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I currently have a 14.04 machine with a broken package (A), such that when it tries to dpkg --configure it hangs for hours and then fails. The details are unimportant, and are not what I'm trying to fix here.

Whenever I try to install/upgrade something else (B) via apt, it tries to run the configuration for package A again.

Is there a way to make apt skip the dpkg --configure for package A, but otherwise proceed as normal when installing new package B?

The other alternative I can see is to manually get and install the .deb for package B instead of using apt.

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    "The other alternative I can see is to manually get and install the .deb instead of using apt" ... nope. dpkg will configure any packages it tries to install. Depending on the "unimportant" details, you may actually be looking to skip maintainer scripts: askubuntu.com/q/482928/158442
    – muru
    Dec 10, 2018 at 12:02
  • @muru yes, it will configure the package I am trying to install, but not the existing broken one, right?
    – OrangeDog
    Dec 10, 2018 at 12:22
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    No, I believe it won't try to configure other packages (that needs dpkg --configure -a).
    – muru
    Dec 10, 2018 at 12:36

2 Answers 2

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There doesn't seem to be an option to do this, so I had to manually manage the packages instead.

Use apt download PKG to get a .deb file, then install it with sudo dkpg -i FILE.

There may be an error "dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of PGK". In which case, the listed packages also need to be dowloaded, and all installed together (e.g. sudo dpkg -i *.deb).

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Did you try purging the package via apt before trying to install something else?

sudo apt purge package

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    No, because that would uninstall the package and delete all its data.
    – OrangeDog
    Dec 10, 2018 at 12:22

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