12.04 Previous installation hasn't been completed

[Jeffreytooker]

I have tried to use Update Manager to update. It fails and gives this message: "Previous installation hasn't been completed".

From post:

April 22nd, 2010 #2
zvacet
I Ubuntu, Therefore, I Am


Join DateMar 2006Beans8,308


Re: Ubuntu Software Center - Previous installation hasn't been completed?

In applications>accessories>terminal type

Code:

sudo dpkg --configure -a
and

Code:

sudo apt-get -f install
If you get any errors from these commands,please post them here.

The above commands were run in terminal. No errors. Tried to run Update Manager again. No joy. Same failure message.

Jeffrey Tooker

[ViliX64]

I would say reboot your system in different mode.

[Jeffreytooker]

Went to this link:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...BoO2sQ_32Z1vTA

Executed these instructions:

Type "sudo dpkg --configure -a" at the Terminal prompt, without the quotation marks. This command will search for and install all packages that have been downloaded but were not installed for whatever reason. Depending on when the installation errors occurred, this may complete the Ubuntu 10.04 installation process.
Type "sudo apt-get update && apt-get upgrade" at the prompt, without the quotation marks, to update the available applications list. Type "sudo apt-get dist-upgrade" to restart the Ubuntu operating system upgrade. This will re-download and install the latest Ubuntu files, overwriting the previously downloaded and installed operating system.

Below is the failure notice at the end of the process.


278 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Failed to exec method /usr/lib/apt/methods/
E: Method has died unexpectedly!
E: Sub-process returned an error code (100)
E: Method /usr/lib/apt/methods/ did not start correctly
jeffrey@jeffrey-ET1330-ET1331:~$

Jeffrey Tooker

[Jeffreytooker]

I would say reboot your system in different mode.

Vili64:

Please explain "different mode".

Jeffrey Tooker

[grahammechanical]

Were you trying to upgrade to 12.04 and did the upgrade fail to complete? Can you load to a working desktop? Does Update Manager now work after you have tried those commands that you list in your second post?

As regards this error message

Failed to exec method /usr/lib/apt/methods/
E: Method has died unexpectedly!
E: Sub-process returned an error code (100)
E: Method /usr/lib/apt/methods/ did not start correctly

May I suggest that you use Synaptic Package Manager and search under 'methods' I have a library on my system (13.04) called linapt-inst. It is described in this way: "This library provides methods to query and extract information from deb packages. This includes the control data and the file content."

If you find a similar library to that on 12.04 you might try re-installing it. In Synaptic we select the library and right click and then we select Mark for Reinstallation. I do not know if this will work. This is the nearest Library that I can find that refers to "methods."

Regards.

[Jeffreytooker]

Were you trying to upgrade to 12.04 and did the upgrade fail to complete? Can you load to a working desktop? Does Update Manager now work after you have tried those commands that you list in your second post?

As regards this error message



May I suggest that you use Synaptic Package Manager and search under 'methods' I have a library on my system (13.04) called linapt-inst. It is described in this way: "This library provides methods to query and extract information from deb packages. This includes the control data and the file content."

If you find a similar library to that on 12.04 you might try re-installing it. In Synaptic we select the library and right click and then we select Mark for Reinstallation. I do not know if this will work. This is the nearest Library that I can find that refers to "methods."

Regards.

I ran Synaptic and got same error msgs. Further research yeilded this: http://oldsite.debianhelp.org/node/17085

<<<Installed Debian-6.0.0-amd64-kde-CD-1.iso onto a reasonably new notebook. Installation went flawlessly.
Rebooted, edited /etc/apt/sources.list, ran aptitude update and got this error.

root@squeeze:#aptitude update
Failed to exec method /usr/lib/apt/methods/
Failed to exec method /usr/lib/apt/methods/
E: Method has died unexpectedly!
E: Sub-process returned an error code (100)
E: Method /usr/lib/apt/methods/ did not start correctly
E: Method has died unexpectedly!
E: Sub-process returned an error code (100)
E: Method /usr/lib/apt/methods/ did not start correctly


After some checking, found Debian bug report #612658 and the solution is simply to comment out this line
deb ://volatile.debian.org squeeze-updates main contrib
, as there is no volatile for Squeeze. This might help anyone else who finds the same problem. >>>



I believe this would also apply to 12.04. I am mostly GUI. I do not know how to find this line and comment it out.

My reasearch shows lots of references to "volatile" as source of problem.

Jeffrey Tooker

[grahammechanical]

The way to edit the sources.list file using a GUI is to run this command

gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

That will open the sources.list file in Gedit with administrator (sudo) privileges. Which is what you need with a system file. I hope you find what you are looking for.

Regards.

[Jeffreytooker]

The way to edit the sources.list file using a GUI is to run this command

gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

That will open the sources.list file in Gedit with administrator (sudo) privileges. Which is what you need with a system file. I hope you find what you are looking for.

Regards.

Grahammechanical:

Ended up with your post #4 at this link: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2070629 Executed same. All working, problem solved now. Went to Thread Tools can not find solved marker.

Thank you.

Jeffrey Tooker