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Idea #2298: Repair package management failures

Written by Vojtech Trefny the 1 Mar 08 at 20:31. Category: System. Related project: Nothing/Others. Status: New
Rationale
"E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report."

→ This is very frequent problem and a lot of beginners dont'know why fix the problem/resolve it.
Just please look here: see - https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+faq/52 - this FAQ located/placed on Launchpad website and during 1 month there are already 15 "related questions", so that means this is very often problem.

It would be fine thing to have some automatic utility to fix this problem, but it will be enough to make this error message more user friendly (for now it's very misleading information).
Tags: (none)

722
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Solution #1: Explain it better
Written by Vojtech Trefny the 1 Mar 08 at 20:31.
It would be fine thing to have some automatic utility to fix this problem, but it will be enough to make this error message more user friendly (for now it's very misleading information).
220
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Solution #2: Automatic fix
Written by zooounds the 5 Nov 08 at 17:05.
Why should the user have to launch a terminal and run the command manually?
69
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Solution #3: Fixit Wizard
Written by Tuxoid the 17 May 08 at 21:41.
If you click on a package in Synaptic that can be re-configured, it offers the option to re-configure the package from the context/right-click menu. Once selected, it opens a terminal window right inside the package's configuration wizard.

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allo wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 17:37
the big problem is, that sometimes dpkg --configure -a doesn't help. Then you need to purge some package before the new ones can be configured.

steve196 wrote on the 23 Mar 08 at 22:32
Alternatively make the message more verbose. Say which package is affected. Say what --configure -a does and offer a way to just remove the affected package.

Auzy wrote on the 12 Apr 08 at 09:33
Happened to me the other day.. +1

e1337_074xu wrote on the 15 May 08 at 05:15
I have also found this to be one of the major problems when trying to convince a new user to switch from mac or windows to ubuntu linux. The problem is that a lot of these people are not "computer people" and may be frightened of the terminal. Possibly, an auto wizard program could be used with several buttons representing the necessary fixes. For instance... a button version of --configure -a command, etc. The user can go through the gui program, thus feeling more comfortable.

steve196 wrote on the 15 May 08 at 08:10
An automatic fixing utility would be bad, because it would end in an infinite loop if a package wants to do something, that is not possible.
Instead, the package managers should stay accessible even in broken state (with a BIG warning), so the user can do something about it.

aysiu (Brainstorm moderator) wrote on the 23 Jul 08 at 03:32
At the very least, have the error message say to run

sudo dpkg --configure -a

instead of what it currently tells you to run:

dpkg --configure -a

pavolzetor wrote on the 4 Aug 08 at 17:00
+1 this is vry important for begginers, thx please add it to intrepid

cenora wrote on the 24 Sep 08 at 21:54
+1: Happened to me 5 seconds ago.

Paqman wrote on the 25 Sep 08 at 23:40
There's also a but in Lunachpad for this here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt/+bug/124443

So we may see a fix at some point.

cheesehead (Brainstorm admin) wrote on the 20 Jun 09 at 14:29
Edited the title for clarity.


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