Removing transmission-daemon breaks dpkg

[Marc D.]

Binary package hint: transmission

kosh@isis:~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu lucid (development branch)
Release: 10.04
kosh@isis:~$ dpkg -l transmission-daemon | fgrep trans
un transmission-daemon <none> (no description available)

I installed transmission-daemon, didn’t like it and tried to remove it right away, but the removal failed:

(Reading database ... 131566 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing transmission-daemon ...
 * Stopping bittorrent daemon transmission-daemon [ OK ]
dpkg-statoverrides: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 syntax error: unknown user 'debian-transmission' in statoverride file
dpkg-statoverrides: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 syntax error: unknown user 'debian-transmission' in statoverride file
dpkg-statoverrides: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 syntax error: unknown user 'debian-transmission' in statoverride file
Purging configuration files for transmission-daemon ...
dpkg-statoverrides: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 syntax error: unknown user 'debian-transmission' in statoverride file
dpkg-statoverrides: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 syntax error: unknown user 'debian-transmission' in statoverride file
dpkg-statoverrides: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 syntax error: unknown user 'debian-transmission' in statoverride file
Processing triggers for man-db ...
dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 syntax error: unknown user 'debian-transmission' in statoverride file
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)
A package failed to install. Trying to recover:
Press return to continue.

[Marc D. (koshy)]

I’m sorry, I misinterpreted that output. transmission-daemon is removed, but it leaves behind statoverride configuration, breaking dpkg (output of subsequent package installation attempt):

dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 syntax error: unknown user 'debian-transmission' in statoverride file
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)
A package failed to install. Trying to recover:
Press return to continue.

Removing all lines from /var/lib/dpkg/statoverride that mention the user debian-transmission fixes the issue:

debian-transmission debian-transmission 4775 /var/lib/transmission-daemon/downloads
debian-transmission debian-transmission 4750 /var/lib/transmission-daemon/info
debian-transmission debian-transmission 4750 /etc/transmission-daemon/settings.json

[Krzysztof Klimonda (kklimonda)]

Thanks, I can confirm it and it's something new to lucid (probably a change in a way that dpkg-stateoverride works). I'm already working on it.

[Krzysztof Klimonda (kklimonda)]

I have pushed a fix to the linked branch - it makes it possible to remove transmission-daemon package and not break half of the dpkg in the process. It prints some warnings to the terminal right now, I have sent a proposed patch to the debian bts that is going to fix it.

[Krzysztof Klimonda (kklimonda)]

The patch I've sent to the debian has been applied so I'm going to push a branch with it soon.

[Krzysztof Klimonda (kklimonda)]

Done, new revision has been pushed into linked branch. I'm going to try to find a sponsor today to get it into archive.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Thanks for looking at this. I'll take this for sponsoring

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package transmission - 1.91-0ubuntu2

---------------
transmission (1.91-0ubuntu2) lucid; urgency=low

  * debian/transmission-daemon.postrm:
    - remove group only after stateoverride entries has been removed (LP: #529318)
    - split remove and purge actions to avoid running dpkg-statoverride twice.
 -- Krzysztof Klimonda <email address hidden> Sun, 28 Feb 2010 11:21:32 +0100

[luojie-dune (luojie-dune)]

dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 syntax error: unknown user 'debian-transmission' in statoverride file
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)

and I can't install any package now :S

[Krzysztof Klimonda (kklimonda)]

Do you use transmission from lucid repository? What does apt-cache policy transmission-daemon returns?

[Krzysztof Klimonda (kklimonda)]

The workaround for this error is given in the https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/transmission/+bug/529318/comments/1
(sorry for spamming)