you are getting. ;-)

The thing that is sure so far that there is some broken file in the system which is preventing the other installs. Just try this to see if you get the broken file which is causing the issue:

1. Open up Kconsole.
2. Type: bleachbit &
3. It will show you a list of what it is capable of doing :-)
4. Check box Broken Desktop Files under the System files option and then click on binocular icon at the top.
5. This will just list the file if it is broken.

Let us know if it is showing up any file there or not.

installed bleachbit ... ran the above options and it came back with no files.

Ok that sounds interesting

Just open up Kconsole and type computer- see if it comes up with any auto completion which says computer-janitor

If it does not come up with anything lets see if we can get computer-janitor installed on your system.

To install computer-janitor type: sudo apt-get install computer-janitor

not familair with the program but here is output for computer-janitor find:


mike@mike-ubuntu:~$ computer-janitor find
ERROR:dbus.proxies:Introspect error on :1.48:/: dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied: Rejected send message, 1 matched rules; type="method_call", sender=":1.50" (uid=1000 pid=10883 comm="/usr/bin/python) interface="org.freedesktop.DBus.Introspectable" member="Introspect" error name="(unset)" requested_reply=0 destination=":1.48" (uid=0 pid=10881 comm="/usr/bin/python))
removable deb:frostwire
removable deb:libdbi0
removable deb:libevtlog0
removable deb:libgio-cil
removable deb:libnet1
removable deb:libtextcat-data-utf8
removable deb:nevernote
removable debython-dockmanager
removable debython-mpd
removable debython-mutagen
removable deb:talika
removable deb:zeitgeist
removable deb:zeitgeist-core
removable deb:zeitgeist-datahub
removable deb:zeitgeist-fts-extension
mike@mike-ubuntu:~$

Great.

Computer Janitor is a program which finds out the packages that are not required on the system. For example you have installed an application and while installing application system also install the packages on which the application is dependent. Now when you remove the application, sometimes the package which got installed to support the dependency does not get removed and later create problems.

Now run the command: computer-janitor clean --all (This command will remove everything that is marked as removable by computer-janitor find command)

Edit: If it errors out don't worry, use apt-get remove package_name (package listed by computer-janitor find command). Once removed all reboot the system. Run computer-janitor find again to see if you still see those packages. If not continue with the next step.)

and

then try to run apt-get upgrade and let me know if it still throws the error.

mike@mike-ubuntu:~$ computer-janitor clean --all
ERROR:dbus.proxies:Introspect error on :1.48:/: dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied: Rejected send message, 1 matched rules; type="method_call", sender=":1.51" (uid=1000 pid=11212 comm="/usr/bin/python) interface="org.freedesktop.DBus.Introspectable" member="Introspect" error name="(unset)" requested_reply=0 destination=":1.48" (uid=0 pid=10881 comm="/usr/bin/python))
ERROR:dbus.connection:Unable to set arguments (set([dbus.String(u'deb:nevernote'), dbus.String(u'deb:libgio-cil'), dbus.String(u'deb:talika'), dbus.String(u'deb:libnet1'), dbus.String(u'deb:frostwire'), dbus.String(u'debython-mutagen'), dbus.String(u'deb:zeitgeist-core'), dbus.String(u'deb:zeitgeist-datahub'), dbus.String(u'deb:libevtlog0'), dbus.String(u'debython-mpd'), dbus.String(u'deb:libdbi0'), dbus.String(u'deb:zeitgeist'), dbus.String(u'debython-dockmanager'), dbus.String(u'deb:zeitgeist-fts-extension'), dbus.String(u'deb:libtextcat-data-utf8')]),) according to signature None: <type 'exceptions.TypeError'>: Don't know how which D-Bus type to use to encode type "set"
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/sbin/computer-janitor", line 35, in <module>
main()
File "/usr/share/computerjanitor/computerjanitorapp/cli/main.py", line 312, in main
options.arguments.func(options.arguments)
File "/usr/share/computerjanitor/computerjanitorapp/cli/main.py", line 293, in clean
timeout=3600)
File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/dbus/proxies.py", line 132, in __call__
**keywords)
File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/dbus/connection.py", line 556, in call_async
message.append(signature=signature, *args)
TypeError: Don't know how which D-Bus type to use to encode type "set"
mike@mike-ubuntu:~$

Edit: If it errors out don't worry, use apt-get remove package_name (package listed by computer-janitor find command). Once removed all reboot the system. Run computer-janitor find again to see if you still see those packages. If not continue with the next step.)

Check my last post.

Has this been resolved?

mikemeadows,
Are you using any third party repositories at all? This includes those all too problematic PPA repos. These problems typically develop when people add unsupported repos to their sources.list.
Did you do a clean install of Ubuntu 10.10, or was this an upgrade from 10.04?

this is a clean install of 10.10.

Repo list:


mike@mike-ubuntu:~$ sudo more /etc/apt/sources.list
[sudo] password for mike:
# deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 10.10 _Maverick Meerkat_ - Release amd64 (20101007)]/ maverick main restricted
# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to
# newer versions of the distribution.

deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick main restricted
deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick main restricted

## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.
deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates main restricted
deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates main restricted

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team. Also, please note that software in universe WILL NOT receive any
## review or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick universe
deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick universe
deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates universe
deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates universe

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
## security team.
deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick multiverse
deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick multiverse
deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates multiverse
deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates multiverse

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'backports'
## repository.
## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
# deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-backports main restricted universe multiverse
# deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-backports main restricted universe multiverse

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
## 'partner' repository.
## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by Canonical and the
## respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu users.
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu maverick partner
# deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu maverick partner

## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by third-party
## developers who want to ship their latest software.
deb http://extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick main
deb-src http://extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick main

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick-security main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick-security main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick-security universe
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick-security universe
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick-security multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick-security multiverse

Mike,
Make sure you are running all of thse commnds with sudo. Runing those commands as a regular user will not be allowed and will not work.
Go through all of th commands that were suggested and be sure you have run them with sudo.

Why are you trying to install an i386 kernel image on an amd64 system?

My advice is to stop what you are doing right now.

So it is a little easier to read outputs it would be helpful, and also take up less space if you put them in code blocks, this is the little hash # above where you type in your post.

Let me read through this convoluted mess again and see what I can figure out.

2 members found this post helpful.

Working through this will be a little difficult as it appears, please don't take this the wrong way, that you don't really have a clue what's gone on. Knowing this I, we, need you to work through a few things.

If you are confident you haven't busted your system that it won't reboot I would like you to reboot. When you do that I want you to take note of what kernels are installed on your system. You should get a GRUB screen, at least I hope you get the GRUB screen giving you a list of bootable kernels. Please write down the numbers for us. They will all be 2.6.35 something. Make sure you have at least 2 kernels because you will need to have a spare to boot to. Please boot into one that is not being a problem, that is assuming the one that is being the problem is even on the list.

Now you have your list of kernels I want you to open Synaptic. On the left hand side there will be a pane down the bottom with buttons named Section, Status, Origin etc. Click on "Status" and then up the top pane on the left click on "Installed". Now in the Quick Search type in 2.6.35 and you will get a list of all your installed kernels. Find the one that is being a bother and right click and "Mark for Complete Removal". Click apply and follow the prompts. Reboot and see how things are, go to System > Adminstration > Update Manager and when it opens click check for updates. It will most probably show you a few so it would be a good opportunity to see that the package management system is working properly again. If it shows a kernel update untick the relevant boxes because on our first attempt we do not want a new kernel breaking an update again. If the update works properly then our next attempt will be to update the kernel BUT only after another reboot.

Let us know how you go.