Fix “half-installed” package [duplicate]

Question

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• Fix half-installed package 6 answers

I have the latest google chrome but accidentally tried to install the .deb package i downloaded two years ago, then cancelled with ctrl-c when it was unpacking, now it keeps telling me its half installed (although i'm using the latest version) is there a way to fix this?

Reading a couple of similar questions i've found most of them rely on removing and installing again the package but i don't want to go through all of that trouble, this chrome installation has been running smooth for over a year and it has all my internet history, bookmarks, addons and configurations and it would be silly to spend so much time to backup all of that to fix a progam that is working fine just to remove that silly error message.

I already tried sudo dpkg --configure -a and sudo apt-get install -f without luck.

Is there anything else i could try or ill have to live with it?

Answer 1

I suggest installing the same deb file again. Then you will be able to remove it.

Answer 2

In the past, I have had some stubborn packages, that wouldnt uninstall properly. (Im not sure why that happens, package quality perhaps?) anyhow, try: sudo apt-get purge <package>

Then you might also use find, or locate to locate any residual files that you might want to remove. places for concern might include anything that is in one of the directories located within the $PATH variable.

So if I did sudo apt-get purge xyz then got:

 sudo locate xyz
/usr/bin/xyz/files
/opt/xyz
/home/user/.xyz

... I would investigate the files in /opt and /usr/bin first. You may need to do sudo rm -rf /usr/bin/xyz

So be cautious. If you find files for the old package installation, or you're uncertain, post back here with what those are, and we can try to assist/ advise. Incidentally, what is the package you are trying to remove / install?