Multiple java packages messed up after removing eclipse

[Ioan Rogers]

Binary package hint: java-gcj-compat

Removed eclipse with no problems, then tried to remove some of the dozens of dependencies installed only for eclipse, but not marked for autoremoval.

 sudo dpkg -a --configure
[sudo] password for ioan:
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of gappletviewer-4.3:
 gappletviewer-4.3 depends on gij-4.3 (= 4.3.2-1ubuntu2); however:
  Package gij-4.3 is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing gappletviewer-4.3 (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libgcj9-dev:
 libgcj9-dev depends on gcj-4.3 (= 4.3.2-1ubuntu2); however:
  Package gcj-4.3 is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing libgcj9-dev (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of java-gcj-compat:
 java-gcj-compat depends on java-gcj-compat-headless (= 1.0.78-2); however:
  Package java-gcj-compat-headless is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing java-gcj-compat (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of ecj:
 ecj depends on gij-4.3 (>= 4.3.0); however:
  Package gij-4.3 is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing ecj (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of ecj-gcj:
 ecj-gcj depends on ecj (>= 3.3.0+0728-10); however:
  Package ecj is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing ecj-gcj (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 gappletviewer-4.3
 libgcj9-dev
 java-gcj-compat
 ecj
 ecj-gcj

Problems seemed to start with update-alternatives, see attached apt term.log

ProblemType: Package
Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.10
ErrorMessage: subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 2
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: java-gcj-compat-dev 1.0.78-2
SourcePackage: java-gcj-compat
Title: package java-gcj-compat-dev 1.0.78-2 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 2
Uname: Linux 2.6.27-4-generic x86_64

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

thanks for your report. The error is:

=====
Removing openjdk-6-jdk ...
update-alternatives: error or eof reading /var/lib/dpkg/alternatives/jstat for update_mode ()
dpkg: error processing openjdk-6-jdk (--purge):
 subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 2
=====

Looks like /var/lib/dpkg/alternatives/jstat is corrupted.

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

any system crash recently ?

[Ioan Rogers (ioanrogers)]

Well, there were certainly crashes - my work desktop has not been enjoying Intrepid :-)

I did the same thing on my home desktop, and everything worked fine (I had to remove the intrepid package of eclipse to get a newer upstream for some mylyn/trac integration). On my work machine, removing eclipse didn't prompt me about autoremoving the many java packages that were installed only for eclipse. My home machine did.

Almost every java related link from multiple packages in /etc/alternatives was broken, so fixing them allowed me to manually remove the affected packages.

A bit weird that only java packages were affected, but as it worked on a nother machine (same versions, arch, etc), I suppose it must been a random corruption

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

Thanks for following up. I'm closing this report due to your last comment and this issue not being reproducible on another system.

Thanks for your time and don't hesitate to submit any new bug.