Ubuntu 12.04 Libreoffice update breaks software updating

Question

After applying the latest updates today (August 16, 2014), Libreoffice-base will not complete the upgrade due "no diversion" error which then seems to break the postrm script and now I can neither update, install or remove packages.

I have turned off all ppa repositories, performed "sudo dpkg --configure -a", "sudo apt-get autoremove" as well as "sudo rm -fR /var/cache/apt" to create a clean slate - but to no avail. I have also tried renaming the offending files to .bak.

Any ideas?

Output of latest attempt:

$ sudo apt-get install -f
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  iw crda wireless-crda wireless-regdb
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  libreoffice-base
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 6,748 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
(Reading database ... 221883 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing libreoffice-base ...
No diversion 'diversion of /usr/lib/libreoffice/share/basic/dialog.xlc to /usr/lib/libreoffice/share/basic/dialog.xlc.noaccess by libreoffice-base', none removed.
No diversion 'diversion of /usr/lib/libreoffice/share/basic/script.xlc to /usr/lib/libreoffice/share/basic/script.xlc.noaccess by libreoffice-base', none removed.
/var/lib/dpkg/info/libreoffice-base.postrm: 31: /var/lib/dpkg/info/libreoffice-base.postrm: Syntax error: end of file unexpected (expecting "fi")
dpkg: error processing libreoffice-base (--remove):
 subprocess installed post-removal script returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 libreoffice-base
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Answer 1

This bug has been reported here. In short there is syntax error in /var/lib/dpkg/info/libreoffice-base.postrm script that breaks it.

This what I did to fix the issue on my machine - was also suggested by nadrach here. Open that broken script for editing:

sudo gedit /var/lib/dpkg/info/libreoffice-base.postrm

Edit the file:

#!/bin/sh

set -e


if [ "$1" = remove -o "$1" = abort-install -o "$1" = disappear ]; then
dpkg-divert --package $DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_PACKAGE --remove --rename \
--divert /usr/lib/libreoffice/share/basic/dialog.xlc.noaccess \
/usr/lib/libreoffice/share/basic/dialog.xlc
dpkg-divert --package $DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_PACKAGE --remove --rename \
--divert /usr/lib/libreoffice/share/basic/script.xlc.noaccess \
/usr/lib/libreoffice/share/basic/script.xlc
fi
if [ "$1" = abort-upgrade ] && dpkg --compare-versions "$2" lt dpkg --compare-versions "$2" lt 1:4.3.0~beta1-1; then
dpkg-divert --package $DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_PACKAGE --remove --rename \
--divert /usr/lib/libreoffice/share/basic/dialog.xlc.noaccess \
/usr/lib/libreoffice/share/basic/dialog.xlc
dpkg-divert --package $DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_PACKAGE --remove --rename \
--divert /usr/lib/libreoffice/share/basic/script.xlc.noaccess \

PLACE THIS LINE HERE: /usr/lib/libreoffice/share/basic/script.xlc

fi

    # Automatically added by dh_installmenu

if [ -x "`which update-menus 2>/dev/null`" ]; then update-menus ; fi
# End automatically added section


exit 0

Save the file and run your updates. The fix hasn't caused any problems for me yet.

---

As David pointed out might need to fix broken packages after applying this before everything gets back to normal:

sudo apt-get -f install

Answer 2

I used aptitude to solve it. I'm not sure whether is makes a difference to use aptitude, but as it's solved now for me I can not test. So if you have it installed, or can install it by apt-get install aptitude, you can try what worked for me:

Start aptitude, update with u, and install any packages left to install by pressing + on "Upgradable Packages", and then g to show what will be done, and if that seems reasonable, g again to make the changes. There was one of the libreoffice packages left uninstalled, and with the actions as described, it got installed, and the error was fixed on the way.

The terminal output where the problem was fixed is this:

Preparing to unpack .../libreoffice-base_1%3a4.3.0-3ubuntu1~trusty1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libreoffice-base (1:4.3.0-3ubuntu1~trusty1) over (1:4.3.0-0ubuntu1~trusty1) ...
/var/lib/dpkg/info/libreoffice-base.postrm: 28: /var/lib/dpkg/info/libreoffice-base.postrm: Syntax error: end of file unexpected (expecting "fi")
dpkg: warning: subprocess old post-removal script returned error exit status 2
dpkg: trying script from the new package instead ...
dpkg: ... it looks like that went OK
Preparing to unpack .../libreoffice-ogltrans_1%3a4.3.0-3ubuntu1~trusty1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libreoffice-ogltrans (1:4.3.0-3ubuntu1~trusty1) over (1:4.3.0-0ubuntu1~trusty1) ...

Answer 3

I was able to get rid of the offending errors, but have no access to libreoffice-base. I can live without it for now as I usually use MySql instead. The way I did it was to open a nautilus window as root 'gksu nautilus' and then traverse to the directory where the postrm file resided '/var/lib/dpkg/info' then opened 'libreoffice-base.postrm' in a text editor and commented out the second block completely (until its 'fi') - starts with 'if [ "$1" = abort-upgrade ] && dpkg --compare-versions "$2" lt dpkg --compare-versions "$2" lt 1:4.3.0~beta1-1; then'. Saved the file and then performed a 'sudo apt-get install libreoffice-base' which produced the following:

Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done libreoffice-base is already the newest version. The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: iw crda wireless-crda wireless-regdb Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them. The following packages will be REMOVED: libreoffice-base 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded. 1 not fully installed or removed. After this operation, 6,748 kB disk space will be freed. Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y (Reading database ... 221883 files and directories currently installed.) Removing libreoffice-base ... No diversion 'diversion of /usr/lib/libreoffice/share/basic/dialog.xlc to /usr/lib/libreoffice/share/basic/dialog.xlc.noaccess by libreoffice-base', none removed. No diversion 'diversion of /usr/lib/libreoffice/share/basic/script.xlc to /usr/lib/libreoffice/share/basic/script.xlc.noaccess by libreoffice-base', none removed. Processing triggers for menu ...

When I try to reinstall base it complains about dependencies, yet all of the files identified are at the latest version required. weird. But at least I can update and install packages again.