On 17-Mar-01, Albrecht Frank wrote: > > "Raymond L. Zarling" wrote: > > > > I am trying to install X 4.0 on my (newly installed) debian 2.2.18-pre21-ide > > system. I've got it partially-working after creating the missing > > > [..] > > And if I try to remove it, again using dpkg: > > > > # dpkg remove xserver-xfree86 > [..] > > E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) > > > > How does one proceed from here? I've tried various --force-things, and > > --fix-broken and --force-yes in apt-get, all to no avail. > > $man dpkg > (section --force) > > greetings > Albrecht
Sorry, I should have spelled out more fully the --force-things I tried. I have read the manual, I think quite carefully, for several days, and it's either not in there or I'm mmissing something. The "obvious" thing to try is either --configure (which is all that dpkg --audit suggests), the output of which I posted in my earlier post, or else #dpkg --force-remove-reinstreq --purge xserver-xfree86 (Reading database ... 20414 files and directories currently installed.) Removing xserver-xfree86 ... dpkg: error processing xserver-xfree86 (--purge): subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 10 dpkg: error while cleaning up: subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1 Errors were encountered while processing: xserver-xfree86 As you can see, it is the same as everything else; the pre-removal script (or post-installation script, as the case may be) keeps failing. I have also managed to manually download the xserver-xfree86...deb file, and got it to unpack using apt-get unpack, thinking perhaps the copy that had been automatically downloaded by dselect when I first started all this (and which has since, evidently, been cleaned away) might have been corrupt. Well, still no joy. So I followed another user's suggestion and downloaded the binary from ftp.xfree86.org and installed it. It installed fine, but I _still_ can't clear the error in the package managers! xserver-xfree86 still shows up as a "Broken Optional Package in Section X11", and it won't remove! This is making me crazy. Do dpkg, apt-get, etc. rally not have some kind of "override" that will just let you start over? Is my only option to reformat the drive and install the whole OS from scratch? --Ray
