APT - accidentally removed together with a bunch of dependencies

[PJJ]

Did not try to install from the recovery console.
Instead accessed a 12.10 command line from 12.04.

I can install aplications easily - as long as I know or can remamber the name of the software. Synaptic also works.

apt-get does not work, though it is installed.
aptitude on the other hand does work.

Reinstalled kubuntu-desktop.
Still getting blue screen.

[doctordruidphd]

I do not know what command would get me a Kickoff Application Launcher button - if possible at all, because when I start an application from the command line, I get the graphical version of the app

Are you saying that when you get the blue screen, and CTRL-ALT-F1, you can run graphical applications? That's bizarre if true; it means that X is still working, but kde is not. What happens if, at the blue screen, you hit ALT-F2 ? Or right click anywhere on the screen? I'm almost thinking that maybe kde is working, and you've just lost the panel, which is not an uncommon thing to happen during an upgrade.

Another couple of things you might try at this point: Get to the CTRL-ALT-F1 console prompt, do the sudo service kde stop command, then move your ~/.kde directory out of the way (such as mv .kde .kde-NOT ) and then try restarting kde with sudo service kdm start .This will tell you if there is a configuration problem with kde. Also I had a problem with /etc/kde4/kdm/kdmrc being messed up and killing kde outright; I think that was a bug that has since been fixed, but nonetheless you might try reinstalling the kdm package.

As to why apt get does not work, my /etc/apt/preferences.d is also empty, and normally is on Ubuntu derivatives unless you are doing apt pinning. What sort of error do you get from sudo apt-get update ? Also make sure that /etc/apt/preferences.d is owned by root, and that it has the attributes drwxr-xr-x .

[PJJ]

Thanks for getting back.
..."error do you get from sudo apt-get update?"

I get an update and upgrade.

"... you can run graphical applications?"

I can run them when I access 12.10 from my 12.04 installation via command line. If I attempt to open a graphical application from the 12.10 command line after logging in via CTRL-ALT-F1 I get error messages:

Typing 'firefox' -- no display specified.

Typing kdesudo dolphin -- cannot connect to X Server.

I tried to start the Xserver from the menu on the GUI login screen. No success.


"What happens if, at the blue screen, you hit ALT-F2 ? "
Nothing. Nothing appears.

The blue screen lets me do absolutely nothing - except moving the mouse cursor around. Nothign else works, not even CTRL-ALT-DELETE.

My message ragrding apt not working my have been caused by my switching from 12.04 to 12.10 and back while forgetting to use proper permissions. A
pt is working today.

I just opened synaptic from the command line and checked on X server. Files are installed but the fiorst three I came accross all were marked "reinstall".
I will do so tomorrow. Running out of time now.

[doctordruidphd]

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "access 12.10 from my 12.04 installation via command line", but if you are not booting into 12.10, then you are running from your 12.04 installation, and that is the Xserver that is running the application.

I just opened synaptic from the command line and checked on X server. Files are installed but the fiorst three I came accross all were marked "reinstall".

Again, I'm not sure what you are doing here. If you are booting into 12.04 and running synaptic, then synaptic is working on your 12.04 installation, not 12.10.


From what you have said, it looks like the next place to look is your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file. You could read that from your 12.04 system, just be sure you are reading the file that belongs to 12.10. You might also look in /var/log/kdm.log . If you are able to get to a graphical login, but it crashes during kde startup, it could be a video driver problem. The driver may be attempting to switch from 2D to 3D mode during that time, and crashing.

You can check your ~/.kde/share/config/kwinrc file, look for the section labeled "Compositing" (it should be near the top) and change the Enabled=true entry to Enabled=false . If that doesn't work, the next thing to do is try moving your plasma configuration files out of the way. In ~/.kde/share/config there are at least three files that start with the word plasma . If you have, for example, a widget on your desktop or panel that is crashing during kde startup, that can kill the Xserver, and this is also not an unusual thing to happen during an upgrade. Move all of those plasma files out of the way; you can temporarily make a directory and put them in there while you experiment. See if kde will start up then.

These are all things I have had happen during upgrades at one time or another.

Edit: of course the more basic thing to do is just move your whole ~/.kde directory out of the way and try restarting kde. Just be sure that you are moving the ~/.kde that belongs to 12.10, and not your 12.04. It can get quite confusing working on different system files from a terminal.

[PJJ]

You are correct. I am working 12.10 from the 12.04 installation and apparently am using the 12.04 desktop and the Xserver, etc. It is indeed very confusing!!

I will follow your adivce step by step and action by action. It will take me a while because I am also working on getting the Virgin Mobile U600 (Wimax) USB modem to work.
That is a challenge all in itself despite Sprint installation manuals. Aargh, it involves compiling kernel and drivers. I am by no means an expert and runnign afoul of one error after another because of missing modules or files or directories or younamewhat.

But I am doing that on 12.04 and I am quite careful about it. No desire to mess up my data. Up to now neither 12.10 nor 12.04 workings have lead to data loss.

I will get back as soon as possible.


I have a question that seems to be a little out of the way. But it might solve the entire problem:

Since I will eventually install the misbehaving U600 modem on 12.10 I need to download the source of the entire latest 3.5.x kernel and headers,etc anyway followed by compiling it together with Sprint packages that make the wimax driver and so on.
I presume that will eventually overwrite the existing 12.10 installation anyway.

If you can tell me how to get the newly compiled kernel (plus additional drivers, etc) to replace the old damaged installation in the same partition, I would most likely go that way.
I am close to a complete re-install of 12.10 anyway.

What is your opnion?

Thank you for your time and your efforts in assisting me with this vexing problem. I appreciate it very much.
P

[doctordruidphd]

Sorry, I can't help with the kernel compiling. There is this site, but it's for much older versions of ubuntu:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Kernel/Compile

You may not need to compile the kernel, just the driver.

[PJJ]

Sorry for the delay. I had several mishaps. Now nothing is working. Tried to run windows 8 (eval copy) in a virtual box. Ran out of disk space.
Stoppin/starting kdm results in black screen. And so does 'startx'.

Since everything is messed up on my 3.5. installation and I am running low on space for 12.04, I decided to do the best thing and reinstall 12.10.
Unfortunately, it does not fit on a CD. My laptop does not recognize startup from USB stick without some more manipulation.
And, to add insult to injury, my CD?DVD writer does not recognize an inserted empty DVD. And not even a full one to boot.

So, downloaded 12.04 and installed it on Kubuntu 12.10 partition. Intended for upgrade to 12.10.

Except: Now Network-Manager does not give me the wireless network. All greyed out. I will get around that in time.

Thank yu very much for your patient assistance and tireless tips and tricks. I learneed a lot, though I did not really solve the problem.
Now I have only one hurdle left: How do I mark this thread as 'abandoned'?

[PJJ]

My Warning:

In the process of compiling a Wimax driver to the kernel and installing the latest version of modeswitch I had to update
libusb and to install
libusb-compat.

The kernel 3.5.xx already has libusb and the latest version of libusb-compat (now also called libusb) installed. The installation instructions asked for the older version of libusb-0.1-4 to be removed in favor of the newer version libusb-1.0-0 (which is the compat version. In Synaptic the installed versions have different version numbers as they should have.

Asking for the removal of libusb-0.1-4 Synaptic presented me with a long list of additional items to be revoved - starting with 'apt'. (workspace-KDE, Desktop, etc.)

Here is my mistake: I concluded that if the newer version libusb-1.0.0 (installed version 2:1.0.9) is designed to replace the older libusb then it should also have the items to be removed together with libusb-1.0.0.
WRONG.
The removed items are not replaced automaticlaly. The system became inoperable.
I could not find a way to repait it from inside and finally decided to save time, effort and frustration by simply reinstaling the entire OS.

I still need to remove the old libusb-1.0.0 because the new version automatically reverts/redirects to the old one. But I do not want to break the system again.

Beware of the "libusb- trap"!

[SteveRiley]

The kernel 3.5.xx already has libusb and the latest version of libusb-compat (now also called libusb) installed. The installation instructions asked for the older version of libusb-0.1-4 to be removed in favor of the newer version libusb-1.0-0 (which is the compat version. In Synaptic the installed versions have different version numbers as they should have.

This is an instance where multiple versions of a library can coexist on a machine just fine, usually because upper-level applications are coded to specific interfaces in the library. I'm surprised that the installation instructions would specifically require removing the older version.

I still need to remove the old libusb-1.0.0 because the new version automatically reverts/redirects to the old one. But I do not want to break the system again.

Here's what's present on my Quantal machine:

steve@t520:~$ [B]dpkg -l |grep libusb[/B]
ii  libgusb2            0.1.3-5      amd64  GLib wrapper around libusb1
ii  libusb-0.1-4:amd64  2:0.1.12-23  amd64  userspace USB programming library
ii  libusb-1.0-0:amd64  2:1.0.12-2   amd64  userspace USB programming library
ii  libusbmuxd2         1.0.8-1      amd64  USB multiplexor daemon for iPhone and iPod Touch devices - library

steve@t520:~$ [B]dpkg -L libusb-0.1-4[/B] 
/.
/lib
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libusb-0.1.so.4.4.4
/usr
/usr/share
/usr/share/doc
/usr/share/doc/libusb-0.1-4
/usr/share/doc/libusb-0.1-4/changelog.Debian.gz
/usr/share/doc/libusb-0.1-4/README.Debian
/usr/share/doc/libusb-0.1-4/copyright
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libusb-0.1.so.4

steve@t520:~$ [B]dpkg -L libusb-1.0-0[/B] 
/.
/lib
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libusb-1.0.so.0.1.0
/usr
/usr/share
/usr/share/doc
/usr/share/doc/libusb-1.0-0
/usr/share/doc/libusb-1.0-0/README
/usr/share/doc/libusb-1.0-0/changelog.Debian.gz
/usr/share/doc/libusb-1.0-0/copyright
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libusb-1.0.so.0

steve@t520:~$ [B]ll /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libusb-0.1.so.4[/B]
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 19 Jun  4 06:46 /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libusb-0.1.so.4 -> libusb-0.1.so.4.4.4

steve@t520:~$ [B]ll /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libusb-0.1.so.4.4.4[/B] 
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 30824 Jun  4 06:46 /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libusb-0.1.so.4.4.4

steve@t520:~$ [B]ll /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libusb-1.0.so.0[/B]
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 19 Jul 19 06:21 /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libusb-1.0.so.0 -> libusb-1.0.so.0.1.0

steve@t520:~$ [B]ll /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libusb-1.0.so.0.1.0[/B] 
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 72144 Jul 19 06:21 /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libusb-1.0.so.0.1.0

While it's true there are some "redirections," they are actually symlinks that point the more general 0.1-4 and 1.0-0 library names to their more specific 0.1-4.4.4 and 1.0-0.1.0 instances. Where are you seeing that "the new version automatically reverts/redirects to the old one"?

[PJJ]

What happened to my reply?
Did it disappear?
Or did I write it and not send it?

[doctordruidphd]

What happened to my reply?
Did it disappear?
Or did I write it and not send it?

Several times I have written replies and posted them, or so I thought, only to have them vanish. No idea why.

[SteveRiley]

Hm, that is odd. Help me understand the sequence:

1. You compose a reply
2. You click the Post button
3. You see your reply in the thread
4. You navigate someplace else
5. You return to the thread and your post is gone

Is that right?

[doctordruidphd]

What has happened to me, several times is:

1. You compose a reply
2. You click the Post button

And it returns to the thread, but the post is not there. And never appears. At first I thought it was because I was hitting the wrong button, but it has happened several times. I have not figured out how to make the problem repeatable, though it only seems to happen when using Quick Reply. Now, I always copy to the clipboard before posting.

[PJJ]

That's exactly what I thought I did. I posted a rather detailed reply to your post. And then hit the 'Post quick reply' button. The next day I wanted to add the source for the 'redirection' remark but could not find my post.
Maybe I am going nuts from juggling all these experiments at the same time. And I only thought I posted hit the post button.
Who knows.


In any case, my reply was (in short) that I found the information about the conflicting/redirecting libusb incarnations somewhere either on the draisberhof.de modeswitch site or some other site/BBB related to the topic. Could have been a page from kernel.org as well. Someone there mentioned that when both versions of libusb are present the system uses libusb-0.1.4 instead of the newer libusb-1.?.?.

Consequently, I used Synaptic to remove the older version. The confirmation screen listed about 38 files for removal, starting with apt and on to Kubuntu Desktop, KDE workspace and more.
I stopped to consider the potential danger, but foolishly quickly and superficially concluded that even if I removed the named files the new, improved version of libusb (1.0.0) would surely have installed them as well. Therefore no damage could be done.
I went ahead.

The rest is history narrated in this thread.

My warning essentially is not to be as quick and superficial as I was but to consider the consequences very carefully before proceeding. I could have check with Synaptic which files would be removed together with libusb-1.0.0. Had I done so I would have noticed that the two lists of files ar enot identical and therefore would not have proceeded with the removal.

Lesson learned. And a warning for anyone else in a hurry and with a tendency to do things quickly.

As for the results of your dpkg -L commands, I found identical files on my system except that I am running the 32bit version.
I did not find the links though. But, as I said, I am pressed for time and maybe a closer look would dredge them up. I know I came across a long, long list of links during my travels in and around the system while working on my Franklin U600 installation.

[PJJ]

What has happened to me, several times is:



. . .I have not figured out how to make the problem repeatable, though it only seems to happen when using Quick Reply. Now, I always copy to the clipboard before posting.

That's exactly what happened to me.
I may knopw what causes it.

It takes a while to write a reply to a post, especially when ick reply'I am writing a long-winded one. When the replay is complete I press 'post quick reply' -
and get returned to the post.

Now, if I am in a hurry I do not look at the screen after pressing the button but assume that the post is on its way.
In fact, it is going nowhere.
A small flag above the 'quick reply' bos states essentially that my session has expired and I am therefore not able to post - unless I log in again.

Now, whenever I overlook this notice, my post goes nowhere because I ahve left before it appears or before I notice it.
Loggin back in again does post it.
I bet this will happen to this post as well.