remove packages

[Richard Gliebe]

On 11/23/10 9:33 PM C de-Avillez wrote:

Hi,

> Not a good idea -- libc6 is required by pretty much everything, and
> force-removing it will end up in an unusable system.
> 
> You could try:
> 
> 1. download the lenny libc6 package you want;
> 2. 'sudo dpkg -i' it.
> 
> Just please be aware that mixing Debian and Ubuntu packages is not
> always a good idea -- in libc6's case, probably a real bad one.
> 
> (in Maverick, 'apt-cache rdepends libc6' lists 14k packages... in
> other words, a good portion of what we ship.)
> 
> Some of these packages may have a depends clause on the specific
> version of the official libc6 -- it is safer to check *before* you
> force the install:
> 
> sudo dpkg -i --dry-run <the lenny libc6>

--dry-run looks fine.

.....
  dpkg -i --dry-run  libc6-dev_2.7-18lenny6_i386.deb
(Reading database ... 25833 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace libc6-dev 2.7-18lenny6 (using 
libc6-dev_2.7-18lenny6_i386.deb) ...
.....

so I tried it to install, but it failed.

.....
# dpkg -i  libc6-dev_2.7-18lenny6_i386.deb
Selecting previously deselected package libc6-dev.
(Reading database ... 25833 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace libc6-dev 2.7-18lenny6 (using 
libc6-dev_2.7-18lenny6_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libc6-dev ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libc6-dev:
  libc6-dev depends on libc6 (= 2.7-18lenny6); however:
   Version of libc6 on system is 2.7-18.
  libc6-dev depends on linux-libc-dev; however:
   Package linux-libc-dev is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing libc6-dev (--install):
  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
  libc6-dev
.....

also linux-libc-dev

.....
# apt-get install -s linux-libc-dev
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
linux-libc-dev is already the newest version.
You might want to run `apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
   libc6-dev: Depends: libc6 (= 2.7-18lenny6) but 2.7-18 is to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or 
specify a solution)
.....

next step. trying to install libc6_2.7-18lenny6_i386.deb (downloaded 
from http://packages.debian.org/lenny/i386/libc6)

It also failed.

.....
# dpkg -i libc6_2.7-18lenny6_i386.deb
(Reading database ... 25833 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace libc6 2.7-18 (using libc6_2.7-18lenny6_i386.deb)
...
A non-dpkg owned copy of the libc6-i686 package was found.
It is not safe to upgrade the C library in this situation;
please remove that copy of the C library and try again.
dpkg: error processing libc6_2.7-18lenny6_i386.deb (--install):
  subprocess pre-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
  libc6_2.7-18lenny6_i386.deb
.....

how on gods earth can I remove or replace this damned "libc6 2.7-18" 
package?

more hints are very, very welcome.

many thanks
Richard