Re: gnome won't uninstall because I messed up dpkg by mixing and matching apt-get and aptitude incorrectly (used to be Re: upgrading in sid)

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On 12/31/07 09:15, charlie derr wrote:
http://www.assembla.com/wiki/show/door/SidGnomeRefusingToDie


It seemed like there was too much output there to want to burden the
list with it all (but I thought someone clueful might still possibly
catch something I haven't)

my working assumption at this point is that last night either manually
deleting the deb files for 5 packages (from the /var/cache/apt/archives
directory) and/or the fact that immediately after trying that I then
tried running "apt-get -f install" (when I'd only been using aptitude
previously) created the problem -- but i'm not sure I care all that
much about how I mucked things up, it's rather getting things
straightened out that's important -- so does anyone have any tricks
they'd suggest for how I get all of these uninstalls to complete despite
the fact that gconftool-2 is very unhappy and barfs complaining about a
lib mismatch problem with gzopen64 (the root of the problem is with
libxml2.so.2, so perhaps the package . But at this point I'd rather
that I accept that all gnome stuff will be forever broken on this box
than have aptitude continue to be borked. If someone has an elegant
solution, of course I'm happy to consider that too, but I'd appreciate
any thoughts (no matter how outrageous/potentially-destructive).



here's a small snip for those who don't want to follow the link at the top:


gconftool-2: symbol lookup error: /usr/lib/libxml2.so.2: undefined
symbol: gzopen64
dpkg: error processing capplets-data (--remove):
subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 127
dpkg: error processing desktop-base (--remove):
Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should
reinstall it before attempting a removal.


and as I pasted this I realized I ought to see where that file comes
from and the package is libxml2

if I try to do "aptitude remove libxml2" the first couple dozen choices
to resolve dependencies leave it at its current version (and I'm unsure
whether aptitude might actually give me a better choice if i keep
clicking "n" -- it does seem to be able to indefinitely suggest new
solutions)

if I try to upgrade libxml2 I get this (desktop-base (along with
shared-mime-info is one of those 5 packages I talked about above (that I
incorrectly removed the .deb files from my archives directory) :


Resolving dependencies...
E: I wasn't able to locate file for the desktop-base package. This might
mean you need to manually fix this package.
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

Remove the following packages:
deskbar-applet
epiphany-extensions
evince
evolution
evolution-common
evolution-data-server
evolution-exchange
gnome-mount
gnome-power-manager
gnome-screensaver
gnome-volume-manager
nautilus-cd-burner
rhythmbox
sound-juicer
sun-java5-jre
yelp

Install the following packages:
bittorrent [3.4.2-11 (unstable, now)]
fam [2.7.0-13 (unstable)]
gnome-mime-data [2.18.0-1 (unstable, now)]
libavahi-glib1 [0.6.21-4 (unstable, now)]
libbonobo2-0 [2.20.2-1 (unstable, now)]
libbonobo2-common [2.20.2-1 (unstable, now)]
libbonoboui2-0 [2.20.0-1 (unstable, now)]
libbonoboui2-common [2.20.0-1 (unstable)]
libcamel1.2-10 [1.12.2-1 (unstable, now)]
libebook1.2-9 [1.12.2-1 (unstable, now)]
libecal1.2-7 [1.12.2-1 (unstable, now)]
libedataserver1.2-9 [1.12.2-1 (unstable, now)]
libgnome-desktop-2 [2.20.2-1 (unstable, now)]
libgnome2-0 [2.20.1.1-1 (unstable, now)]
libgnomeui-0 [2.20.1.1-1 (unstable, now)]
libgnomeui-common [2.20.1.1-1 (unstable)]
libgnomevfs2-0 [1:2.20.1-1 (unstable, now)]
libgnomevfs2-extra [1:2.20.1-1 (unstable, now)]
libgtkhtml3.14-19 [3.16.1-1 (unstable)]
libnotify1 [0.4.4-3 (unstable, now)]
libpanel-applet2-0 [2.20.2-2 (unstable, now)]
libsoup2.2-8 [2.2.104-1 (unstable, now)]
libwnck-common [2.20.2-1 (unstable)]
libwnck22 [2.20.2-1 (unstable)]
libxres1 [2:1.0.3-1 (unstable, now)]
python-gnome2 [2.20.1-1 (unstable)]
rdesktop [1.5.0-3+cvs20071006 (unstable)]

Upgrade the following packages:
gtkhtml3.14 [3.14.2-1 (now) -> 3.16.1-1 (unstable)]
libgnome2-common [2.18.0-4 (now) -> 2.20.1.1-1 (unstable)]
libgnomevfs2-common [1:2.18.1-2 (now) -> 1:2.20.1-1 (unstable)]
notification-daemon [0.3.7-1 (now) -> 0.3.7-1+b1 (unstable)]

Leave the following dependencies unresolved:
libgnomevfs2-0 recommends gnome-mount
meld recommends yelp
Score is -4309

Charlie,

In this kind of situation, I would "# apt-get --purge remove" the
problematic package(s), then "# apt-get update" and try again.

Of course, I would do all this from the (real) console, not a GNOME
terminal window.

Lastly, I'd *never* use aptitude.

- --
Ron Johnson, Jr.
Jefferson LA USA

"Your mistletoe is no match for my TOW missile." Santa-bot
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