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Background: Running kubuntu 14.04, using kdm. I have a Brother MFC7280N, and installed the brscan2 package. Nevertheless I have never been able to scan, since the device is never found. I removed (I thought) brscan2 in hopes of reinstalling.

I had installed Kompozer, and had to remove it when it started to display funky video. I have tried to reinstall it but without success. I haven't edited any config files, except to add a repository for Kompozer (failed), or done anything other than run apt-get and the software center. That is, I haven't tried any strange (to me) commands to install, remove, or modify the installed software.

I did try to install Kompozer from a .deb file and also from two tarballs.

Now I can't install or remove any software using apt-get or the Ubuntu Software Center. Here's an example:

root@LEX:/home/bill# apt-get remove brscan2
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 kompozer:i386 : Depends: libatk1.0-0:i386 (>= 1.9.0) but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: libcairo2:i386 (>= 1.0.2-2) but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: libgtk2.0-0:i386 (>= 2.8.0) but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: libidl0:i386 but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: libpango1.0-0:i386 (>= 1.12.3) but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: libxft2:i386 (> 2.1.1) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

This is so strange that I don't have any notion of what to make of it. So I need some expert guidance.

2 Answers 2

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It seems that you installed a deb file that requires libraries that are incompatible with Ubuntu 14.04's libraries. You should simply uninstall what you installed.

sudo apt-get purge kompozer:i386

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  • It complained that it couldn't remove a bunch of directories hainvg to do with Brother (and how do I get a newline here?). Errors were encountered while processing: brscan2 E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
    – lunix
    Jun 4, 2014 at 15:35
  • It's as though no matter what I am trying to install or remove, apt-get thinks I typed brscan2.
    – lunix
    Jun 4, 2014 at 15:40
  • It's still broken. Can anyone help?
    – lunix
    Jun 10, 2014 at 21:34
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I just had this happen.

I believe the problem is twofold:

  1. Brother's .deb Linux packages are (were never) packaged well, and
  2. the binaries are not compatible with Ubuntu 14.04.

Here's the whole scenario with the package that won't go away:

user@sys:~$ sudo apt-get purge brscan2
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  brscan2:i386
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] 
(Reading database ... 214320 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing brscan2 (0.2.5-1) ...
rmdir: failed to remove ‘/usr/local/Brother/sane/GrayCmData/ALL’: No such file or directory
rmdir: failed to remove ‘/usr/local/Brother/sane/GrayCmData/AL’: No such file or directory
rmdir: failed to remove ‘/usr/local/Brother/sane/GrayCmData’: No such file or directory
rmdir: failed to remove ‘/usr/local/Brother/sane/models2’: No such file or directory
rmdir: failed to remove ‘/usr/local/Brother/sane’: No such file or directory
rmdir: failed to remove ‘/usr/local/Brother’: No such file or directory
dpkg: error processing package brscan2 (--remove):
 subprocess installed post-removal script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 brscan2
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
user@sys:~$

You see, the package failed to be completely removed because the code it needed to execute to remove the package hung up on some missing directories.

Here's a workaround that worked for me: I created the missing directories, and purged the package successfully.

user@sys:~$ sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/Brother/sane/GrayCmData/
user@sys:~$ sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/Brother/sane/GrayCmData/ALL
user@sys:~$ sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/Brother/sane/GrayCmData/AL
user@sys:~$ sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/Brother/sane/models2

After I created the directories...

user@sys:~$ sudo apt-get purge brscan2
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  brscan2:i386
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] 
(Reading database ... 214320 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing brscan2 (0.2.5-1) ...
user@sys:~$

The software purge succeeded. Needless to say I am going to be using a different scanner now.

I hope this trick helps someone!

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