package man-db 2.5.2-2 failed to install/upgrade: package man-db is already installed and configured

[jfbilodeau]

Binary package hint: man-db

Happened during mysql-server-5.0 installation using Adept or command line.

Output from the command line:

$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
  mysql-server-5.0
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
7 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B/27.4MB of archives.
After this operation, 90.4MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ...
dpkg: serious warning: files list file for package `mysql-server-5.0' missing, assuming package has no files currently installed.
185032 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace mysql-server-5.0 5.0.67-0ubuntu6 (using .../mysql-server-5.0_5.0.67-0ubuntu6_amd64.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement mysql-server-5.0 ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up libnet-daemon-perl (0.38-1.1) ...
Setting up libplrpc-perl (0.2017-1.1) ...
Setting up libdbi-perl (1.605-1) ...
Setting up libdbd-mysql-perl (4.007-1build1) ...
Setting up mysql-client-5.0 (5.0.67-0ubuntu6) ...
Setting up mysql-server-5.0 (5.0.67-0ubuntu6) ...
 * Stopping MySQL database server mysqld [ OK ]
Reloading AppArmor profiles : done.
 * Starting MySQL database server mysqld [ OK ]
 * Checking for corrupt, not cleanly closed and upgrade needing tables.

dpkg: error processing man-db (--configure):
 package man-db is already installed and configured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 man-db
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
$

ProblemType: Package
Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.10
ErrorMessage: package man-db is already installed and configured
NonfreeKernelModules: wl nvidia
Package: man-db 2.5.2-2
SourcePackage: man-db
Title: package man-db 2.5.2-2 failed to install/upgrade: package man-db is already installed and configured
Uname: Linux 2.6.27-10-generic x86_64

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

Thanks for your report.

The cause of the failure is :
====
dpkg: error processing man-db (--configure):
 package man-db is already installed and configured
====

Something has probably gone wrong with a previous install.

You can solve this by running the following command:
sudo apt-get install --reinstall man-db

Let us known if this fixes your problem.

[jfbilodeau (jfbilodeau)]

Thanks Jean-Baptiste.

That fixed it. Is there anyway to automate this fix in the future so other users won't have to worry about it?

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

Thanks for following up. This is a known bug in dpkg, the devs are aware of it and it may have been fixed in Jaunty.

Don't hesitate to submit any new bug.