Ubuntu

unsucessful package installation

Asked by Brant Defibaugh

I downloaded the VirtualBox installation package for feisty. It opened with GdDebi. It stopped installing at an acceptance screen in the terminal window. Being new to this I hit enter for the default yes prompt. Nothing happened for several minutes and I canceled the installation. Now when synaptic is opened I get the message, "E; the package VirtualBox needs to be reinstalled but I can't find the archive for it." I tried the command line solutions I found in the VBox documentation and suggestions from a couple of local computer stores, but to no effect. I then deleted all the files from the failed installation that I could find. Same message when trying to open Synaptic. I tried downloading the package again and the problem still exists.

How do I get rid of the reference so that the package manger no longer hangs up on the need to reinstall and so I can try again to install the program?

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Brant Defibaugh
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Alan Pope 🍺🐧🐱 🦄 (popey) said : 		#1

Open a terminal and run this:-

sudo apt-get install -f

To try to finish off the install

Then try doing it from the command line:-

dpkg -i <packagename>

Where <packagename> is the name of the virtual box .deb file.

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Brant Defibaugh (allprop) said : 		#2

Thank you, but the results are the same message. This probably is because I deleted all the installed package components I could find, so I need the system to forget it ever tried to install the package. then I can try the download and install again.

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Cesare Tirabassi (norsetto) said : 		#3

You can try sudo apt-get check, and then sudo apt-get -f remove.
I doubt it will help but you have nothing to loose.

If worst come to worse, you may try to manually edit your apt cache in /var/cache/apt.
Chances are that you will only make more damage, but as you have quite a broken system already it could be worth a try.

If you can backup your $HOME directory and any configuration file that you believe necessary (xorg.conf, interfaces, hosts, etc.).

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Best Brant Defibaugh (allprop) said : 		#4

Thank you. As you suspected it didn't work. Since this is a very new installation of 7.04 I think it will be far easier to just reinstall the OS.

Thank you Alan and Cesare for your prompt attention and help.