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I think I may have botched my system. I have recently installed Ubuntu 14.04 on my computer.

One of the first things I did was install python 3.3 from source (using make altinstall); but then I realized that python 3.4 is already native in Ubuntu 14.04 and decided to remove the python 3.3 installation. To do that, I followed the instructions on this post.

Unfortunately, only too late did I realize that this resulted in the creation a .deb file containing a package named "python", which was subsequently installed. This had the effect of completely mangling my package system. Any attempt to use apt-get produces many dependency errors like the one below:

mercurial : Depends: python (>= 2.7) but it is not going to be installed
            Depends: python (< 2.8) but it is not going to be installed

I tried to remove the custom package by running dpkg -r python_3.3.5-1_amd64.deb but it says that I need to remove by the name of the package, not the name of the file. And running dpkg -r python also fails:

dpkg: dependency problems prevent removal of python:
 python-ubuntu-sso-client depends on python (>= 2.7).
 python-ubuntu-sso-client depends on python (<< 2.8).
 ...

The first solution I came up with was to completely re-install Ubuntu, but before I go ahead with that drastic solution, is there any way I can undo the effects of installing this custom "python" package?

Can I somehow use the .deb file to remove the package from the system (e.g. by removing the file sit provides and then resolving the dependencies by hand)? Or did this "python"-named package mess up the packages beyond hope of recovery?

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    I think I have found the answer. I downloaded the real "python" package from packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/amd64/python/download and installed it with dpkg. This seems to have solved the issue!
    – jdferreira
    May 22, 2014 at 19:45
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    This is not a duplicate of that question, more of a very specific mistake that spawned from the fact that I installed a package with the same name as one of Ubuntu's original packages.
    – jdferreira
    May 22, 2014 at 23:35

3 Answers 3

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I think I have found the answer. I downloaded the real "python" package from Ubuntu Packages and installed it:

cd /tmp
wget http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/p/python-defaults/python_2.7.5-5ubuntu3_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i python_2.7.5-5ubuntu3_amd64.deb

To complete the whole process, I ended up recreating my custom .deb file (with python3.3) with a new non-clashing name ("python-to-remove"), and then installed and uninstalled it:

sudo dpkg -i python-to-remove_3.3.5-1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -r python-to-remove

This removed all the files from this package, while the files from other packages seem to not have been affected. I ended up deleting a bunch of documentation files as well, but I had never used them before, so I think I'm OK with that.

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Try to do what dpkg ask you, I mean:

dpkg -r python_3.3.5-1

Use the package name, not the file one.

This is quite a wild shot, so feel free to downvote it if it doesn't work.

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  • I have solved the problem in another way and, as it happens, I can't try offered solutions. But I suspect it wouldn't work. At least, I remember that tab-completion wasn't finding any package with that name.
    – jdferreira
    May 23, 2014 at 8:37
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python is by far one of the most important packages to Ubuntu. DO NOT TRY TO REMOVE IT!!! YOUR COMPUTER WILL NOT RUN PROPERLY AT ALL!!! You must reinstall ubuntu. Besides, you would not need to remove the python package anyway, why would you? It is impossible anyway.

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  • I know that, that's why I was extra careful not to do anything wrong after the mistake. As I said in a comment (it seems I can't answer my own question, reputation points are not enough), I solved the issue quite cleanly by re-installing Ubuntu's original "python" package after manually downloading the .deb file
    – jdferreira
    May 22, 2014 at 23:33
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    Downvote: He can try a couple of things before reinstalling. That doesn't mean that reinstalling couldn't be the easier but anyway I find that your answer is wrong. May 23, 2014 at 7:12

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