Saturday, February 7, 2009

Resolving an odd dpkg error in Ubuntu \ dpkg: ../../src/packages.c:191: process_queue: Assertion `dependtry <= 4' failed

Usually this problem is due to installation crash.

in my case it was gxine player which got crashed while updating.

you can check which program is giving the problem by the following

mihir3445@mihir3445-laptop:~$ sudo dpkg -l | grep -v ^ii
Desired=Unknown/Install/
Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Cfg-files/Unpacked/Failed-cfg/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-==========================================-=======================================-============================================
rc amarok 2:1.4.10-0ubuntu3 versatile and easy to use audio player for K
rc amarok-common 2:1.4.10-0ubuntu3 architecture independent files for Amarok
rc bgchanger 0.9-1 Wallpaper Switcher
iF gxine 0.5.903-2ubuntu2 the xine video player, GTK+/Gnome user inter
rc libgd2-noxpm 2.0.36~rc1~dfsg-3ubuntu1 GD Graphics Library version 2 (without XPM s
rc libifp4 1.0.0.2-3 communicate with iRiver iFP audio devices
rc libnjb5 2.2.5-4.2ubuntu1 Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox library
rc libtunepimp5 0.5.3-7ubuntu3 MusicBrainz tagging library
rc libxalan2-java-gcj 2.7.1-2 XSL Transformations (XSLT) processor in Java
iU libxine1 1.1.15-0ubuntu3.1 the xine video/media player library, meta-pa
iU libxine1-all-plugins 1.1.15-0ubuntu3.1 the xine video/media player library, meta pa
iW libxine1-bin 1.1.15-0ubuntu3.1 the xine video/media player library, binary
iU libxine1-console 1.1.15-0ubuntu3.1 libaa/libcaca/framebuffer/directfb related p
iU libxine1-ffmpeg 1.1.15-0ubuntu3.1 MPEG-related plugins for libxine1
iU libxine1-gnome 1.1.15-0ubuntu3.1 GNOME-related plugins for libxine1
iU libxine1-misc-plugins 1.1.15-0ubuntu3.1 Input, audio output and post plugins for lib
iU libxine1-plugins 1.1.15-0ubuntu3.1 the xine video/media player library, meta pa
iU libxine1-x 1.1.15-0ubuntu3.1 X desktop video output plugins for libxine1
rc libxmmsclient-glib1 0.5DrLecter-2ubuntu1 XMMS2 - glib client library
rc linux-restricted-modules-2.6.27-7-generic 2.6.27-7.12 Non-free Linux kernel modules for version 2.
rc myspell-en-us 1:2.4.0-2ubuntu4 English_american dictionary for myspell


you can see iF,iU etc... which shows that gzine was not installed properly.

so, to fix this problem you just need to execute following command line argument.

sudo dpkg --purge remove gxine

which means remove gzine packet and uninstall the program.

then you can check if the following command gives you responce or not.

sudo dpkg --configure -a

it should work normally...

Hope this helps.

Leave your comments..........


- Mihir Patel.
















=============================================================================================
The post that i found useful on this topic is following
http://techxplorer.com/2006/05/21/resolving-an-odd-dpkg-error-in-ubuntu/
=============================================================================================
Since my last post about running the Ubuntu Dapper Drake Beta on a virtual machine using the VMware Server Beta, I've not experienced any major issue. Which is great. The only truly odd issue I've had recently is that I've been getting the following error from the dpkg program when I use apt-get or synaptic to install a package.

dpkg: ../../src/packages.c:191: process_queue: Assertion `dependtry <= 4' failed
.
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg exited unexpectedly

The problem was I didn't know which package this error applied to, simply because all of the packages appeared to be installed correctly. Any package that I installed after I noticed this error seemed to be installing fine, I was able to use them for example, and yet the error persisted. Not being one to sit by and let errors just happen I did some exploring.

After a lot of digging via Google and the Ubuntu Forums I was able to use this command to locate the offending package:

sudo dpkg -l | grep -v ^ii

The "dpkg -l" part of the command lists all of the installed packages in a table format. The first column of the table outlines the status of the package, for example if it is installed correctly etc. The second part of the command "grep -v ^ii" outputs any line that does not start with the letters ii. By passing the output of the "dpkg -l" command to the grep command I was able to get a list of all packages that were listed as not being correctly installed. That is, those packages that didn't have a status of "ii". I was then able to use this command to remove the offending package where [package-name] was the name of the package.

sudo dpkg --purge remove [package-name]

Now I don't get the odd error any more and it is resolved. While using synaptic and other GUI clients to install packages is great. Sometimes knowing a little about the underlying programs can be very useful. It is also worth noting that the Ubuntu Forums are truly invaluable.

4 comments:

gtrotter said...

Yes I tried the configure command in the terminal and it gives me a error that a SUPERUSER authorization is needed but there are no other users on the system other than myself and have even tried to change the authorizations still no go do let me know what happens

Mihir said...

if you are the only user then youe are both user and super user ...

if command asks that you need to be in super user mode (admin mode) then just type sudo before any command and this will allow you to execute this command as super user

sudo means -- super user do

example command

Normal --> dpkg --configure -a
super user --> sudo dpkg --configure -a

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G Veera Sekhar said...

yeah it worked for me.
thanks mihir