How to delete broken packages in ubuntu

Question

I can not remove broken package. Use the following command: sudo apt-get -f install but I get the following response:

Preparing to unpack .../nodejs_0.10.28-1chl1~trusty1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking nodejs (0.10.28-1chl1~trusty1) over (0.10.25~dfsg2-2ubuntu1) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/nodejs_0.10.28-1chl1~trusty1_amd64.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite '/usr/share/man/man1/node.1.gz', which is also in package nodejs-legacy 0.10.25~dfsg2-2ubuntu1
dpkg-deb: error: subprocess paste was killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Processing triggers for man-db (2.6.7.1-1) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/nodejs_0.10.28-1chl1~trusty1_amd64.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I tried various commands like

 2015  sudo apt-get clean
 2020  sudo dpkg --configure -a
 2023  sudo apt-get autoremove
 2034  sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get -f install

But I did not get any result. I can not install synaptic. Any ideas how can I remove the broken package ?

Here few answers has suggested --force-remove-reinstreq and --force-overwrite. Please note that you should use these two (especially the first one) only if you are a Linux expert , because it can break you system completely. — g_p, Dec 02 '16 at 03:49

score 111 · Answer 1 · answered May 06 '15 at 08:53

111

run this command to remove broken packages in ubuntu.

sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq package_name

after removing package update your system with command

sudo apt-get update

restart system after successfully updation.

answered May 06 '15 at 08:53

premal

1,813

12

This command should always be avoided as it breaks you system more than it repairs – rancho Jun 19 '16 at 20:03
2

@rancho depends on what package it is. – Philip Jul 06 '16 at 13:18
nice one, the way you gus always write package_name, yet i see a list of 900 lines in a crazy format, for example : Broken libopencv-highgui2.4v5:amd64 Conflicts on libopencv-highgui2.4 [ amd64 ] < 2.4.8+dfsg1-2ubuntu1 > ( libs ). waiting on LTS has really done this crazy trick to me. – nyxee Aug 15 '17 at 07:35
1

@rancho "it breaks you system more than it repairs" can you elaborate? man dpkg does not help a lot. – Stéphane Gourichon May 09 '19 at 16:45
This was the only thing that worked for me. I broke my mysql while updating the package. Now I couldn't purge or reinstall. So this saved my life. – Ankit Singhaniya Aug 12 '19 at 05:35
2

I think reinstalling the broken package would have much less change of breaking the system. Try sudo apt install --reinstall packagename-here. After the package has been succesfully reinstalled and is not longer a broken one, you can remove it normally. – Mikko Rantalainen Jul 14 '21 at 07:11

score 21 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 17 '14 at 12:41

21

Open your terminal and use following command

sudo dpkg --purge nodejs-legacy
sudo apt-get install -f

It should solve your problem.

answered Sep 17 '14 at 12:41

g_p

18,504

score 19 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 17 '14 at 10:28

19

This fixed my problem:

sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite /var/cache/apt/archives/nodejs_0.10.28-1chl1~trusty1_amd64.deb

edited Sep 17 '14 at 10:28

Eliah Kagan

117,780

answered Sep 17 '14 at 10:06

Krasimir

1,153

Really helpful. I almost lost many packages that depend on a broken package. I only overwrited that broken one then everything solved – fsevenm Feb 05 '20 at 06:51

score 18 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 29 '16 at 17:36

18

I've found that:

sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq <packagename>

Works best. If it gives you an error that it won't remove a package because it is depended on by another package, remove that other package as well. You'll have to repeat this step several times and then reinstall your deleted packages.

The force-remove-reinstreq is THE "nuclear option" of deleting a package. It only fails if there is another package depending on the one you're about to delete -- Again, in that case, deleted the depending package too.

edited Mar 29 '16 at 17:36

muru

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answered Mar 29 '16 at 17:30

Bryan Wilcutt

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THE nuclear option worked where purges, cleans, reinstalls, autoremoves, via both dpkg and apt-get failed. Thank you. – LAFK says Reinstate Monica Aug 22 '16 at 14:54
This is the best solution if you just want to nuke everything and start over. Saved me lots of time! (I also used --purge after --remove) – andersevenrud Jan 24 '17 at 20:22
1

plase, can u give some hints on how to fill that package_name when we have like 1000+ lines (some duplicate) in the apt log files.. – nyxee Aug 15 '17 at 07:36
1

"remove that other package as well" ! +1 – Marecky Feb 03 '21 at 21:31
Use dpkg -l to list packages – Sridhar Sarnobat Dec 07 '21 at 04:51
It doesn't work. It says post-removal script subprocess returned error exit status 1. How do I remove a package without running its removal scripts? What is the real nuclear option? – Aaron Franke Mar 26 '22 at 08:19
Great info sir, only the nuclear option worked, tried every other option that I could reach to till I found this – Alcides Dec 16 '22 at 02:19

score 11 · Answer 5 · edited May 26 '21 at 10:02

11

If you have a broken dependency (which I have encountered with openjdk), you will want to purge the package and force it to skip over dependency problems:

sudo dpkg -P --force-depends package_name

I found the answer on another forum

edited May 26 '21 at 10:02

Mikey T.K.

473

answered Jan 18 '20 at 03:32

1

This fixed my problem! Thanks for your answer – HKTonyLee Sep 20 '22 at 18:46
1

I could kiss you! thank you, thank you, thank you. – elviejo79 Nov 04 '22 at 03:35
This is the only solution that worked for me after trying a lot of options to completely uninstall a Python version I compiled manually. Thank you so much. – Tedpac Jun 16 '23 at 04:24

score 11 · Answer 6 · edited Feb 26 '22 at 13:21

11

NOTE: The following command will remove the installation and removal scripts including the list files. It won't remove the package, nor it will fix anything, it will just make dpkg forget about the error message.

rm /var/lib/dpkg/info/<package_name>.*

example:

rm /var/lib/dpkg/info/elasticsearch.*

edited Feb 26 '22 at 13:21

Error404

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answered Feb 03 '20 at 13:21

buycanna.io

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This answer helped me find a less drastic solution to the problem. I added set -x to the top of the /var/lib/dpkg/info/$PKG_NAME.postrm to echo what is was executing. This showed that it was failing while trying to deluser. I manually deleted the user, commented the offending line, and was then able to successfully uninstall the package. – ankh-morpork Apr 16 '21 at 16:17
The accepted answer does not fix my problem because it get stuck on pre-removal script anyway – xrfang Feb 14 '23 at 08:48

score 8 · Answer 7 · edited Dec 12 '22 at 04:44

8

None of the above worked for me. Eventually I edited /var/lib/dpkg/status and removed the packages from there.

However, I would not advise this. It's just an option if all else fails.

edited Dec 12 '22 at 04:44

NotTheDr01ds

17,888

answered Feb 19 '18 at 12:48

BonifatiusK

231

4

This seems to be the only thing that worked for me. Even the so called 'nuclear option' of --force-remove-reinstreq couldn't delete the offending package. Thank you, sir. – alex Mar 15 '18 at 10:00

score 5 · Answer 8 · edited Nov 10 '15 at 14:08

5

Here's one:

update your package list like this

 sudo apt-get update

then cleanup any partial packages

 sudo apt-get autoclean

Now clean the apt cache

 sudo apt-get clean

Now remove any unnecessary dependancies

 sudo apt-get autoremove

from the command above, you can identify any broken packages and forcefully remove it like this

 sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq package_name

Finally mopup any other packages with dependacies

 sudo apt-get -f install

Tell me how it goes.

edited Nov 10 '15 at 14:08

Tarek Kalaji

103

answered Sep 17 '14 at 13:02

Zuko

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I think this command is incorrect: `sudo dpkg --remove -force --force-remove-reinstreq package_name. – Juan Simón Apr 01 '15 at 21:39
Ji...so which one is the correct way? – Zuko Apr 02 '15 at 03:57
Thanks a lot. So many suggestions, but only yours `sudo apt-get autoremove -f' helped for Ubuntu16.04 broken squid package. – Andrew Apr 27 '20 at 18:54
1

@nine9five I'm glad you are sorted. Enjoy your day – Zuko Apr 29 '20 at 09:30

score 3 · Answer 9 · answered Sep 17 '14 at 09:59

3

Open your terminal , and paste these line after line

sudo rm -rf  /var/cache/apt/archives/nodejs_0.10.28-1chl1~trusty1_amd64.deb
sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

then try again

answered Sep 17 '14 at 09:59

Raja G

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score 3 · Answer 10 · edited Feb 01 '17 at 08:27

3

The same error repeats If we do apt-get clean and apt-get -f install unless we remove the junk data from /var/lib/dpkg/status file in Ubuntu.

Suppose we need to remove apache broken package. Initially we have to open the status file and search for the package apache. Remove the entire package description and save the status file. Then try using apt-get -f install and apt-get clean.

edited Feb 01 '17 at 08:27

d a i s y

5,511

answered Feb 01 '17 at 07:00

user649305

31

score 2 · Answer 11 · answered Jul 18 '17 at 12:45

2

None of the above worked for me

I used sudo aptitude.

It found the error immediately and offered options. You select and it fixes it.

answered Jul 18 '17 at 12:45

Aryeh Beitz

130

also fixed it for me on debian - this was the only working solution for me. None of the comments before worked for me! Thanks! – Hirbod Dec 14 '18 at 23:21

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered May 12 '17 at 23:48

1

I had a problem with broken kodi package. I opened synaptic package manager and used the "broken" filter to locate the package and marked it for complete removal. It worked like a champ.

answered May 12 '17 at 23:48

Joe

11

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Oct 20 '16 at 03:05

0

query all the packages that are installed today or yesterday awk -v foo=$(date '+%Y-%m-%d') -v bar=$(date -d "yesterday" '+%Y-%m-%d') '($1==foo || $1==bar) && $3~/^install$/ { print $4 }' /var/log/dpkg.log
wine-qqintl:i386 caused the problem, so I remove the package sudo dpkg -r wine-qqintl:i386
done.

answered Oct 20 '16 at 03:05

ZhanghuiMing

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ok, we can get recently installed packages like that, but this doesn't answer the question which asks how to remove broken packages – Zanna Oct 20 '16 at 07:31

How to delete broken packages in ubuntu

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