Setup cant open package database error?

Setup cant open package database error?

[Tim Gunter]

Hi-

 While trying to update my installation of cygwin, I received
a "Can't open package Database for writing: file exists"
error. When I re-run setup, it downloads, tries to install
the updates again, and fails the same way.

When I run "cygcheck -c" i get the following:

Cygwin Package Information
No setup information found

 Is there some easy way to rebuild this information?

 I did have a cygwin shell open when I did the update,
could this be part of the problem?

 I have also deleted, and moved around some of the tarballs
and "setup.log" files that past updates have created, surely
this isn't an issue though(right?).


--tim

--
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/

Re: Setup cant open package database error?

[Igor Pechtchanski]

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003, Tim Gunter wrote:

> Hi-
>
>  While trying to update my installation of cygwin, I received
> a "Can't open package Database for writing: file exists"
> error. When I re-run setup, it downloads, tries to install
> the updates again, and fails the same way.
>
> When I run "cygcheck -c" i get the following:
>
> Cygwin Package Information
> No setup information found
>
>  Is there some easy way to rebuild this information?
>
>  I did have a cygwin shell open when I did the update,
> could this be part of the problem?
>
>  I have also deleted, and moved around some of the tarballs
> and "setup.log" files that past updates have created, surely
> this isn't an issue though(right?).
>
> --tim

If you moved the tarballs, setup won't be able to find them, and will
re-download them.  The log files don't matter, and will be created anew
(the ones that matter sit in /var/log, anyway).

Make sure /etc/setup and /etc/setup/installed.db are writeable by you.
	Igor
-- 
				http://cs.nyu.edu/~pechtcha/
      |\      _,,,---,,_		pechtcha@cs.nyu.edu
ZZZzz /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_		igor@watson.ibm.com
     |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'		Igor Pechtchanski, Ph.D.
    '---''(_/--'  `-'\_) fL	a.k.a JaguaR-R-R-r-r-r-.-.-.  Meow!

"I have since come to realize that being between your mentor and his route
to the bathroom is a major career booster."  -- Patrick Naughton

--
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/

Re: Setup cant open package database error?

[Tim Gunter]

On Wed, Sep 24, 2003 at 03:40:09PM -0400, Igor Pechtchanski wrote:
> If you moved the tarballs, setup won't be able to find them, and will
> re-download them.  The log files don't matter, and will be created anew
> (the ones that matter sit in /var/log, anyway).
i have not moved any of the tarballs that the last few updates have
downloaded, only tarballs from some months ago. when i look in the
directory where the new tarballs are supposed to be going, there
are no recently modified files except for setup.ini. shouldn't
there be the tarballs for the files setup is downloading and trying
to install?

> Make sure /etc/setup and /etc/setup/installed.db are writeable by you.
both are writeable by me. installed.db, however, is an empty file.
there are installed.db.new and installed.db.old files which are
both non-empty.

any ideas?

thanks for your help Igor.

--tim

--
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/

Re: Setup cant open package database error?

[Igor Pechtchanski]

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003, Tim Gunter wrote:

> On Wed, Sep 24, 2003 at 03:40:09PM -0400, Igor Pechtchanski wrote:
> > If you moved the tarballs, setup won't be able to find them, and will
> > re-download them.  The log files don't matter, and will be created anew
> > (the ones that matter sit in /var/log, anyway).
>
> i have not moved any of the tarballs that the last few updates have
> downloaded, only tarballs from some months ago. when i look in the
> directory where the new tarballs are supposed to be going, there
> are no recently modified files except for setup.ini. shouldn't
> there be the tarballs for the files setup is downloading and trying
> to install?

The setup package cache is just what it says: a cache.  If you wish, you
can blow the whole thing away, and setup will reconstruct it eventually.
Some of the older (unneeded) packages will not be re-downloaded.  For a
smarter way to clean your cache, search this list for "clean_setup.pl".

> > Make sure /etc/setup and /etc/setup/installed.db are writeable by you.
>
> both are writeable by me. installed.db, however, is an empty file.
> there are installed.db.new and installed.db.old files which are
> both non-empty.
>
> any ideas?
> thanks for your help Igor.
> --tim

Setup doesn't overwrite /etc/setup/installed.db in place.  Instead it
creates /etc/setup/installed.db.new, writes the necessary content to it,
then removes /etc/setup/installed.db and renames the .new file.  I'm
guessing the remove operation fails for you -- check the Windows ACLs on
/etc/setup, is your user allowed to delete files?
	Igor
-- 
				http://cs.nyu.edu/~pechtcha/
      |\      _,,,---,,_		pechtcha@cs.nyu.edu
ZZZzz /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_		igor@watson.ibm.com
     |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'		Igor Pechtchanski, Ph.D.
    '---''(_/--'  `-'\_) fL	a.k.a JaguaR-R-R-r-r-r-.-.-.  Meow!

"I have since come to realize that being between your mentor and his route
to the bathroom is a major career booster."  -- Patrick Naughton

--
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/

Re: Setup cant open package database error?

[Tim Gunter]

On Wed, Sep 24, 2003 at 04:18:38PM -0400, Igor Pechtchanski wrote:
> Setup doesn't overwrite /etc/setup/installed.db in place.  Instead it
> creates /etc/setup/installed.db.new, writes the necessary content to it,
> then removes /etc/setup/installed.db and renames the .new file.  I'm
> guessing the remove operation fails for you -- check the Windows ACLs on
> /etc/setup, is your user allowed to delete files?

not sure how to check the Windows ACLs on the files. i'm running
Windows 2000 and cygwin is installed on a FAT32 partition. using
getfacl, it looks as though i have write permission on the directory
and the installed.db files. the DOS "cacls" command doesnt print
out anything when i try and examine the acls assigned to these
files.

is there another way to check ACLs?
or is the fact that im running from a FAT32 partition causing
some of these problems?



--tim

--
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/

Re: Setup cant open package database error?

[Igor Pechtchanski]

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003, Tim Gunter wrote:

> On Wed, Sep 24, 2003 at 04:18:38PM -0400, Igor Pechtchanski wrote:
> > Setup doesn't overwrite /etc/setup/installed.db in place.  Instead it
> > creates /etc/setup/installed.db.new, writes the necessary content to it,
> > then removes /etc/setup/installed.db and renames the .new file.  I'm
> > guessing the remove operation fails for you -- check the Windows ACLs on
> > /etc/setup, is your user allowed to delete files?
>
> not sure how to check the Windows ACLs on the files. i'm running
> Windows 2000 and cygwin is installed on a FAT32 partition. using
> getfacl, it looks as though i have write permission on the directory
> and the installed.db files. the DOS "cacls" command doesnt print
> out anything when i try and examine the acls assigned to these
> files.
>
> is there another way to check ACLs?
> or is the fact that im running from a FAT32 partition causing
> some of these problems?
>
> --tim

Well, you could right-click on the directory in Explorer and select
Properties -> Security -> Advanced...  I'm really not familiar with FAT32
filesystems - I think neither ntsec nor ntea work on them.  Is there a
possibility of moving Cygwin to an NTFS partition?  It would likely work
much better there anyway...

Can you remove "/etc/setup/installed.db" by hand and rename
"/etc/setup/installed.db.new" to it?  It might fix the problem, at least
for one setup run...
	Igor
-- 
				http://cs.nyu.edu/~pechtcha/
      |\      _,,,---,,_		pechtcha@cs.nyu.edu
ZZZzz /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_		igor@watson.ibm.com
     |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'		Igor Pechtchanski, Ph.D.
    '---''(_/--'  `-'\_) fL	a.k.a JaguaR-R-R-r-r-r-.-.-.  Meow!

"I have since come to realize that being between your mentor and his route
to the bathroom is a major career booster."  -- Patrick Naughton

--
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/

Re: Setup cant open package database error?

[Tim Gunter]

On Wed, Sep 24, 2003 at 05:20:25PM -0400, Igor Pechtchanski wrote:
> Well, you could right-click on the directory in Explorer and select
> Properties -> Security -> Advanced...  I'm really not familiar with FAT32
> filesystems - I think neither ntsec nor ntea work on them.  Is there a
> possibility of moving Cygwin to an NTFS partition?  It would likely work
> much better there anyway...

there is no such tab on my system, i guess its probably better
to run from NTFS.

> Can you remove "/etc/setup/installed.db" by hand and rename
> "/etc/setup/installed.db.new" to it?  It might fix the problem, at least
> for one setup run...

i did this, and setup now behaves better and remembers that it
just installed the new stuff. looking at the current installed.db
file, and the output of "cygcheck -c", many packages that i
have installed are no longer listed(Perl, openssh, etc.). is this
information lost forever? atleast some of it appears in a
different format in the installed.db.old file.




thanks again for the help Igor.

--tim

--
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/

Re: Setup cant open package database error?

[Robert Collins]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1482 bytes --]

On Fri, 2003-09-26 at 02:53, Tim Gunter wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 24, 2003 at 05:20:25PM -0400, Igor Pechtchanski wrote:
> > Well, you could right-click on the directory in Explorer and select
> > Properties -> Security -> Advanced...  I'm really not familiar with FAT32
> > filesystems - I think neither ntsec nor ntea work on them.  Is there a
> > possibility of moving Cygwin to an NTFS partition?  It would likely work
> > much better there anyway...
> 
> there is no such tab on my system, i guess its probably better
> to run from NTFS.
> 
> > Can you remove "/etc/setup/installed.db" by hand and rename
> > "/etc/setup/installed.db.new" to it?  It might fix the problem, at least
> > for one setup run...
> 
> i did this, and setup now behaves better and remembers that it
> just installed the new stuff. looking at the current installed.db
> file, and the output of "cygcheck -c", many packages that i
> have installed are no longer listed(Perl, openssh, etc.). is this
> information lost forever? atleast some of it appears in a
> different format in the installed.db.old file.

There have been a number of format changes to that file, but setup reads
them all (with no assurance if you have used third-party scripts that
may or may not write valid information).

All the lines in the file need to be of the one format though: you can't
copy line by line across.

Rob
-- 
GPG key available at: <http://members.aardvark.net.au/lifeless/keys.txt>.

[-- Attachment #2: This is a digitally signed message part --]
[-- Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 189 bytes --]