How do I continue configuration if apt-get was interrupted?

Question

In case there were some problems during the last apt-get operation, is there a command that checks if something has to be continued in apt-get?

If you get a `dpkg lock` error, see [here](http://askubuntu.com/a/99538/178596). — Wilf, Feb 24 '14 at 11:23
apt-get doesen't suggest anything here, but aptitude does, but a very strange suggestion on my laptop: http://askubuntu.com/questions/425516/aptituse-problem-using-mariadb-on-ubuntu-13-10-32bit — rubo77, Feb 24 '14 at 11:59
Depends where it was interrupted. Sometimes you interrupt dpkg sometimes you interrupt apt-get. apt-get itself can be interrupted any time since it's just an frontend for dpkg, dpkg otherwise is not for some operations. — Braiam, Feb 24 '14 at 16:04
If you're going down the rabbit hole through `sudo dpkg --configure some-package` and you encounter that SOME process is using SOME file `sudo lsof /path/to/file` can give you PIDs of the processes to `kill PID` — jave.web, May 16 '23 at 18:55

score 28 · Accepted Answer · edited May 06 '19 at 04:26

28

Use the command:

sudo apt-get -f install

If that doesn't work, you can direct dpkg to finish setting up any packages that were only partially set up:

sudo dpkg --configure -a

If it doesn't work than you can reconfigure all the packages with:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -a

edited May 06 '19 at 04:26

Wil

answered Feb 24 '14 at 11:20

Frantique

4

I think reconfiguring all packages is not such a good idea and takes hours of manual work – rubo77 Feb 24 '14 at 11:51
is it the same with `sudo aptitude -f install`? – rubo77 Feb 24 '14 at 11:52
@rubo77: no, it is not the same but something similar. – Frantique Feb 24 '14 at 12:02
On my problem the `-f` doesent make any difference, woth or without, I get no errors with apt-get but with atṕtitude, see: http://askubuntu.com/questions/425516/aptituse-problem-using-mariadb-on-ubuntu-13-10-32bit – rubo77 Feb 24 '14 at 12:04
Forget about aptitude, that works a little bit different. – Frantique Feb 24 '14 at 12:46
2

Is it possible that you meant `dpkg --configure -a`? That's a subset of what `apt-get -f …` does if there are unconfigured packages. `dpkg-reconfigure` is an entirely different operation. – David Foerster May 26 '18 at 16:22
**Don't recommend** `apt -f install` - in certain scenarios it can purge your system from all software... – jave.web May 16 '23 at 16:53

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 26 '15 at 12:21

8

In addition to the response by @Frantique, I would like to add:

sudo dpkg --configure -a

That solved my issue when the upgrade was interrupted during the process.

answered Oct 26 '15 at 12:21

Jose Gómez

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited May 26 '18 at 16:20

2

I had the same issue and in my case a Deb package was corrupted. I had to

delete the cached packages from /var/cache/apt/archives with
```
sudo apt-get clean
```
before running
```
sudo apt-get -f install
```

edited May 26 '18 at 16:20

David Foerster

answered Oct 02 '17 at 08:31

3 Answers3