Upgrade to edgy: can't resolve courier packages dependency

[marc]

Hi,

I posted in another thread about the initial dependency problems I
encountered after applying the dapper to edgy upgrade. Most have now
been eradicated, but I am stuck with (what looks like) the final
dependency issue.

Perhaps the clearest demonstration of the problem is:

  $ sudo apt-get -f install
  Reading package lists... Done
  Building dependency tree... Done
  Correcting dependencies...Done
  The following extra packages will be installed:
    courier-authdaemon courier-authlib
  The following NEW packages will be installed
    courier-authlib
  The following packages will be upgraded:
    courier-authdaemon
  1 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 150 not upgraded.
  3 not fully installed or removed.
  Need to get 0B/298kB of archives.
  After unpacking 164kB of additional disk space will be used.
  Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
  WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated!
    courier-authlib courier-authdaemon courier-base
  Install these packages without verification [y/N]? y
  Preconfiguring packages ...
  dpkg: error processing courier-authdaemon (--remove):
   Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should
   reinstall it before attempting a removal.
  terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::logic_error'
    what():  basic_string::_S_construct NULL not valid
  Errors were encountered while processing:
   courier-authdaemon
  Aborted (core dumped)


Here are more symptoms:

  $ sudo aptitude upgrade
  The following packages have unmet dependencies:
    courier-base: Depends: courier-authlib but it is not installable
    courier-authlib-userdb: Depends: courier-authlib but it is not 
installable
                            Depends: courier-authlib (>= 0.58) but it is 
not installable

  $ sudo dpkg --configure -a
  dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of courier-authlib-
userdb:
   courier-authlib-userdb depends on courier-authlib; however:
    Package courier-authlib is not installed.
   courier-authlib-userdb depends on courier-authlib (>= 0.58); however:
    Package courier-authlib is not installed.
  dpkg: error processing courier-authlib-userdb (--configure):
   dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
  Errors were encountered while processing:
   courier-authlib-userdb

Also, note the following from: aptitude show ^courier

  C   courier-authdaemon     - Courier authentication daemon
  pBA courier-authlib        - Courier authentication library
  B   courier-authlib-userdb - userdb support for the Courier 
authentication library
  B A courier-base           - Courier Mail Server - Base system

When I try to install courier-authlib, I get:

  $ sudo aptitude install courier-authlib

  The following packages have unmet dependencies:
    courier-authlib: Conflicts: courier-authdaemon (< 0.58)
      but 0.47-13ubuntu5.1 is installed and it is kept back.
  Resolving dependencies...
  E: I wasn't able to locate file for the courier-authdaemon package.
    This might mean you need to manually fix this package.
  The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

  Upgrade the following packages:
  courier-authdaemon [0.47-13ubuntu5.1 (now) -> 0.58-4ubuntu1 (edgy)]

  Score is 0

  Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] y

  The following NEW packages will be installed:
    courier-authlib
  The following packages will be upgraded:
    courier-authdaemon
  1 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 14 to remove and 149 not 
upgraded.
  Need to get 0B/83.9kB of archives. After unpacking 26.3MB will be 
freed.

  Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] y

  Writing extended state information... Done
  dpkg: error processing courier-authdaemon (--remove):
   Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should
   reinstall it before attempting a removal.
  terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::logic_error'
    what():  basic_string::_S_construct NULL not valid
  Errors were encountered while processing:
   courier-authdaemon
  Aborted (core dumped)

Okay, so it wants me to reinstall courier-authdaemon:

  $ sudo aptitude install courier-authdaemon

  The following NEW packages will be installed:
    courier-authlib
  The following packages will be upgraded:
    courier-authdaemon
  1 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 14 to remove and 149 not 
upgraded.
  Need to get 0B/83.9kB of archives. After unpacking 26.3MB will be 
freed.

  Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] y

  Writing extended state information... Done
  dpkg: error processing courier-authdaemon (--remove):
   Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should
   reinstall it before attempting a removal.
  terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::logic_error'
    what():  basic_string::_S_construct NULL not valid
  Aborted (core dumped)
  Errors were encountered while processing:
   courier-authdaemon

So, I'm stuck. Any help much appreciated, as I've now been down for two
days. The system is pretty much unusable, presumably as there are still
150-odd packages kept back from updating, presumably because of this
fault.

-- 
Cheers,
Marc