Ubuntu

re: 2 prblms w/new mini9 #1 E: dpkg was interrupted #2 Install Problem!

Asked by eastmeon

I am pristine new to Ubuntu and know nothing about it at all. So if anyone out there can help me & pleeeze pleeeze explain in dummy English what steps I need to take to fix this problem I would be beyond grateful...I am completely frustrated now as I can't get a human on the phone to help me and wondering if I made a mistake with this purchase....here's whats going on in a nutshell....

Got my Dell Mini9 less than a month ago, worked great - didn't use it for 1 wk, turned it on, said it had 186 updates available which started to come in and then the trouble.......it froze....now when I try to get it going again I get 2 messages and can't get beyond them they say:

#1 upon turning it on:
Install Problem!
The configuration defaults for GNOME Power Manager have not been installed correctly. Please contact your computer administrator.

then when that box closes, the next msg reads:

E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.

I am so sad and frustrated with this whole mess compounded by the fact I can't get anyone on the phone.

Can anyone out there help me please and again, I need dummy help in the simplest terms of where to click and what to look for - thanks to any and all in advance for their help.

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Tom
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Andre Mangan (kyphi) said : 		#1

There is a special Launchpad support area dedicated to the Dell Mini:

https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/dell-mini

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Tom (tom6) said : 		#2

Ok, i can help with one of those problems fairly easily. When the machine is booting up do you get a menu with a lot of Ubuntu options? If so then choose the one that has "recovery mode" near the end of the line. Hopefully the "fix broken packages" option should help but if not then try "Root Shell" which drops you to a fairly powerful & therefore also dangerous command-line. Try typing in

sudo dpkg --configure -a

This should fix the "E:dpkg ..." problem

If you don't get the boot-menu then switch the machine on and wait for the the bios tables telling you about IRQ's stuff and just after those tables there should briefly be a note saying "Press Esc to get grub-menu" or something like that. Press Esc! Hopefully that should get you to the grub-boot-loader menu and let you procede as above.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

PS in linux we tend to use on-line user forums like this and the ones in
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToGetHelp
rather than using potentially expensive phone calls that we can't use copy&paste from ;)

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Best Tom (tom6) said : 		#3

It does take a little while to get used to Ubuntu and most of the big problems occur when you first start using it! It soon settles down and you will also most likely find that you learn a lot more very fast that took years to eke out of the Windows world

Here are some reference guides to help. They aren't really meant to be read all the way through but they are handy starting points sometimes if you need to find out something quickly. It's quite legitimate to post questions in the forums first and then go off hunting through vast amounts of documentation as long as you post a link back to the answer. In fact this really helps future people suffering from the same problem
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwitchingToUbuntu/FromWindows

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FreeSoftwareAlternatives

http://winehq.org/
Note that Wine is available in the usual best places to get programs.
Applications - Add/Remove Applications

or

System - Administration - Synaptic Package Manager
It's better to get programs/applications from those two places rather than by hunting out stuff on the internet yourself. They both use the same data and the same tools but each presents it in a slightly different way. It shows what you can get easily (for free) and what is on your system at the moment, right now a lot of that will be quite crucial stuff, but you have a chance to re-install stuff or add stuff from safe locations built up by Ubuntu and Cannonical.

Final link about security. Basically this will hopefully be the last time you ever worry about viruses and other malware or concerns. Linux is built up to be safe as it was developed from Unix which was designed to be secure rather than some OS which add a thin layer of security on top of an already completed system. In the linux world there's no money to be made from selling anti-virus software or security patches. In fact such things would be a boring nuisance when there's so much more fun to be had from increasing functionality and getting kudos from writing good code to do productive things
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Antivirus?highlight=(\bCategorySecurity\b)

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Revision history for this message
eastmeon (eastmeon) said : 		#4

Thanks Tom, that solved my question.

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eastmeon (eastmeon) said : 		#5

a million thanks to you Tom, I gave up trying on the phone and you solved my issues plus some great extra advice in no time......thank you again.

Revision history for this message
Tom (tom6) said : 		#6

You're welcome. If you've managed to fix the other problem too then congrats :)
Welcome to linux-land, especially the Ubuntu corner of it. i hope you have as much fun as most of us have with it.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)