[SOLVED] Can't get rid of a half-installed package (ipppd)

[olembe]

I was installing the ipppd package with aptitude to try and get my 3G wireless working. Long story short: aptitude only partly installed it and can't get rid of it. It seems to have installed both ipppd and a dependency called isdnutils-base.

sudo aptitude remove ipppd does this:

Removing ipppd ...                           
 * Stopping ipppd...    
/etc/init.d/isdnutils: 114: ./MAKEDEV: not found
invoke-rc.d: initscript isdnutils, action "stop" failed.
dpkg: error processing ipppd (--purge):
 subprocess installed pre-removal script returned error exit status 127
Errors were encountered while processing:
 ipppd
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

After noticing that there were entries in rc0.d etc., I've tried using "update-rc -f isdnutils" to get rid of these and this has removed any mention of isdnutils from the rcX.d directories. However, restarting the computer leaves me in the same position as before, unable to remove the two packages. I've tried using the 'purge', 'remove', 'reinstall' and 'install' options in aptitude, and get just the same results (or lack thereof) if I try to use aptitude to remove isdnutils-base. Simply trying to stop isdnutils fails for the same reason:

ian@marmot:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/isdnutils stop
 * Stopping ISDN services...  
/etc/init.d/isdnutils: 114: ./MAKEDEV: not found

Any ideas? I'm tearing my hair out!

[josefko]

Re: Can't get rid of a half-installed package

Just a general advice:
Synaptic has and option Repair broken package. If it is not enough try something like this (example for package iscan-plugin-gt-s600)

sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq iscan-plugin-gt-s600
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get --fix-broken upgrade

If it is not enough try delete all files and folders, which are described at the package in Synaptic and all files in /var/lib/dpkg/info/ mentioned in error message and at the end run

sudo apt-get --fix-broken upgrade

I used it in 9.04

[olembe]

Re: Can't get rid of a half-installed package

Hi Josefko,

Thanks for the advice. Sadly those steps didn't work:

ian@marmot:~$ sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq isdnutils-base ipppd
(Reading database ... 131318 files and directories currently installed.)   
Removing isdnutils-base ...                          
 * Stopping ISDN services...      
/etc/init.d/isdnutils: 114: ./MAKEDEV: not found                     
invoke-rc.d: initscript isdnutils, action "stop" failed.                 
dpkg: error processing isdnutils-base (--remove):                     
 subprocess installed pre-removal script returned error exit status 127          
Removing ipppd ...                                    
 * Stopping ipppd...          
/etc/init.d/isdnutils: 114: ./MAKEDEV: not found                     
invoke-rc.d: initscript isdnutils, action "stop" failed.                 
dpkg: error processing ipppd (--remove):                         
 subprocess installed pre-removal script returned error exit status 127          
Errors were encountered while processing:                         
 isdnutils-base                                      
 ipppd                                          

ian@marmot:~$ sudo apt-get --fix-broken upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
Setting up ipppd (1:3.12.20071127-0ubuntu5) ...
Note: running MAKEDEV to create ISDN devices in /dev...
/var/lib/dpkg/info/ipppd.postinst: 112: ./MAKEDEV: not found
dpkg: error processing ipppd (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 127
Errors were encountered while processing:
 ipppd
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

GAH!

[toad]

Re: Can't get rid of a half-installed package

Looks like you've got some editing to do...

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ls/+bug/346909

HTH

[olembe]

Re: Can't get rid of a half-installed package

Toad - thanks so much for that. I did look at Launchpad but missed that somehow.

I'll try the fix and report back.

[olembe]

Re: Can't get rid of a half-installed package

Okay, the instructions there did the trick - thank goodness.

The solution mentioned by pfoo on the Launchpad page is the one that worked for me (the version described by planblue didn't work). I just edited /etc/isdn/init.d.functions and changes two occurences of ./MAKEDEV to /sbin/MAKEDEV

[toad]

Re: [SOLVED] Can't get rid of a half-installed package (ipppd)

I just googled the first error message that came up after you tried josefko's advice:

/etc/init.d/isdnutils: 114: ./MAKEDEV: not found

Just lucky, I guess

BTW, could you mark this as solved so others can benefit?

[josefko]

Re: [SOLVED] Can't get rid of a half-installed package (ipppd)

I just googled the first error message that came up after you tried josefko's advice:

I like these threads where nobody knows the solution at the beginning and only a will to help and some coincidence leads us to the succesfull end.