Ubuntu

Reinstall of Exim4 fails, says; exim: failed to find uid for user name "Debian-exim"

Asked by Nathaniel Homier

I had installed Exim4 MTA. I had a problem. I tried to remove and reinstall Exim4. Apt is unable to install Exim4. I have included the error log below. I had tried removing all Exim4 directories and files by hand and I still get the error.

lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 16.10
Release: 16.10
Codename: yakkety

Error output below.

First the relevant part of the error output below and below that the full output.

Short output
exim: failed to find uid for user name "Debian-exim"
Invalid new configfile /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated.tmp, not installing
/var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated.tmp to /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated
dpkg: error processing package exim4-config (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-19) ...
ureadahead will be reprofiled on next reboot
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of exim4-base:
 exim4-base depends on exim4-config (>= 4.82) | exim4-config-2; however:
  Package exim4-config is not configured yet.
  Package exim4-config-2 is not installed.
  Package exim4-config which provides exim4-config-2 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package exim4-base (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.
                          No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.
                                                    dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of exim4:
 exim4 depends on exim4-base (>= 4.87-3ubuntu1); however:
  Package exim4-base is not configured yet.
 exim4 depends on exim4-base (<< 4.87-3ubuntu1.1); however:
  Package exim4-base is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package exim4 (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for doc-base (0.10.7) ...
Processing 3 added doc-base files...
Registering documents with scrollkeeper...
Processing triggers for systemd (231-9ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of exim4-daemon-light:
 exim4-daemon-light depends on exim4-base (>= 4.87); however:
  Package exim4-base is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package exim4-daemon-light (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                              Errors were encountered while processing:
 exim4-config
 exim4-base

Full ouput

nate@frontier:~$ sudo apt-get install exim4
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  exim4-base exim4-config exim4-daemon-light
Suggested packages:
  eximon4 exim4-doc-html | exim4-doc-info spf-tools-perl swaks
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  exim4 exim4-base exim4-config exim4-daemon-light
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 26 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/1,638 kB of archives.
After this operation, 3,780 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously unselected package exim4-config.
(Reading database ... 326863 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../0-exim4-config_4.87-3ubuntu1_all.deb ...
Unpacking exim4-config (4.87-3ubuntu1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package exim4-base.
Preparing to unpack .../1-exim4-base_4.87-3ubuntu1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking exim4-base (4.87-3ubuntu1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package exim4-daemon-light.
Preparing to unpack .../2-exim4-daemon-light_4.87-3ubuntu1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking exim4-daemon-light (4.87-3ubuntu1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package exim4.
Preparing to unpack .../3-exim4_4.87-3ubuntu1_all.deb ...
Unpacking exim4 (4.87-3ubuntu1) ...
Setting up exim4-config (4.87-3ubuntu1) ...
exim: failed to find uid for user name "Debian-exim"
Invalid new configfile /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated.tmp, not installing
/var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated.tmp to /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated
dpkg: error processing package exim4-config (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-19) ...
ureadahead will be reprofiled on next reboot
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of exim4-base:
 exim4-base depends on exim4-config (>= 4.82) | exim4-config-2; however:
  Package exim4-config is not configured yet.
  Package exim4-config-2 is not installed.
  Package exim4-config which provides exim4-config-2 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package exim4-base (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.
                          No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.
                                                    dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of exim4:
 exim4 depends on exim4-base (>= 4.87-3ubuntu1); however:
  Package exim4-base is not configured yet.
 exim4 depends on exim4-base (<< 4.87-3ubuntu1.1); however:
  Package exim4-base is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package exim4 (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for doc-base (0.10.7) ...
Processing 3 added doc-base files...
Registering documents with scrollkeeper...
Processing triggers for systemd (231-9ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of exim4-daemon-light:
 exim4-daemon-light depends on exim4-base (>= 4.87); however:
  Package exim4-base is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package exim4-daemon-light (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                              Errors were encountered while processing:
 exim4-config
 exim4-base
 exim4
 exim4-daemon-light
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

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Revision history for this message
Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#1

Maybe uninstalling all exim packages (that is different from deleting all files) helps before you start reinstalling.

What is the output of the command

dpkg -l | grep exim

Revision history for this message
Nathaniel Homier (mechamechanism) said : 		#2

Oh, I uninstalled and got the error, only then did I try to delete any leftover files and Dir left behind by the uninstall via apt.

dpkg -l | grep exim
ic exim4 4.87-3ubuntu1 all metapackage to ease Exim MTA (v4) installation
iU exim4-base 4.87-3ubuntu1 amd64 support files for all Exim MTA (v4) packages
iF exim4-config 4.87-3ubuntu1 all configuration for the Exim MTA (v4)
iU exim4-daemon-light 4.87-3ubuntu1 amd64 lightweight Exim MTA (v4) daemon

Revision history for this message
Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#3

I suggest that you purge the four packages ("sudo dpkg --purge exim4 exim4-base exim4-config exim4-daemon-light"), verify whether the packages have really been removed ("dpkg -l | grep exim" should not produce any output any more), and then try installing exim4 again.

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