Synaptic woes

[Al Krieger]

On Thu, 02 Mar 2006 10:11:25 +0000, Richard G. Riley wrote:

>
> Could someone advise on what might be causing the following error
> message whenever I install a package using synaptic?
>
> "E:gtk-doc-tools:subprocess post-installation script returned error
> exit status 255"

That means sometime in the distant past (like the day before you noticed
the message) you tried to install gtk-doc-tools. Unfortunately, the
post-installation script (which tells the computer what to do to set up
the downloaded and unpacked package in terms of configuration) did not
work. Sometimes it tells you which line was at fault, in which case you
can find it and try to fix it. Usually the problem is just a misspelled
word or something just as obvious. In your case, it seems like it didn't
return a line number. You can get rid of the broken package, if you
wish. I like to keep them around for a while so that I can file a bug if
I get ticked off enough before the packager fixes the problem.

[Al Krieger]

On Fri, 03 Mar 2006 13:53:27 +0000, Richard G. Riley wrote:

> "Al"posted the following on 2006-03-03:
>

>> On Thu, 02 Mar 2006 10:11:25 +0000, Richard G. Riley wrote:
>>

>>>
>>> Could someone advise on what might be causing the following error
>>> message whenever I install a package using synaptic?
>>>
>>> "E:gtk-doc-tools:subprocess post-installation script returned error
>>> exit status 255"

>>
>> That means sometime in the distant past (like the day before you noticed
>> the message) you tried to install gtk-doc-tools. Unfortunately, the
>> post-installation script (which tells the computer what to do to set up
>> the downloaded and unpacked package in terms of configuration) did not
>> work. Sometimes it tells you which line was at fault, in which case you
>> can find it and try to fix it. Usually the problem is just a misspelled
>> word or something just as obvious. In your case, it seems like it didn't
>> return a line number. You can get rid of the broken package, if you
>> wish. I like to keep them around for a while so that I can file a bug if
>> I get ticked off enough before the packager fixes the problem.

>
> Thaks Al. Where do I look to find the faulty package file?

Find the package in /var/cache/apt/archives/ It will be named
gtk-doc-tools-#.deb, where # is the edition of the file (several numbers
and letters). A deb file is just an archive containing 2 gzipped tarballs
and a binary. You want the file called control.tar.gz Within that file is
a shell script called postinst. That's the file you want to mess with. I
would advise that you limit yourself to finding the glitch and reporting
it.

[Florian Diesch]

Richard G. Riley <rgriley@gmail.com> wrote:

> "Al"posted the following on 2006-03-03:
>

>> On Thu, 02 Mar 2006 10:11:25 +0000, Richard G. Riley wrote:
>>

>>>
>>> Could someone advise on what might be causing the following error
>>> message whenever I install a package using synaptic?
>>>
>>> "E:gtk-doc-tools:subprocess post-installation script returned error
>>> exit status 255"

>>
>> That means sometime in the distant past (like the day before you noticed
>> the message) you tried to install gtk-doc-tools. Unfortunately, the
>> post-installation script (which tells the computer what to do to set up
>> the downloaded and unpacked package in terms of configuration) did not
>> work. Sometimes it tells you which line was at fault, in which case you
>> can find it and try to fix it. Usually the problem is just a misspelled
>> word or something just as obvious. In your case, it seems like it didn't
>> return a line number. You can get rid of the broken package, if you
>> wish. I like to keep them around for a while so that I can file a bug if
>> I get ticked off enough before the packager fixes the problem.

>
> Thaks Al. Where do I look to find the faulty package file?

It's /var/lib/dpkg/gtk-doc-tools.postinst


Florian
--
Emacs doesn't crash! It contains very little C, so there's very
little reason to have it crash. [Pascal Bourguignon in gnu.emacs.help]

[Al Krieger]

On Sat, 04 Mar 2006 22:27:49 +0100, Florian Diesch wrote:

> Richard G. Riley <rgriley@gmail.com> wrote:

>> "Al"posted the following on 2006-03-03:
>>

>>> On Thu, 02 Mar 2006 10:11:25 +0000, Richard G. Riley wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Could someone advise on what might be causing the following error
>>>> message whenever I install a package using synaptic?
>>>>
>>>> "E:gtk-doc-tools:subprocess post-installation script returned error
>>>> exit status 255"
>>>
>>> That means sometime in the distant past (like the day before you noticed
>>> the message) you tried to install gtk-doc-tools. Unfortunately, the
>>> post-installation script (which tells the computer what to do to set up
>>> the downloaded and unpacked package in terms of configuration) did not
>>> work. Sometimes it tells you which line was at fault, in which case you
>>> can find it and try to fix it. Usually the problem is just a misspelled
>>> word or something just as obvious. In your case, it seems like it didn't
>>> return a line number. You can get rid of the broken package, if you
>>> wish. I like to keep them around for a while so that I can file a bug if
>>> I get ticked off enough before the packager fixes the problem.

>>
>> Thaks Al. Where do I look to find the faulty package file?

>
> It's /var/lib/dpkg/gtk-doc-tools.postinst
>
>
> Florian

On my machine there is nothing of interest in /var/lib/dpkg except five
directories and 10 fies non of which has any packages. BUT when I look in
/var/lib/info I find 6030 files taking up 21MB. These ARE the unpacked
contents of all the debs I've downloaded since the last time I ran apt-get
clean. If you look there you will find the readable and changeable copy
of the post-install file. But, once again, unless you have a line number,
I'd just report a bug, and wait for the packager, who knows what he's
doing, to fix the problem.

[Florian Diesch]

Richard G. Riley <rgriley@gmail.com> wrote:

> "Florian"posted the following on 2006-03-04:
>

>>
>> It's /var/lib/dpkg/gtk-doc-tools.postinst

>
> /var/lib/dpkg/info/

Yes, of course. I'm sure the "info" was there when I posted it. I guess
it has been censored by some three-letter-organisation on the way ;-)


Florian
--

> (objects are not allowed to lie about who they are, or what they are).

Dangit! I need to find a less honest programming language. Anyone
have a Perl cookbook handy? [Lonnie Princehouse in comp.lang.python]