package openerp-server failed to remove: subprocess installed post-removal script returned error exit status 1 - userdel: user openerp is currently logged in

[Darkmike]

Binary package hint: openerp-server

root@michael-laptop:/opt/ofbiz-trunk# aptitude remove openerp-server
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  openerp-server postgresql{u} postgresql-8.4{u} postgresql-common{u} python-libxslt1{u} python-lxml{u} python-psycopg2{u} python-pychart{u} python-renderpm{u}
  python-reportlab{u} python-reportlab-accel{u}
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 11 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 103MB will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] yt^?
Writing extended state information... Done
(Reading database ... 262517 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing openerp-server ...
Stopping openerp-server: start-stop-daemon: warning: failed to kill 21092: No such process
openerp-server.
userdel: user openerp is currently logged in
/usr/sbin/deluser: `/usr/sbin/userdel openerp' returned error code 8. Exiting.
dpkg: error processing openerp-server (--remove):
 subprocess installed post-removal script returned error exit status 1
Removing postgresql ...
Removing postgresql-8.4 ...
 * Stopping PostgreSQL 8.4 database server [ OK ]
Removing postgresql-common ...
Removing python-libxslt1 ...
Removing python-lxml ...
Removing python-psycopg2 ...
Removing python-pychart ...
Removing python-renderpm ...
Removing python-reportlab-accel ...
Removing python-reportlab ...
Processing triggers for sreadahead ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Processing triggers for python-support ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 openerp-server
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install. Trying to recover:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
Writing extended state information... Done

Current status: 1 broken [+1].

ProblemType: Package
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sun Oct 18 01:52:59 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-removal script returned error exit status 1
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: openerp-server 5.0.5-1
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-12.40-generic
SourcePackage: openerp-server
Title: package openerp-server 5.0.5-1 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed post-removal script returned error exit status 1
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-12-generic x86_64

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

Thanks for your report.
Confirmed by duplicate reports.

[Chris B (billington-chris)]

package can be removed after a
sudo service openerp-server stop

Lucid RC

[be4truth (short-unique-name-in-use)]

"package can be removed after a
sudo service openerp-server stop

Lucid RC"

I can't confirm this on Lucid 32 bit

[be4truth (short-unique-name-in-use)]

after upgrading to openerp5.0.6 and a reboot I can uninstall it properly :-)

[Miguel Tadeu (mtadeunet)]

I also confirm that stopping the service doesn't solve the problem. Still can't remove openerp because the user seems logged in.

[Kaustav Das Modak (kaustav-dasmodak)]

As noted by Miguel Tadeu, the openerp user has to be logged out first, otherwise dpkg will keep throwing errors.
So to uninstall openerp-server on my Ubuntu 10.10 32bit desktop, I ran :
$ sudo skill -kill -u openerp

and then I was able to remove openerp-server using:
$ sudo apt-get remove openerp-server

For details, see "man skill" or http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/howto-linux-kill-and-logout-users.html

P.S. I did not need to stop the openerp-server service manually, apt-get took care of it during the removal process. However, if you need to stop the openerp-server process, you can do so manually using be4truth's instructions above.

[Daniel Hahler (blueyed)]

This means that the process was still running when the script tried to remove the user.

http://wiki.debian.org/AccountHandlingInMaintainerScripts discusses if a system user should get deleted after all.

Anyway, the server process should have been stopped regardless on uninstall.

See bug #387945 about this issue in couchdb.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package openerp-server - 5.0.15-2ubuntu1

---------------
openerp-server (5.0.15-2ubuntu1) precise; urgency=low

  * Fix creation of openerp user, when a user openerp* already exists.
    - debian/openerp-server.postinst
    - LP: #807017
  * Fix multiple starts of the server, by using "startas" and "oknodo" with
    start-stop-daemon.
    - debian/openerp-server.init
    - LP: #414864
    - This should also fix "userdel: user openerp is currently logged in"
      (LP: #454436).
 -- Daniel Hahler <email address hidden> Sat, 22 Oct 2011 21:03:11 +0200

[Daniel Hahler (blueyed)]

Here is the used patch for reference (relevant for any StableReleaseUpdate):
http://launchpadlibrarian.net/83458989/openerp-server_5.0.15-2_5.0.15-2ubuntu1.diff.gz