[SOLVED] AVAST installation - Now Regrets

[Clyde]

Curiousity led me to install avast4workstation today
Installed debian package by clicking on the downloaded file on my desktop.
Seemed to install... AVAST showed on the mint menu.
But when clicked, I get a message stating that file cannot be found.

... so to the terminal and do an apt-get removal.
All seemed gone now and not in menu either.

Now if I try to go to Synaptic Package Manager, I get this error:




If I try to re-install, I now get this error:


Downloaded the same package again and I do have permissions to this file too

apt-get autoclean did not help either.
Synaptic Package Manager is unaccessable - even tho I did not use it at all to install AVAST.

BleachBit shows:
E: The package avast4workstation needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.

The 3 files left for Avast are in the usr/bin directory:
Avast - broken/Root permissions - target../lib/avast4workstation/bin/wrapper-script.
AvastGui - broken/Root permissions - target../lib/avast4workstation/bin/wrapper-script.
Avast Update - Broken - 0 data/UnKnown


what else can I try to resolve this ?

[xenopeek]

First, check what the exact package name of avast4workstation is (probably just avast4workstation, but I had to force install it on a different architecture so it looks a bit funny here). Run the following command:

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dpkg -l | grep avast

It should output something similar to:

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ii  avast4workstation:i386                 1.3.0                                   avast! antivirus for Linux

Here the package name is avast4workstation:i386, copy whatever is the package name on your installation.

Now purge the software and force it to remove packages that need reinstallation (replace avast4workstation:i386 with the package name on your machine):

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sudo dpkg --purge --force-remove-reinstreq avast4workstation:i386

BTW, Avast worked fine on Linux Mint 12 64 bits and the package didn't break.

[HughT]

try

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sudo apt-get purge avast4workstation

That does a more thorough job than 'remove'.

[Clyde]

for: dpkg -1 'unrecognized option'

for: sudo apt-get purge avast4workstation - I get terminal "E: The package avast4workstation needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it."

note: the archive has been removed from before. see above.

[xenopeek]

Please copy my commands instead of typing them yourself. That is dpkg -l, with the letter l at the end.

Just a remove or purge won't work, you need to force it to remove packages that need reinstallation explicitly, as in my example.

[Clyde]

oops sorry, my bad Vincent.
ok, copy paste and got all ... but after the purge i get:' dpkg: warning: ignoring request to remove avast4workstation:i386 which isn't installed.'

This one gave me:

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sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq avast4workstation
dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled:
 Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should
 reinstall it before attempting a removal.
(Reading database ... 129317 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing avast4workstation ...
/var/lib/dpkg/info/avast4workstation.prerm: 4: /usr/lib/avast4workstation/share/avast/desktop/install-desktop-entries.sh: not found
dpkg: error processing avast4workstation (--remove):
 subprocess installed pre-removal script returned error exit status 127
/var/lib/dpkg/info/avast4workstation.postinst: 4: /usr/lib/avast4workstation/share/avast/desktop/install-desktop-entries.sh: not found
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 127
Errors were encountered while processing:
 avast4workstation

Cannot re-install it either.

[xenopeek]

Ok, so it is complaining about this file that is not there. Try linking it to /bin/true to see if that can be used as workaround.

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sudo ln -s /bin/true /usr/lib/avast4workstation/share/avast/desktop/install-desktop-entries.sh

[Clyde]

"file not found"

If I try to remove any of the 3 avast files remianing in the usr/bin directory, the terminal acknowledges that they are there but gives me a "ignoring removal of file" response.

or:
(file 'avastgui'):

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 ~ $ sudo apt-get remove usr/bin/avastgui
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: The package avast4workstation needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.

(the deb package is still there on desktop)
same message for deletion attempt of any of the 3 files left in usr/bin

[xenopeek]

Don't try to remove individual files, this will only make it worse.

You say you have the package on the desktop? Move it to the folder /var/cache/apt/archives. There should be more .deb files there.

Then try again the "sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq avast4workstation".

[Clyde]

Move it to the folder /var/cache/apt/archives.

"error moving the file into /var/cache/apt - Permission denied"

[xenopeek]

Move it to the folder /var/cache/apt/archives.

"error moving the file into /var/cache/apt - Permission denied"

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sudo cp filename /var/cache/apt/archives

Replace filename with the full name of the archive, and run this command from the folder where that file is located.

[Clyde]

ok, it is in the /var/cache/apt directory

still giving me the error message:
"Could not open avast4workstation_1.3.0-2_i386.deb' The package might be corrupted or you are not allow to open the file. Check the permissions of the file."

I received a message from avast support today ... don't know if is relevant and don't want to start changing things that might make it sink further into problems.

Quote AVAST support:

some people might report that avast4linux/Workstation doesn't work with
latest VPS (problem started with 100328-1 for them). The reason is that
"macro"-block in 400.vps is now depacked to something bigger than
33554432 bytes - this is an artificial SHM block limitation in some
Linux kernels (kernel.shmmax).
sinit runlevel) to
have them set automatically (after boot).

Solution? Set the limit to higher values (as root):

sysctl -w kernel.shmmax=128000000
OR
echo 128000000 >/proc/sys/kernel/shmmax

Place those lines to /etc/init.d/rcS or equivalent file (it's
distribution-specific a bit - see /etc/inittab, the sysinit runlevel) to
have them set automatically (after boot).

BTW - I am using Isadora 9

[xenopeek]

Argh

Fix the permissions:

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sudo chown root:root /var/cache/apt/avast4workstation_1.3.0-2_i386.deb
sudo chmod 644 /var/cache/apt/avast4workstation_1.3.0-2_i386.deb

Then try again, and keep your fingers crossed on both hands this time

[Clyde]

entered fine but still cannot install (same error reported)

[xenopeek]

Okay, let's try forcefully reinstalling it and then removing it... See if you can reinstall the package with:

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sudo dpkg --force-all -i /var/cache/apt/avast4workstation_1.3.0-2_i386.deb

[Clyde]

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~ $ sudo dpkg --force-all -i /var/cache/apt/archives/avast4workstation_1.3.0-2_i386.deb
[sudo] password: 
Selecting previously deselected package avast4workstation.
(Reading database ... 129318 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace avast4workstation 1.3.0 (using .../avast4workstation_1.3.0-2_i386.deb) ...
/var/lib/dpkg/info/avast4workstation.prerm: 4: /usr/lib/avast4workstation/share/avast/desktop/install-desktop-entries.sh: not found
dpkg: warning: old pre-removal script returned error exit status 127
dpkg - trying script from the new package instead ...
/var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/prerm: 4: /usr/lib/avast4workstation/share/avast/desktop/install-desktop-entries.sh: not found
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/avast4workstation_1.3.0-2_i386.deb (--install):
 subprocess new pre-removal script returned error exit status 127
/var/lib/dpkg/info/avast4workstation.postinst: 4: /usr/lib/avast4workstation/share/avast/desktop/install-desktop-entries.sh: not found
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 127
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/avast4workstation_1.3.0-2_i386.deb

[xenopeek]

Perhaps remove the fake file created earlier and then try the reinstall:

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sudo rm -f /usr/lib/avast4workstation/share/avast/desktop/install-desktop-entries.sh
sudo dpkg --force-all -i /var/cache/apt/avast4workstation_1.3.0-2_i386.deb

[Clyde]

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sudo rm -f /usr/lib/avast4workstation/share/avast/desktop/install-desktop-entries.sh
[sudo] password: 
sudo dpkg --force-all -i /var/cache/apt/archives/avast4workstation_1.3.0-2_i386.deb
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/avast4workstation_1.3.0-2_i386.deb (--install):
 cannot access archive: No such file or directory
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/avast4workstation_1.3.0-2_i386.deb

hmmm errors but ... the deb package is no longer there

I put it back in the archives folder and tried the above again ... still the same issue.

[xenopeek]

I'm not sure now how to proceed. We tried forcing it in all kinds of directions to proceed, but it won't... If anybody else has a suggestion how to remove a half-removed package that dpkg refuses as it needs reinstallation? --force-all didn't work

[Clyde]

Thanks for all the help anyway Vincent
...didn't imagine that installing Avast would render the Synaptic Package Manager inoperable ... I'll wait and see if it did that same to the updates feature... if so, I guess will have to re-do the whole thing from scratch and keep away from installing avast in the future.