Upgrade to edgy: can't resolve courier packages dependency

[marc]

Mario Vukelic said...
> On Wed, 2007-04-11 at 12:08 +0100, marc wrote:
> > Is there anything further that can be done? I really don't care at
> > this 
> > point whether courier (or the rest of the email system) can be 
> > retrieved.
> > 
> You can try to "dpkg -r" (remove) instead of "dpkg -i" (install) the
> package (with--force-all as above).

Also, no joy I'm afraid:

$ sudo dpkg -r --force-all courier-authdaemon

  dpkg - warning, overriding problem because --force enabled:
   Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should
   reinstall it before attempting a removal.
  (Reading database ... 181610 files and directories currently 
    installed.)
  Removing courier-authdaemon ...
   * Stopping Courier authdaemon...                                                                                                  
    /usr/lib/courier/authlib/authdaemond: line 31: 
    /usr/sbin/courierlogger: No such file or directory
  /usr/lib/courier/authlib/authdaemond: line 31: exec: 
    /usr/sbin/courierlogger: cannot execute: No such file or directory
    [fail]
  invoke-rc.d: initscript courier-authdaemon, action "stop" failed.
  dpkg: error processing courier-authdaemon (--remove):
   subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
   * Starting Courier authdaemon...                                                                                                  
     /usr/lib/courier/authlib/authdaemond: line 31:  
     /usr/sbin/courierlogger: No such file or directory
  /usr/lib/courier/authlib/authdaemond: line 31: exec:  
    /usr/sbin/courierlogger: cannot execute: No such file or directory
    [fail]
  invoke-rc.d: initscript courier-authdaemon, action "start" failed.
  dpkg: error while cleaning up:
   subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
  Errors were encountered while processing:
   courier-authdaemon

> Getting this package to react to
> commands again is the main issue here (and frankly, I have never before
> seen a package that was in such a bad installation state that it even
> resisted a -i --force-all). Without achieving  this, the package
> management will resist any further useful action.

Absolutely. But it is the fault of the upgrade process, since after:

  kdesu "update-manager -c"

the first message after the downloads had completed and installation 
commenced was:

  "Beginning with Courier 0.48, the authentication modules that used 
   to be part of Courier have been separated into a standalone library.
   All Courier applications are now using the same authentication
   infrastructure, the Courier authentication library. Packages for this
   library consists of a base package (courier-authlib) and one for each
   authentication method (courier-authlib-userdb, -mysql, -postgresql,
   -ldap, -pipe). Unfortunately it wasn't possible to setup the
   dependencies in order to allow a seamless upgrade. Please install the
   package for your authentication method manually."

So, changes have taken place, but the upshot, in my case, is that the 
entire system is rendered unusable in any useful way. And, by the look 
of things, unfixable. I certainly will no longer be using Courier!

> After success (hopefully) it will either finish the upgrade smoothly, or
> it might still  require to remove some courier packages, but this should
> be no problem since the configuration will remain (unless you use
> "purge" instead or "remove" with aptitude), and your data will remain
> anyway.

Thanks again for the assistance, despite the lack of success. If there 
is anything further that can be done, however drastic, then I suspect 
that now's the time. A reinstall would see me leaving Ubuntu, since I 
have no wish to go through this again.

-- 
Cheers,
Marc