problem updating to openoffice 3.1

[johnapeterson]

Hello all,

I am having a problem trying to update openoffice to 3.1 on unbuntu 9.04. For some reason, the system freezes up on me. When I open synaptic I get the follwoing message in a window:

E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.

If I try to remove the old version of openoffice it will get to the point where it says: Removing openoffice.org-writer2latex and then go no further. At that point I cannot open any other window, and have to hit the reset button on the computer to reboot the system.

Thanks for any help.

[s3MA00RRNY]

Did you follow the directions and try 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' in the terminal? That might help.

[johnapeterson]

When I type in sudo dpkg --configure -a the response is:

john@ubuntu:~$ sudo dpkg --configure -a
[sudo] password for john:
john@ubuntu:~$

(should I be getting some type of message?)

After I do that when I go into Synaptic I press the ¨Mark All Upgrades¨, and then ¨Apply¨. It downloads the Openoffice 3.1 files and tells me that it will remove 1 file (openoffice.org-writer2latex). After downloading the files it gives the message ¨Removing openoffice.org-writer2latex¨, goes no where, and then I cannot open other windows and need to restart the machine.

Thanks

[johnapeterson]

I should have mentioned that openoffice.org-writer2latex is still on the computer when I restart, and repeating the process gives the same results.

Thanks for any help.

[johnapeterson]

I just tried sudo dpkg --force all --remove openoffice.org-writer2latex in the terminal and am getting the same results.

I cannot open windows, but my mouse is still able to move on the screen, and I have to hit the reset button to get the computer operating again.

Thanks for any help.

[johnapeterson]

When the computer restarted, I went into the grub menu and choose recovery mode and choose the ¨Fix broken Packages¨ option. After pressing ¨d¨ for details, it gives me the list of Openoffice files it will install, and the removal of openoffice.org-writer2latex.

Continuing with the installation in gives a bunch of address (I guess), and finally a line that says:

[135.739009] Fixing recursive fault but reboot is needed!

After leaving it be for 20 min, I come back and the same message is there on the screen. It does not seem to be doing anything.

After restarting the computer, I am still having the same problem.

Thank for any help.

John

[s3MA00RRNY]

Try booting into recovery mode and using fsck. It might find some errors. You also are having trouble getting into Windows? So you dual-boot? Or are you talking about having trouble getting into GNOME?

[johnapeterson]

Actually, I only use ubuntu. I do not have a dual boot machine. Sorry if that confused anybody.

Went into recovery mode and choose the ¨fsck¨ option. The screen says:

mount: /is busy

Then goes back to the boot option screen.

If I drop down to a shell and type ¨fsck¨ it gives me a worrying that doing so on a mounted drive is not advisable.

Thanks for any help.

[johnapeterson]

I got it. There seem to be a conflict with openoffice and the real time kernel. After installing the generic kernel and booting to it, I was able to remove the package. Openoffice does not seem to operate with the real time kernel, but is doing fine with the generic one. I guess that is another problem for another thread.

Thanks for everyone help.