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I was trying to update my TeXLive installation to 2017 version and followed the guide given here.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonathonf/texlive-2017
sudo apt update
sudo apt install texlive-full

It took a couple hours to download stuff, but the installation errored out with broken pipe error:

dpkg-deb: error: subprocess paste was killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/texlive-latex-recommended_2017.20170619-1~16.04.york0_all.deb
 /var/cache/apt/archives/texlive-latex-recommended-doc_2017.20170619-1~16.04.york0_all.deb
 /var/cache/apt/archives/texlive-science_2017.20170619-1~16.04.york0_all.deb
 /var/cache/apt/archives/texlive-science-doc_2017.20170619-1~16.04.york0_all.deb
 /var/cache/apt/archives/texlive-base_2017.20170619-1~16.04.york0_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Now when I try to run, apt-get -f install, I get the same error with a bunch of texlive unmet dependencies and my apt-get is completely broken. I can't install any package using apt-get install.

I wish to completely remove texlive and reinstall it. I tried the steps given in this post, which says to run following commands:

sudo apt-get purge texlive*
rm -rf /usr/local/texlive/* and rm -rf ~/.texlive*
rm -rf /usr/local/share/texmf
rm -rf /var/lib/texmf
rm -rf /etc/texmf
sudo apt-get remove tex-common --purge
rm -rf ~/.texlive
find -L /usr/local/bin/ -lname /usr/local/texlive/*/bin/* | xargs rm

No luck with above methods, since anything I run with apt-get gives me the unmet dependencies error. Any help would be appreciated.

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  • try sudo dpkg -P textlive Oct 12, 2017 at 20:10
  • @George, I did that and it says that Removing texlive (2017.20170619-1~16.04.york0) , and apparently it removed it. sudo dpkg -r texlive- gives around 40 auto-completions, do I need to manually remove each one using dpkg -r?
    – kedarps
    Oct 12, 2017 at 20:18
  • Unfortunately yes, dpkg doesn't play nice with * wildcards. And you always use a script to so. Oct 12, 2017 at 20:20
  • @George, ok if I try removing individually e.g. sudo dpkg -P texlive-binaries, it tells me that dpkg: dependency problems prevent removal of texlive-binaries: and lists a bunch of dependencies.
    – kedarps
    Oct 12, 2017 at 20:27
  • run sudo dpkg --configure -a then try again Oct 12, 2017 at 20:28

1 Answer 1

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Try this to repair your apt-get:

sudo dpkg --configure -a

Then, remove all texlive packages.

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