Can't update. dpkg --configure -a crashes

[jsegel]

On a laptop, 9.04
Can't run apt-get anything, without getting an error saying dpkg interrupted,
sudo dpkg --configure -a

Doing so freezes the computer.

can't uninstall what's wrong, can't install anything, can't update anything. :confused:

[wojox]

Try:


sudo apt-get -f install

Followed by:


sudo dpkg --configure -a

[jsegel]

well, like i said:


Try:


sudo apt-get -f install

Followed by:


sudo dpkg --configure -a

sudo apt-get -f install
fails,
"E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem."


sudo dpkg --configure -a

Setting up mono-gac (2.0.1-4ubuntu0.1) ...
* Installing 1 assembly from libgnome-keyring1.0-cil into Mono


results in a dead computer. mouse works, trying to run anything else gives endless spinning.

[bumanie]

Could try
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

[jsegel]

apt-get update or upgrade produce the same result.
apt-get anything at all won't finish, Errors about dpkg. same.

[bumanie]

You may have to purge the broken package and then try to download it again.
sudo aptitude purge <name of package>This should get rid of the errant package and its config file.

[jsegel]

You may have to purge the broken package and then try to download it again. This should get rid of the errant package and its config file.

thanks for the suggestion, but this produces the same error. (dpkg was interrupted, etc)

btw i was trying to purge mono, but any aptitude command produces the same result.

[jsegel]

:KS
I believe this problem is over,
I installed dselect and used that in favor of dpkg
sudo dselect
choosing config and all
somehow this took care of the config of packages that running dpkg --configure -a would cause the computer to crash.
fingers crossed but it appears that apt-get update works, apt-get upgrade is also working.

[jsegel]

agh, spoke too soon, it's hung on:

* Installing 1 assembly from libgnome-keyring1.0-cil into MONO


should i assume that somehow it's MONO that's screwed up?:(

[jsegel]

many tries to make it through:


sudo apt-get remove --purge mono-runtime mono-common libmono0

results in

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade


running smoothly and completing.


Mono "provides the necessary software to develop and run .NET client and server applications on Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, Windows, and Unix."


why is it in Ubuntu to begin with?


look here for alternatives to Mono-based apps:
http://www.theopensourcerer.com/2008/08/04/how-to-remove-mono-m-from-ubuntu-hardy-heron/
:popcorn:

[directhex]

why is it in Ubuntu to begin with?

Because the desktop team want F-Spot and Tomboy, which happen to be written in C#

[polarberg]

Hi. Just installed ubuntu-studio and am having the same problem. Package manager hung and I had to force shutdown, thus leaving a bunch of broken packages, and dpkg --configure -a hangs on openoffice.org-emailmerge. Escaping causes it to hang on atomix-data, which i then can't escape out of.

I've tried every suggestion in this thread to no avail. Running "Repair broken packages" in recovery mode as suggested here (http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1288763.html) runs dpkg with the last line "Fixing recursive fault but reboot is needed!" There are a couple "can't remove ... : no such file or directory" errors at the beginning of dpkg's output (in recovery mode) but I can't catch what they refer to.

My level of experience is pretty low - I tried Linux once when I was a kid but it was years ago; this install is a few days old.

(The moral seems to be: Don't install too many packages at once.)

[polarberg]

Well, solved, kinda. In case this happens to anyone else:

dpkg -r <package>

which in my case was openoffice.org-emailmerge. Same thing apparently happened to this (http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1234869.html) person, and openoffice appears to cause problems with ubuntu-studio. This worked fine for me, but it's hanging again on ca-certificates-java, which I couldn't remove due to dependency issues. So I ran:

apt-get purge ca-certificates-java

which gave me a daunting list of packages which would be removed but nothing's broken yet. Hopefully I didn't just give ubuntu a heart attack.