On Fri, Dec 01, 2000 at 10:28:10PM +1100, Ken Caldwell wrote:
> Further to my earlier post:
>
> > One package, 9menu, is in an unconfigured state because the post install
> > script fails. The package is not important it was suggested originally
> > as a useful adjunct to the lwm window manager. I can't configure it
> > with dpkg --configure because of the script failure and I can't purge it
> > with dpkg -P again because of a script failure. How can I remove it?
> > Does any one know if the package is faulty from (say) cse.unsw or is it
> > more likely that the scripts were corrupted in the download?
>
> I did a find and discovered the files /var/lib/dpkg/info/9menu.postinst
> and /var/lib/dpkg/info/9menu.prerm which I have attached. Can anyone
> tell me what is wrong with them?
Cool, you are starting see some of the internal of dpkg.
You've probably figured this out already, this is for others who may
not know:
all packages provide a .list, .md5sums and optionally .postinst, .prerm,
.preinst, .postrm, .conffiles, .shlibs, .config and .templates files
the preinst/prerm and postinst and postrm files are run during installation
and removal ( as appropriate ). If they fail you can debug them like
a normal shell script (/bin/sh -x <package>.postinst) and see where the
problem might be.
> > The second problem concerns X. Three packages are listed as ic by
> > dpkg --list | less
> > they are xbase-clients, xdm and xf86setup. As I understand it i tells
> > me that they are to be installed and the c stands for config files but
> > what does this mean? Were the packages not downloaded for the lack of
> > some config files or were they just not installed? What steps must I
> > take to complete the installation?
>
> It's actually 9 packages now after playing with dselect. An edited
> version of the result of doing
> dpkg --list > installed.pkgs
> is attached. I notice that some of the packages are designated
> "3.3.6-11" and some "4.0.1-8". During the upgrade there was some error
> message to the effect that xserver-s3 (and some other packages) were
> being "held back".
"held back" normally means that hose packages depend on something
you don't have. Keep in mind that `apt-get -u upgrade' *only*
upgrades existing packages. It will not add or remove extra packages.
If an upgrade requires a new package then it will be held back. The
way to see if this is the reason (another could be broken dependancies)
is to try `apt-get -u install <package-being-held-back>' or
`apt-get -u dist-upgrade' and note the packages listed as "extra"
being installed or removed.
> Should I downgrade the 4.0.1-8 packages to 3.3.6-11 and if so how?
Newer versions of X may have appeared - I don't follow woody myself
so I don't know. Downgrading is bit laborious;
dpkg --force-downgrade <package> is how I do it though.
HTH,
Anand
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