Synaptic won't remove an application

[mawcs]

I was checking out some various packages and tried out micro-httpd (bad mistake). It wouldn't install properly. OK, I'm experimenting, I expected this possibility. Here's the problem, when I "mark for removal" and "apply" I receive the following error:


E: micro-httpd: subprocess installed pre-removal script returned error exit status 100I'm new to the aptitude process and I'm not entirely sure what to do to completely remove it and FORCE it to work. I'm inclined to just leave it except that Apache won't install now that this thing is here.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[mawcs]

I'm adding this additional information, in case it is useful for solving this problem. When I run apt-get remove, I receive the following:



$ sudo apt-get -f remove micro-httpd
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
kimagemapeditor kxsldbg libgcj-common
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
micro-httpd
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 9 not upgraded.
After this operation, 81.9kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
(Reading database ... 205445 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing micro-httpd ...
/var/lib/dpkg/info/micro-httpd.prerm: removing /etc/inetd.conf entry
invoke-rc.d: unknown initscript, /etc/init.d/inetd not found.
dpkg: error processing micro-httpd (--remove):
subprocess installed pre-removal script returned error exit status 100
Errors were encountered while processing:
micro-httpd
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

[Soul-Sing]

sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq micro-httpd

[mawcs]

$ sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq micro-httpd
(Reading database ... 207372 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing micro-httpd ...
/var/lib/dpkg/info/micro-httpd.prerm: removing /etc/inetd.conf entry
invoke-rc.d: unknown initscript, /etc/init.d/inetd not found.
dpkg: error processing micro-httpd (--remove):
subprocess installed pre-removal script returned error exit status 100
Errors were encountered while processing:
micro-httpd

[Soul-Sing]

is there in the background a process busy with that name?
then you could kill that process, and try to remove it again.

[Soul-Sing]

gksudo nautilus

/var/lib/dpkg/info
/var/lib/dpkg/status
try to remove the package with a keyword in the "search-option".

[Soul-Sing]

gksudo nautilus

/var/lib/dpkg/info
/var/lib/dpkg/status
try to remove the package with a keyword in the "search-option".
or search for broken packages.

[mawcs]

When I look at the installed files, I see:

/.
/usr
/usr/sbin
/usr/sbin/micro-httpd
/usr/share
/usr/share/man
/usr/share/man/man8
/usr/share/man/man8/micro-httpd.8.gz
/usr/share/doc
/usr/share/doc/micro-httpd
/usr/share/doc/micro-httpd/NEWS.Debian.gz
/usr/share/doc/micro-httpd/README.Debian-source
/usr/share/doc/micro-httpd/copyright
/usr/share/doc/micro-httpd/changelog.Debian.gz

I am assuming that /usr/sbin/micro-httpd is the executable. I really don't see any other possibility. There's nothing running with that image name:


$ ps -ef | grep micro-httpd
m*** 16472 2326 0 11:04 pts/1 00:00:00 grep --color=auto micro-httpd
$ ps -ef | grep micro
m*** 16494 2326 0 11:05 pts/1 00:00:00 grep --color=auto micro
$ ps -ef | grep httpd
m*** 16499 2326 0 11:05 pts/1 00:00:00 grep --color=auto httpd

(I've obscured my local username for my security)

[mawcs]

or search for broken packages.

I'm not sure how to do that. Am I just looking at text files to find references to these packages? How do I go about actually removing everything?

[Soul-Sing]

I'm not sure how to do that. Am I just looking at text files to find references to these packages? How do I go about actually removing everything?

on the rightop of your screen there is a search-option possibility.
(at least in hardy heron...)
/var/lib/dpkg/info
/var/lib/dpkg/status
are no refer. to the package at all?

[mawcs]

OK, did the "searching" you suggested. In /var/lib/dpkg/info, I find the following files:

micro-httpd.list
micro-httpd.md5sums
micro-httpd.postinst
micro-httpd.prerm

In /var/lib/dpkg/status, I find the following:

Package: micro-httpd
Status: deinstall ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: web
Installed-Size: 80
Maintainer: Ubuntu MOTU Developers <ubuntu-motu@lists.ubuntu.com>
Architecture: amd64
Version: 20051212-10
Provides: httpd
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.4), openbsd-inetd | inet-superserver | micro-inetd | netcat-traditional
Suggests: micro-proxy
Description: really small HTTP server
A very small HTTP server implemented in 150 lines of code.
Program can be used to serve HTTPS by wrapping it with stunnel.
It implements all the basic features of an HTTP server, including:
.
* Security against ".." filename snooping
* The common MIME types
* Trailing-slash redirection
* index.html
* Directory listings
Original-Maintainer: Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@cante.net>
Homepage: http://www.acme.com/software/micro_httpd

I'm not sure what to do with this information. Is there some possibility of fixing the scripts?

[Soul-Sing]

Is there some possibility of fixing the scripts?

thats THE question. I am not sure...

[mawcs]

thats THE question. I am not sure...

Well, the .prerm script is fairly short. It is attempting to remove itself from the /etc/inetd.conf. Looking at the file, there is nothing pertaining to micro-httpd in the conf file. The entirety of the conf file is a single line which doesn't seem to pertain to micro-httpd:


#<off># netbios-ssn stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/sbin/smbd

Here is the .prerm:



#!/bin/sh

set -e

PATH="/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin"
PACKAGE=$(basename $0 | sed 's/\..*//')
pkgdir=/usr/share/$PACKAGE
conf=/etc/inetd.conf
port="www"
entry=

Die ()
{
echo "$0: $*" >&2
exit 1
}

IsInetd ()
{
[ -x /usr/sbin/update-inetd ]
}

Debhelper ()
{
:

}

InetdName ()
{
name=inetd

if [ -f /etc/init.d/openbsd-inetd ]; then
name="openbsd-inetd"
elif [ -f /etc/init.d/rlinetd ]; then
name="rlinetd"
fi

echo $name
}

MainInetd ()
{
if [ "$1" = "remove" ]; then

echo "$0: removing $conf entry" >&2
update-inetd --group STANDARD --remove "$port.*$PACKAGE"
invoke-rc.d $(InetdName) reload
fi
}

Main ()
{
IsInetd && MainInetd "$@"
Debhelper
}

Main "$@"

# End of file


I'm going to take a risk and change the Die() function to return 0 instead of 1. I'll see if that fixes it.

[mawcs]

No dice. :(

[mawcs]

HA! :-D

Commented out the checks in Main():


Main ()
{
# IsInetd && MainInetd "$@"
Debhelper
}

Removing micro-httpd worked! Thanks so much for your help.

[Soul-Sing]

Nice job mawcs! Glad you'r out of troubles.:p