Hi all, I'm attempting to manage a google-compute system running debian/ubuntu; I normally run a freebsd system so I'm out of my element here and web searches haven't helped:
81~16.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Mon May 11 14:56:45 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux When originally built, the system had a screwed-up postfix installation; in attempting to solve this problem, I wanted to uninstall postfix and reinstall it. However, I don't think I should do that because the postfix installation has an issue: $ aptitude why postfix i automysqlbackup Depends bsd-mailx | mailx i A bsd-mailx Depends default-mta | mail-transport-agent i A postfix Provides mail-transport-agent $ dpkg --simulate --remove postfix dpkg: could not open log '/var/log/dpkg.log': Permission denied dpkg: dependency problems prevent removal of postfix: bsd-mailx depends on default-mta | mail-transport-agent; however: Package default-mta is not installed. Package postfix which provides default-mta is to be removed. Package mail-transport-agent is not installed. Package postfix which provides mail-transport-agent is to be removed. bsd-mailx depends on default-mta | mail-transport-agent; however: Package default-mta is not installed. Package postfix which provides default-mta is to be removed. Package mail-transport-agent is not installed. Package postfix which provides mail-transport-agent is to be removed. dpkg: error processing package postfix (--remove): dependency problems - not removing Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.23-0ubuntu10) ... dpkg: cycle found while processing triggers: chain of packages whose triggers are or may be responsible: libc-bin -> libc-bin packages' pending triggers which are or may be unresolvable: libc-bin: ldconfig dpkg: error processing package libc-bin (--remove): triggers looping, abandoned Errors were encountered while processing: postfix libc-bin If I consider removing libc-bin so I can re-install it and correct the dependency loop, I am unable to do so: $ dpkg --simulate --remove libc-bin dpkg: could not open log '/var/log/dpkg.log': Permission denied dpkg: error processing package libc-bin (--remove): this is an essential package; it should not be removed Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.23-0ubuntu10) ... dpkg: cycle found while processing triggers: chain of packages whose triggers are or may be responsible: libc-bin -> libc-bin packages' pending triggers which are or may be unresolvable: libc-bin: ldconfig dpkg: error processing package libc-bin (--remove): triggers looping, abandoned Errors were encountered while processing: libc-bin libc-bin I then considered forcing removal of postfix by ignoring dependencies, but that has the same libc-bin loop issue: $ dpkg --simulate --ignore-depends bsd-mailx --purge postfix dpkg: could not open log '/var/log/dpkg.log': Permission denied (Reading database ... 171222 files and directories currently installed.) Would remove or purge postfix (3.1.0-3ubuntu0.3) ... Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.23-0ubuntu10) ... dpkg: cycle found while processing triggers: chain of packages whose triggers are or may be responsible: libc-bin -> libc-bin packages' pending triggers which are or may be unresolvable: libc-bin: ldconfig dpkg: error processing package libc-bin (--purge): triggers looping, abandoned Errors were encountered while processing: libc-bin Can anyone give me some clues on how to resolve this? The main goal is to uninstall postfix and re-install it, without uninstalling the automysqlbackup as this is a production system and the autobackup is working properly. I believe the postfix dependency is for cases where the auto-backup fails; it's also preventing mail from being delivered for failing cron jobs. Sorry for the naivete of this; I'm new to linux. Thanks, Gary
