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I haven't been able to update of late. The details are as follows:

installArchives() failed: Preconfiguring packages ...
Preconfiguring packages ...
Preconfiguring packages ...
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 
(Reading database ... 5%%
(Reading database ... 10%%
(Reading database ... 15%%
(Reading database ... 20%%
(Reading database ... 25%%
(Reading database ... 30%%
(Reading database ... 35%%
(Reading database ... 40%%
(Reading database ... 45%%
(Reading database ... 50%%
(Reading database ... 55%%
(Reading database ... 60%%
(Reading database ... 65%%
(Reading database ... 70%%
(Reading database ... 75%%
(Reading database ... 80%%
(Reading database ... 85%%
(Reading database ... 90%%
(Reading database ... 95%%dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 files list file for package 'dropbox' is missing final newline
Error in function:

If I remove Dropbox, will I be able to update and subsequently reinstall Dropbox? I would note that none of the updates mention Dropbox, if that makes a difference.

I have checked the following question but was hesitant to follow the suggestions because I don't want an unintentional upgrade to 12.10:

Any help would be appreciated.

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user136484
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  • Don't worry, to upgrade to 12.10 you would have to use a completely different command:do-release-upgrade – carnendil Feb 28 '13 at 19:33

2 Answers2

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Instead of trying to uninstall dropbox I would try the following, one at a time

  1. sudo apt-get install -f
  2. Open Software sources find the dropbox lines under the Other Software tab and disable them. Then try sudo apt-get update.
  3. If this fails too, then try sudo apt-get install -f again with the dropbox ppa diabled.
To Do
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I think you would be able to uninstall Dropbox (sudo apt-get remove dropbox from a terminal session) and reinstall easily.

Edit:

There is also some that suggest to remove the dropbox.list (assuming that is what the package is called) from /var/lib/dpkg/info/ and then do an apt-get update; apt-get remove dropbox.

Here's an article that I found on the Mint forums about this:

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=109725&f=34

Here's another article with similar issue (error code 1) and it recommends several steps that appear to be safe as well:

trying to overwrite '/usr/bin/opencv_haartraining', which is also in package libopencv2.3-bin 2.3.1+svn6514+branch23-12~oneiric

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Mordoc
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  • I tried to uninstall Dropbox and received this: "5%E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)" – user136484 Feb 28 '13 at 18:13
  • And, by the way, my goal is to update. I'll give up Dropbox to get that done. – user136484 Feb 28 '13 at 18:21
  • Mordoc, thanks. I read through the linux mint reference and removed the libopenal1:i386.list file as it said, but it didn't do any good, so I hope it doesn't hurt me later (anyway to get it back? or don't I need it? - more than a bit of a noob here). Then I followed the same suggested commands, but removed the dropbox.list file. I was able to update through terminal afterward-successfully as far as I can tell. – user136484 Feb 28 '13 at 20:18
  • @user136484 If you are not sure if you will be needing a file later, instead of removing it, change its name: mv filename filename.old. That way, you can get it back later. – carnendil Feb 28 '13 at 20:33