Sorry for the junk characters in the previous message. This repost is easier to read.
Hi. I'm running last week's sarge. I unfortunately had to reboot my box in the middle of an aptitude dist-upgrade. Now I am having getting errors installing and removing packages. From the error messages, it looks to me like the dpkg database has been corrupted (though, I'm not totally clear on what the "dpkg database" is). If this is indeed the case, the suggested fix (from the mailing list archives) is to first replace /var/lib/dpkg/status with the most recent good version of /var/backups/dpkg.status.?.gz . This would result (in my case) in the dpkg database thinking that some packages are installed when in fact they are not, or are at a newer version. The way to fix this is to remove and then install each of these packages. One of the packages that was upgraded on my system is libc6, which I cannot safely remove. Also, many packages were upgraded in this dist-upgrade, and re-installing them all by hand would be tedious. I've included a typescript that succinctly demonstrates what's happening. In the script, I have aptitude purge'd and then aptitude install'ed the cvs package. Notice that there are errors and warnings from /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/[*/]*.pm, particularly /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/DbDriver/Cache.pm . I'd appreciate any thoughts on how to proceed, or comments on whether my understanding so far is correct. Is there some way that I can regenerate /var/lib/dpkg/status, or repair it? Would that solve the problem? Thanks in advance. Aaron [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- begin typescript -- Script started on Thu Nov 27 13:20:04 2003 shiznit:~# s dpkg -l vs cvs Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold | Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/ Half-installed |/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad) ||/ Name Version Description ++ +-=========================-=========================-======================== iF cvs 1.12.2-2 Concurrent Versions Syst shiznit:~# aptitude purge cvs Reading Package Lists... Building Dependency Tree... Reading extended state information... The following packages have been kept back: kdebase ksysguard ksysguardd The following packages will be REMOVED: cvs 0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 3 not upgraded. Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 2826kB will be freed. Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] Writing extended state information... (Reading database ... 80926 files and directories currently installed.) Removing cvs ... Purging configuration files for cvs ... Use of uninitialized value in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/ DbDriver/Cache. Use of uninitialized value in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/ DbDriver/Cache. Use of uninitialized value in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/ DbDriver/Cache. (amax: This error message is repeated 331 more times here) Reading Package Lists... Building Dependency Tree... Reading extended state information... shiznit:~# dpkg -l cvs Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold | Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/ Half-installed |/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad) ||/ Name Version Description ++ +-=========================-=========================-======================== pn cvs <none> (no description availabl shiznit:~# aptitude install cvs Reading Package Lists... Building Dependency Tree... Reading extended state information... The following packages have been kept back: kdebase ksysguard ksysguardd The following NEW packages will be installed: cvs 0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded. Need to get 0B/1243kB of archives. After unpacking 2826kB will be used. Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] y Writing extended state information... Use of uninitialized value in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/ DbDriver/Cache. Preconfiguring packages ... debconf: warning: possible database corruption. Will attempt to repair by adding Use of uninitialized value in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/ Template.pm lin Use of uninitialized value in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/ DbDriver/Cache. Use of uninitialized value in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/ Template.pm lin Use of uninitialized value in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/ DbDriver/Cache. Can't call method "extended_description" on an undefined value at /usr/ share/per Selecting previously deselected package cvs. (Reading database ... 80817 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking cvs (from .../cvs_1%3a1.12.2-2_i386.deb) ... Setting up cvs (1.12.2-2) ... Use of uninitialized value in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/ DbDriver/Cache. debconf: warning: possible database corruption. Will attempt to repair by adding Use of uninitialized value in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/ Template.pm lin Use of uninitialized value in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/ DbDriver/Cache. Use of uninitialized value in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/ Template.pm lin Use of uninitialized value in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/ DbDriver/Cache. Can't call method "extended_description" on an undefined value at /usr/ share/per dpkg: error processing cvs (--configure): subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 255 Errors were encountered while processing: cvs E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) Ack! Something bad happened while installing packages. Trying to recover: Setting up cvs (1.12.2-2) ... Use of uninitialized value in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/ DbDriver/Cache. debconf: warning: possible database corruption. Will attempt to repair by adding Use of uninitialized value in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/ Template.pm lin Use of uninitialized value in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/ DbDriver/Cache. Use of uninitialized value in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/ Template.pm lin Use of uninitialized value in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/ DbDriver/Cache. Can't call method "extended_description" on an undefined value at /usr/ share/per dpkg: error processing cvs (--configure): subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 255 Errors were encountered while processing: cvs Reading Package Lists... 0% Reading Package Lists... 0% Reading Pac Building Dependency Tree... 0%Building Dependency Tree... 0%Building Dependency Reading extended state information... 0%Reading extended state information... 0% shiznit:~# dpkg -l cvs Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold | Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/ Half-installed |/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad) ||/ Name Version Description ++ +-=========================-=========================-======================== iF cvs 1.12.2-2 Concurrent Versions Syst shiznit:~# Script done on Thu Nov 27 13:21:13 2003 -- end typescript -- -- Best, Aaron http://redsymbol.com -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". 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