dpkg problems

dpkg problems

[Scott Howell]

Sorry folks I'm using two different matchines to read and respond to 
mail. I have a very borken Exim on the problem box so this is getting 
fun.
I did as Cheryl suggested and forgot to mention that apt-get -f install 
did the following. First when I ran apt-get install exim4 which was the 
offending pkg, I got

You might want to run `apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  at: Depends: mail-transport-agent
  exim4: Depends: exim4-base (>= 4.34) but it is not going to be 
installed
         Depends: exim4-daemon-light but it is not going to be installed 
or
                  exim4-daemon-heavy but it is not going to be installed 
or
                  exim4-daemon-custom but it is not installable
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or 
specify a solution

when I run apt-get -f install no package name

Correcting dependencies... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  exim4 exim4-base exim4-config exim4-daemon-light
Suggested packages:
  eximon4 exim4-doc-html exim4-doc-info
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  exim4 exim4-base exim4-config exim4-daemon-light
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 278 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/1303kB of archives.
After unpacking 2814kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Preconfiguring packages ...
dpkg: syntax error: unknown group `Debian-exim' in statusoverride file
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)

So there ya go and this is where I'm stuck. I am sure there's a fix 
here, but I'm not seeing it.

tnx and keep those suggestions coming, I am sure one will fix this 
mess.<grin> then I'll stop breaking stuff.hahah

Scott

Re: dpkg problems

[Cheryl Homiak]

Well, here are a couple more suggestions; don't know that they work but i 
hate the thought of you having to completely reinstall!!1
you could try uninstalling exim completely and then seeing if you can 
reinstall exim3. Either dpkg -P exim or apt-get remove exim could be 
tried; you also could try apt-get remove exmi* (note the asterisk after 
the word exim) to see if it will just take everything connected with exim. 
The only thing is: i don't know how you got it to install exim4, so I 
don't know if when you try to install again it will try to install exim4 
on you again. You could try these steps and see how far you get though. 
Another possibility is to use aptitude instead of apt-get; I know that 
worked one time when apt-=get didn't but I haven't read up on it yet so 
don't use it much.
Hope something here helps.


-- 
Cheryl

"Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Re: dpkg problems

[Luke Davis]

Maybe you got a package from unstable?  If so, and you've fixed 
sources.list to stable, try a downgrade.

On Wed, 25 Aug 2004, Cheryl Homiak wrote:

> Well, here are a couple more suggestions; don't know that they work but i 
> hate the thought of you having to completely reinstall!!1
> you could try uninstalling exim completely and then seeing if you can 
> reinstall exim3. Either dpkg -P exim or apt-get remove exim could be tried; 
> you also could try apt-get remove exmi* (note the asterisk after the word 
> exim) to see if it will just take everything connected with exim. The only 
> thing is: i don't know how you got it to install exim4, so I don't know if 
> when you try to install again it will try to install exim4 on you again. You 
> could try these steps and see how far you get though. Another possibility is 
> to use aptitude instead of apt-get; I know that worked one time when apt-=get 
> didn't but I haven't read up on it yet so don't use it much.
> Hope something here helps.
>
>
>

Re: dpkg problems

[Luke Davis]

Have you tried just adding the group "debian-exim"?

Given the number of un-upgraded packages it lists, it sounds even more as 
if you tried to get a single package from unstable.
If you reset sources.list, and do an apt-get -q update, then something 
like:

dpkg --force-depends -p exim4

might work.

Warning: this syntax is all off the top of my head, and could stand some 
verification from man pages.

Send us your sources.list.

Are you trying to run a stable, unstable, or testing system?

Luke

On Wed, 25 Aug 2004, Scott Howell wrote:

> Sorry folks I'm using two different matchines to read and respond to
> mail. I have a very borken Exim on the problem box so this is getting
> fun.
> I did as Cheryl suggested and forgot to mention that apt-get -f install
> did the following. First when I ran apt-get install exim4 which was the
> offending pkg, I got
>
> You might want to run `apt-get -f install' to correct these:
> The following packages have unmet dependencies:
>  at: Depends: mail-transport-agent
>  exim4: Depends: exim4-base (>= 4.34) but it is not going to be
> installed
>         Depends: exim4-daemon-light but it is not going to be installed
> or
>                  exim4-daemon-heavy but it is not going to be installed
> or
>                  exim4-daemon-custom but it is not installable
> E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or
> specify a solution
>
> when I run apt-get -f install no package name
>
> Correcting dependencies... Done
> The following extra packages will be installed:
>  exim4 exim4-base exim4-config exim4-daemon-light
> Suggested packages:
>  eximon4 exim4-doc-html exim4-doc-info
> The following NEW packages will be installed:
>  exim4 exim4-base exim4-config exim4-daemon-light
> 0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 278 not upgraded.
> Need to get 0B/1303kB of archives.
> After unpacking 2814kB of additional disk space will be used.
> Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
> Preconfiguring packages ...
> dpkg: syntax error: unknown group `Debian-exim' in statusoverride file
> E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)
>
> So there ya go and this is where I'm stuck. I am sure there's a fix
> here, but I'm not seeing it.
>
> tnx and keep those suggestions coming, I am sure one will fix this
> mess.<grin> then I'll stop breaking stuff.hahah
>
> Scott
>
>
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>

Re: dpkg problems

[Kenny Hitt]

Hi.  One thing that jumped out at me in your message is:
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 278 not upgraded.

It looks like you have a very outdated box .  Have you considered
running apt-get dist-upgrade?  If you don't want to do that, try running
apt-get -u dist-upgrade to see what packages will be upgraded.  You
could have another package that's not getting upgraded to the required
version for exim4.
I recently upgraded to exim4 and didn't see your problem.  My system is
kept up to date with regular apt-get upgrade or apt-get dist-upgrade
commands.

Remember, this is just a wild guess.
          Kenny
	  

Re: dpkg problems

[Sean M McMahon]

You probably saw this in the apt howto but I'll reference it here, apt-get 
-o debug::ProblemResolver=yes dist-upgrade  Try this if apt-get 
dist-upgrade doesn't work.  You might also be able to run apt-setup. exim4 
is what I have on debian testing.




Kenny Hitt <kenny@hittsjunk.net>
Sent by: speakup-bounces@braille.uwo.ca
08/25/2004 11:42 PM
Please respond to "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." 

 
        To:     "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
        cc: 
        Subject:        Re: dpkg problems


Hi.  One thing that jumped out at me in your message is:
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 278 not upgraded.

It looks like you have a very outdated box .  Have you considered
running apt-get dist-upgrade?  If you don't want to do that, try running
apt-get -u dist-upgrade to see what packages will be upgraded.  You
could have another package that's not getting upgraded to the required
version for exim4.
I recently upgraded to exim4 and didn't see your problem.  My system is
kept up to date with regular apt-get upgrade or apt-get dist-upgrade
commands.

Remember, this is just a wild guess.
          Kenny
 

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Dpkg problems

[Scott Howell]

Kenny,

Thanks, actually I did try taht and I still get the same error. I 
stupidly thought that switching to exim4 would resolve a problem I was 
having, but after I realized that this wasn't the trick I tried going 
back to Exim 3.3.6. No problem, but then that is when I realized things 
had gone baddly wrong. I tried up, I tried using apt-get -f install per 
the suggestion of apt, but this didn't do me any good either.
I suspect the only way to rid myself of this problem is to either find 
the place where this debian-exim group is referenced and get rid of it, 
or I'll have to re-install the entire distro. I see little to get out of 
this jam. I dug about in the apt howto and found a few things I tried, 
but again no joy.
This is a mightly hosed situation.
I hate to have to trash this and start over, but I haven't any idea how 
to get out of this as dpkg will not get over this problem.

tnx
Scott

Re: Dpkg problems

[Kenny Hitt]

Hi.  Is this Woody, Sarge, or Sid?  I noticed in another message that
you had a lot of packages that needed upgrading.  In that message I
suggested you try using dist-upgrade.  Stupid me forgot to ask what
version of Debian you are using.
I really need to learn to wait for the coffee to start working before I
start replying.

          Kenny

On Wed, Aug 25, 2004 at 07:16:42PM -0400, Scott Howell wrote:
> Kenny,
> 
> Thanks, actually I did try taht and I still get the same error. I 
> stupidly thought that switching to exim4 would resolve a problem I was 
> having, but after I realized that this wasn't the trick I tried going 
> back to Exim 3.3.6. No problem, but then that is when I realized things 
> had gone baddly wrong. I tried up, I tried using apt-get -f install per 
> the suggestion of apt, but this didn't do me any good either.
> I suspect the only way to rid myself of this problem is to either find 
> the place where this debian-exim group is referenced and get rid of it, 
> or I'll have to re-install the entire distro. I see little to get out of 
> this jam. I dug about in the apt howto and found a few things I tried, 
> but again no joy.
> This is a mightly hosed situation.
> I hate to have to trash this and start over, but I haven't any idea how 
> to get out of this as dpkg will not get over this problem.
> 
> tnx
> Scott
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: Dpkg problems

[Scott Howell]

Folks,

Thanks to all with suggestions, but thanks to Gene COllins we found the 
problem. We chatted about it and tried a few things then went ahackin' 
and found that in /var/lib/dpkg there was this here file with one line 
of text. See I was trying like hell to find a file called 
statusoverride, but no such bugger was there. It turns out there is a 
statusoverride.old file, but the problem child was statoverride which 
contained one line of text.

root Debian-exim 0640 /etc/exim4/passwd.client

Now once that line was removed, no problem, I got exim installed without 
any hitch. I knew there had to be some file somehwere that was causing 
the problem, but my reading on dpkg never lead me down this path, but I 
hadn't found a great deal of material on dpkg, but Gene was very helpful 
and worked through the problem with me.

Scott