How do I uninstall something installed using gdebi?

[luggw1]

I've got a RPM package that I converted to a deb package using alien. I then installed it using gdebi, but the installation must not have gone quite right because the config script I was to run afterward choked. In a typical case of reading the instructions after doing the wrong thing, I found that I need to use the tar version of the app instead of the rpm version.

So, before I do this, I need to remove the version I installed. However, I can't find a way to remove packages installed with gdebi. What am I missing? I did a search on the forums and came up dry too.

Thanks.
Bill Lugg

[Marlin]

Re: How do I uninstall something installed using gdebi?

If you know the package name try this:

sudo aptitude purge package_name

[luggw1]

Re: How do I uninstall something installed using gdebi?

That seems to get me in the right direction, but I get the error:

Writing extended state information... Done
dpkg: error processing vmware-server (--purge):
 Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should
 reinstall it before attempting a removal.
Errors were encountered while processing:
 vmware-server
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install. Trying to recover:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
Writing extended state information... Done

Since the debian package is already hosed, reinstalling isn't going to help. Is there any way to force it to remove the package? I looked at he man page, but didn't see anything that jumped out at me that would help. I tried 'remove' instead of 'purge' and got effectively the same result also.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
Bill Lugg

[luggw1]

Re: How do I uninstall something installed using gdebi?

Since the above happened, I have discovered that I can't install or uninstall anything using the Add/Remove Programs widget. Basically, I'm dead in the water as far as installing software - even reinstalling this package - as the error message requests.

How does one fix this problem, other than a complete reinstall?

Thanks.
Bill Lugg

[dibl]

Re: How do I uninstall something installed using gdebi?

Have you tried a

sudo dpkg --configure -a

?

If that works, then I would try

sudo apt-get remove --purge vmware-server

(assuming that is the package that you wish to remove)

[luggw1]

Re: How do I uninstall something installed using gdebi?

I did the

sudo dpkg --configure -a

It ran without any messages or errors. (What did I do, by the way?)

Then I tried

sudo apt-get remove --purge vmware-server

And got the error

E: The package vmware-server needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.

Is there a way to point apt to the local disk that contains the package? I do have it on my disk, but it's obviously not good. I just want to get vmware-server uninstalled.

Thanks for the help.

[dibl]

Re: How do I uninstall something installed using gdebi?

In a console window

man dpkg

will show all the options and their functions. The --configure option basically clears the package manager of unpacked but not installed bits, and restores it to a state of "completeness", so it will run the next time you need it.

The reason for the error message is, your package did not come from any source repository listed in your /apt/sources.list file, so dpkg is telling you that it has no source for the vmware-server package.

I think you do have it uninstalled, or at least mostly uninstalled -- apparently dpkg thinks you want to reinstall it. Just delete the downloaded file and you'll be done with it.

I use the free vmware player, and I get it from a download (a .deb file from VMware) -- you have to choose the right architecture (32-bit or 64-bit). If you want vmware server, you should start with a downloaded .deb, and then it should install correctly and work. Player ver. 2.5.1 works really well here.

[luggw1]

Re: How do I uninstall something installed using gdebi?

Got it, thanks.

But after running it, I tried to install Kaffeine from the Add/Remove Software tool and I get the following error:

Download failed.
The list of errors is attached. The recovery for this case is currently not implemented. If you see 404 errors, it might be useful to try fetching package lists (see the Sources tab) and retrying the operation.

The error was: 
APT Error. Context:
  Package download failed, 
  I wasn't able to locate file for the vmware-server package. This might mean you need to manually fix this package., 
  : , 
  :

So, apparently vmware-server is still haunting the database somewhere. I get this whether the .deb file is present on my machine or not. Is there anything else I can do to reconstruct the software database on my machine?

Thanks.
Bill Lugg

[dibl]

Re: How do I uninstall something installed using gdebi?

OK.

"Add/Remove Programs" is possibly the worst of the half-dozens methods available for installing or removing packages -- I would encourage you to drop it like a hot potato. Open the console and issue these:

sudo apt-get autoclean

sudo apt-get autoremove

sudo apt-get update

Observe the results of each command, and post back with any errors that are not self-explanatory. If they appear to work, then issue sudo

dpkg --configure -a

again.

Then issue

sudo apt-get install kaffeine

and post any errors that it puts up.

[luggw1]

Re: How do I uninstall something installed using gdebi?

Thanks for the response.

I tried the steps you suggested. Everything went off without a hitch except the autoremove statement, which produced the following error (as usual):

E: The package vmware-server needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.

Then, when I try to install Kaffeine, I get the same error again. This is effectively the same error I was getting in the Add/Remove Software Tool.

Am I down to a complete reinstallation of the OS to fix this?