forums.xandros.com

[Frank Billington]

I can't get an answer in the eeepc users forum, so before I throw in the towel, I'll try here.

My eeepc 901 runs a modified version of Xandros 4. It has an application that appears to be called "XNLite" that does sofware updating. It advised me of some updates, so I selected them. The java update and an update from Asus have both stalled. The update applet shows an animated 'installing' icon for both of them, but even after 12 hours, the install does not complete.

I'd like to back out of both upgrades, but I cannot find any way to do it. Anyone here have any ideas?

Thanks.

Frank.
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Single booting Linux all day, every day, at home and at work.

[jimallyn]

Do you have synaptic on that computer? Sometimes you can do stuff with synaptic that you can't do with XN. Synaptic has an option to show broken packages. The other possibility is to use the apt-get command. You might want to open a console and type info apt-get and especially see the purge and fix-broken options. I haven't used either option enough to tell you exactly how to use them, but I know I used the purge option successfully one time.
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[Frank Billington]

Jim:

Yes, it has Synaptic, but Synaptic complains that another app is running and it cannot get an exclusive lock. This other app will be XNLite. However, even after I close all the instances of XNLite I can find, Synaptic still complains. System services panel shows no processes running. Synaptic still won't start.

So, I opened a terminal and did sudo apt-get check and got the error:

Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), is another process using it?

So, it looks like I may have to boot into the rescue console and work from there. Some form of package management program is being called in the boot process, and is tying up the resources I need.

Any further suggestions?

Frank.
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Single booting Linux all day, every day, at home and at work.

[zoic]

Did a quick google on this, may be a long shot, but try:

sudo rm /var/lib/apt/list/lock

Reference: linux questions
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[zoic]

Ok, here is another possible option to resolve it:

cd /var/lib/dpkg/
mv status status.broken
cp status-old status

Reference: linuxforums
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[Frank Billington]

zoic:

Thanks for the suggestions, but while I followed them all, nothing worked.

There was a lock file, but deleting it did nothing. I still cannot get Synaptic to run.

I tried starting sunaptic as soon as KDE showed up on the screen, and it did open this time, and told me that dpkg was interrupted, and that I should run the command:

dpkg --configue -a

which I tried from a console. However, I got an error that the database area was locked by another process. I closed Synaptic and tried again. Same error. I rebooted into the resuce console and tried to run the same dpkg command, but it says it cannot find dpkg. I tried info apt-get, and it can't find info either. This is a Busybox shell, and not a bash shell on this machine, so now I have more problems.

Any other help gladly accepted.

Frank.
_________________
Single booting Linux all day, every day, at home and at work.

[TekMate]

On most systems dpkg and apt-get live under /usr/bin so you could try the following and see if these help.
/usr/bin/dpkg --configue -a

or

/usr/bin/apt-get -f install
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[TekMate]

Oh and don't forget you have to be root for these to work.
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[Frank Billington]

John:

OK, something strange here. The eeepc 901 has a split system drive (4GB flash) ordinarily using aufs to mirror the read-only system portion to a mapped r/w system disk on the other half (or at least, that is how I understand it). This works great because the user cannot trash the OS no matter what they do. The eeepc user forum, however, has a wiki on how to remove aufs, allowing one to thereafter remove unneeded software from the previously read-only portion, and free up space on the system drive. I did this to make room for VMPlayer and Win2K, and this has worked well.

However, I did not finish the wiki instructions on merging the two halves of the system drive as it worked the way it was, and I got lazy. In the full KDE desktop, I have access to dpkg. In the rescue console, however, it is not there. In fact, /usr is not there. I am wondering if this is on the second half of the disk, and that is 1) why I cannot access dpkg from the rescue console and 2) why I am having the upgrade problems to begin with.

I may have to go back and merge the two halves of the flash drive first and see what that does. In the meantime, I am completely hooped as I (assume) cannot presently get at the second half of the drive unless I mount it, and I don't know what it is even called so that I could mount it.

Does any of this make sense?

Thanks.

Frank.
_________________
Single booting Linux all day, every day, at home and at work.

[kam11]

which I tried from a console. However, I got an error that the database area was locked by another process. I closed Synaptic and tried again. Same error. I rebooted into the resuce console and tried to run the same dpkg command, but it says it cannot find dpkg. I tried info apt-get, and it can't find info either. This is a Busybox shell, and not a bash shell on this machine, so now I have more problems.
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[Frank Billington]

kam11:

Did you remove aufs on your machine, or is yours an unmodified installation of Xandros? If it is unmodified, then contact Asus for warranty support. If it is modified, like mine was, then I think you are on your own.

I never did resolve the problem, so I removed Xandros and installed eeebuntu 8.10, which I am currently using.

http://www.eeebuntu.org/

Eeebuntu works 'out of the box' with the eeepc901, and everything I have tried works on the little machine. It also allowed me to install and run VMWare Player, which is why I modified the Xandros install to begin with. I have one Windows app left that I needed to be able to run on the eeepc 901, and it would not install easily on the unmodified Xandros OS.

The standard eeebuntu installation is an iso file that it larger than a CD. Therefore, you have to have another working machine that you can use to put the eeebuntu iso on a USB flash drive, and then do the installation from there. There are instructions on the eeebuntu site as to how to do this, and installation from a flash drive is very fast.

Now, with that said, you also lose some things when you leave the Xandros distro, and one of those is the very fast boot of the eeepc. Xandros uses a 'shortcut' in booting called 'fastinit' which sidesteps a lot of the standard booting procedure in Linux. It works well on an appliance-type machine like the eeepc, but it limits your flexibility when trying to install additional software not directly supported by Xandros.

The Xandros install is good at what it does. It provides a very usable 'accessory' computer for web browsing, email, and other light computing tasks. If that is all you need, then reinstall Xandros from the disk you got with your machine (you'll need an external USB connected CD drive), and then just leave it alone. If you need more, then try eeebuntu.

Frank.
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Single booting Linux all day, every day, at home and at work.