Can't install sympa

[Pierre Rudloff]

I get some errors when I try to install the sympa package:

pierre@ks3287859:~$ sudo aptitude install sympa
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  sympa
0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/2617 kB of archives. After unpacking 9593 kB will be used.
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously unselected package sympa.
(Reading database ... 70463 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking sympa (from .../sympa_6.1.7~dfsg-2_amd64.deb) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up sympa (6.1.7~dfsg-2) ...
 * Stoping Sympa mailing list manager [ OK ]
/etc/sympa/sympa.conf file has been created
/etc/sympa/wwsympa.conf file has been created
dbconfig-common: writing config to /etc/dbconfig-common/sympa.conf

Creating config file /etc/dbconfig-common/sympa.conf with new version
granting access to database sympa for sympa@localhost: already exists.
creating database sympa: success.
verifying database sympa exists: success.
populating database via sql... done.
dbconfig-common: flushing administrative password
apache2: installation seems OK ...
apache2: installation seems OK ...
 * Reloading web server config apache2 [ OK ]
err wwslib::load_config() Unknown parameter ldap_force_canonical_email in /etc/sympa/wwsympa.conf
 * Starting Sympa mailing list manager Missing files. Aborting.
                                                                                                                       [ OK ]
 * Some daemons failed to be started: task_manager [fail]
invoke-rc.d: initscript sympa, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error processing sympa (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                              Errors were encountered while processing:
 sympa
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install. Trying to recover:
Setting up sympa (6.1.7~dfsg-2) ...
 * Stoping Sympa mailing list manager start-stop-daemon: warning: failed to kill 28260: No such process
start-stop-daemon: warning: failed to kill 28251: No such process
start-stop-daemon: warning: failed to kill 28169: No such process
                                                                                                                       [ OK ]
 * Some daemons failed to be stopped (not running?): archived bounced task_manager sympa [fail]
invoke-rc.d: initscript sympa, action "stop" failed.
dbconfig-common: writing config to /etc/dbconfig-common/sympa.conf
granting access to database sympa for sympa@localhost: already exists.
creating database sympa: already exists.
populating database via sql... error encountered populating database:
mysql said: ERROR 1050 (42S01) at line 1: Table 'user_table' already exists
dbconfig-common: sympa configure: ignoring errors from here forwards
done.
dbconfig-common: flushing administrative password
apache2: installation seems OK ...
apache2: installation seems OK ...
 * Reloading web server config apache2 [ OK ]
err wwslib::load_config() Unknown parameter ldap_force_canonical_email in /etc/sympa/wwsympa.conf
 * Starting Sympa mailing list manager Missing files. Aborting.
                                                                                                                       [ OK ]
 * Some daemons failed to be started: task_manager [fail]
invoke-rc.d: initscript sympa, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error processing sympa (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 sympa

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: sympa 6.1.7~dfsg-2
Uname: Linux 3.2.13-grsec-xxxx-grs-ipv6-64 x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.3
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Jun 27 00:18:35 2013
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/sh
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
SourcePackage: sympa
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Claude Durocher (claude-d)]

Got it working by doing the following modifications after failed installation :

chown -R sympa:sympa /var/spool/sympa
chown -R sympa:sympa /usr/lib/sympa
chown -R sympa:sympa /var/lib/sympa

Edit /etc/sympa/wwsympa.conf :

 #ldap_force_canonical_email 1
use_fast_cgi 1

# to clean up the installation errors - just ignore mysql errors
apt-get autoremove

Edit /etc/apache2/conf.d/sympa:

 Alias /static-sympa /var/lib/sympa/static_content
 ScriptAlias /wws /usr/lib/cgi-bin/sympa/wwsympa-wrapper.fcgi
 <IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
  IPCCommTimeout 120
  MaxProcessCount 2
 </IfModule>

service apache2 restart
service sympa restart

[John Hayward (john-hayward)]

Thanks to ClaudeD for steps to clean up this issue.
There were actually two issues I had - 1 the install script is broken if you want to specify a remote database leaving things in bad shape. 2 the ldap stuff parameter is broken.

Thanks to ClaudeD I was able to get it to install.
johnh...