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Request for assistance (hopefully not OT)
Greetings

I was having space issues in my /usr directory so I deleted some
programs thinking that the space taken was more an issue than having
older versions of the program.

So one of the programs I deleted (using rm -r) was python3.9.
Python3.10 was already installed so I thought (naively!!!) that things
should continue working.
(Python 3.6, 3.7 and 3.8 were also part of this cleanup.)

So now I have problems.

Following is the system barf that I get when I run '# apt upgrade'.

What can I do to correct this self-inflicted problem?

(running on debian testing 5.17

Setting up python2.7-minimal (2.7.18-13.1) ...
Could not find platform independent libraries <prefix>
Could not find platform dependent libraries <exec_prefix>
Consider setting $PYTHONHOME to <prefix>[:<exec_prefix>]
/usr/bin/python2.7: can't open file
'/usr/lib/python2.7/py_compile.py': [Errno 2] No such file or
directory
dpkg: error processing package python2.7-minimal (--configure):
installed python2.7-minimal package post-installation script
subprocess returned error exit status 2
Setting up python3.9-minimal (3.9.12-1) ...
update-binfmts: warning: /usr/share/binfmts/python3.9: no executable
/usr/bin/python3.9 found, but continuing anyway as you request
/var/lib/dpkg/info/python3.9-minimal.postinst: 51: /usr/bin/python3.9: not found
dpkg: error processing package python3.9-minimal (--configure):
installed python3.9-minimal package post-installation script
subprocess returned error exit status 127
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of python3.9:
python3.9 depends on python3.9-minimal (= 3.9.12-1); however:
Package python3.9-minimal is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package python3.9 (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of python2.7:
python2.7 depends on python2.7-minimal (= 2.7.18-13.1); however:
Package python2.7-minimal is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package python2.7 (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of python3.9-dev:
python3.9-dev depends on python3.9 (= 3.9.12-1); however:
Package python3.9 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package python3.9-dev (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
. . .
Errors were encountered while processing:
python2.7-minimal
python3.9-minimal
python3.9
python2.7
python3.9-dev
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Re: Request for assistance (hopefully not OT) [ In reply to ]
Try to reinstall python and only python and if you succeeds, then try to
reinstall the other tools.

For this, use "apt-get" instead of "apt"

$ sudo apt-get reinstall python3

When a system is heavily broken, be extra careful and read the output of
the programs. If "apt-get" says than in order to reinstall python it will have
to remove half of your computer, abort. Better ask than sorry.

Best of the lucks.

Martin.

On Tue, May 17, 2022 at 06:20:39AM -0500, o1bigtenor wrote:
>Greetings
>
>I was having space issues in my /usr directory so I deleted some
>programs thinking that the space taken was more an issue than having
>older versions of the program.
>
>So one of the programs I deleted (using rm -r) was python3.9.
>Python3.10 was already installed so I thought (naively!!!) that things
>should continue working.
>(Python 3.6, 3.7 and 3.8 were also part of this cleanup.)
>
>So now I have problems.
>
>Following is the system barf that I get when I run '# apt upgrade'.
>
>What can I do to correct this self-inflicted problem?
>
>(running on debian testing 5.17
>
>Setting up python2.7-minimal (2.7.18-13.1) ...
>Could not find platform independent libraries <prefix>
>Could not find platform dependent libraries <exec_prefix>
>Consider setting $PYTHONHOME to <prefix>[:<exec_prefix>]
>/usr/bin/python2.7: can't open file
>'/usr/lib/python2.7/py_compile.py': [Errno 2] No such file or
>directory
>dpkg: error processing package python2.7-minimal (--configure):
> installed python2.7-minimal package post-installation script
>subprocess returned error exit status 2
>Setting up python3.9-minimal (3.9.12-1) ...
>update-binfmts: warning: /usr/share/binfmts/python3.9: no executable
>/usr/bin/python3.9 found, but continuing anyway as you request
>/var/lib/dpkg/info/python3.9-minimal.postinst: 51: /usr/bin/python3.9: not found
>dpkg: error processing package python3.9-minimal (--configure):
> installed python3.9-minimal package post-installation script
>subprocess returned error exit status 127
>dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of python3.9:
> python3.9 depends on python3.9-minimal (= 3.9.12-1); however:
> Package python3.9-minimal is not configured yet.
>
>dpkg: error processing package python3.9 (--configure):
> dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
>dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of python2.7:
> python2.7 depends on python2.7-minimal (= 2.7.18-13.1); however:
> Package python2.7-minimal is not configured yet.
>
>dpkg: error processing package python2.7 (--configure):
> dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
>dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of python3.9-dev:
> python3.9-dev depends on python3.9 (= 3.9.12-1); however:
> Package python3.9 is not configured yet.
>
>dpkg: error processing package python3.9-dev (--configure):
> dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
>. . .
>Errors were encountered while processing:
> python2.7-minimal
> python3.9-minimal
> python3.9
> python2.7
> python3.9-dev
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Re: Request for assistance (hopefully not OT) [ In reply to ]
On Tue, 17 May 2022 at 21:22, o1bigtenor <o1bigtenor@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Greetings
>
> I was having space issues in my /usr directory so I deleted some
> programs thinking that the space taken was more an issue than having
> older versions of the program.
>
> So one of the programs I deleted (using rm -r) was python3.9.
> Python3.10 was already installed so I thought (naively!!!) that things
> should continue working.
> (Python 3.6, 3.7 and 3.8 were also part of this cleanup.)

Did you install Python 3.9 using apt? If so, you should definitely
have removed it using apt - if for no reason than to find out if
something's depending on it.

Generally, Linux systems have just one "system Python" that other
applications depend on. Any other installed version is completely
independent.

> So now I have problems.
>
> Following is the system barf that I get when I run '# apt upgrade'.
>
> What can I do to correct this self-inflicted problem?
>
> (running on debian testing 5.17

I presume 5.17 is the Linux kernel version? Depending on how
up-to-date your Debian Testing is, that should theoretically mean that
the system Python is 3.10, which would imply that it should have been
safe to remove 3.9... but only if you had done it with apt.

> Setting up python2.7-minimal (2.7.18-13.1) ...
> Could not find platform independent libraries <prefix>
> Could not find platform dependent libraries <exec_prefix>
> Consider setting $PYTHONHOME to <prefix>[:<exec_prefix>]
> /usr/bin/python2.7: can't open file
> '/usr/lib/python2.7/py_compile.py': [Errno 2] No such file or
> directory

Did you also use rm to get rid of Python 2.7?

> dpkg: error processing package python2.7-minimal (--configure):
> installed python2.7-minimal package post-installation script
> subprocess returned error exit status 2
> Setting up python3.9-minimal (3.9.12-1) ...
> update-binfmts: warning: /usr/share/binfmts/python3.9: no executable
> /usr/bin/python3.9 found, but continuing anyway as you request
> /var/lib/dpkg/info/python3.9-minimal.postinst: 51: /usr/bin/python3.9: not found
> dpkg: error processing package python3.9-minimal (--configure):
> installed python3.9-minimal package post-installation script
> subprocess returned error exit status 127
> dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of python3.9:
> python3.9 depends on python3.9-minimal (= 3.9.12-1); however:
> Package python3.9-minimal is not configured yet.
>
> dpkg: error processing package python3.9 (--configure):
> dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
> dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of python2.7:
> python2.7 depends on python2.7-minimal (= 2.7.18-13.1); however:
> Package python2.7-minimal is not configured yet.
>
> dpkg: error processing package python2.7 (--configure):
> dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
> dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of python3.9-dev:
> python3.9-dev depends on python3.9 (= 3.9.12-1); however:
> Package python3.9 is not configured yet.
>
> dpkg: error processing package python3.9-dev (--configure):
> dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
> . . .
> Errors were encountered while processing:
> python2.7-minimal
> python3.9-minimal
> python3.9
> python2.7
> python3.9-dev

So, yeah, you're definitely going to need to reinstate some parts of
Python to get this going.

If you can figure out which exact Python versions you need, it might
be possible to restore them manually. Download the packages from
packages.debian.org, then try to manually install them with dpkg, and
if that fails, unpack them and put the files into the right places.

It's going to be a pain. A lot of pain. And next time, use apt to
uninstall what apt installed :)

Something else to consider, though: It might not be Python that's
taking up all the space. On my system, /usr is dominated by /usr/lib
and /usr/local/lib, and while it might look like the pythonx.y
directories there are the large part, it's actually not Python itself
that's so big: it's other libraries, installed using either apt or
pip. So when you're trying to free up space, look to see whether you
have packages installed into every version of Python you have; the
largest directories in my python3.9/site-packages are scipy, plotly,
numpy, pandas, speech_recognition, matplotlib, and Cython - all great
tools, but if you have a copy for 3.9, a copy for 3.10, a copy for
3.11, etc, it adds up fast.

"Ten minutes with a hacksaw will save you thirty with a shovel"
-- Miss Pauling, discussing the art of uninstalling.... something

ChrisA
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Re: Request for assistance (hopefully not OT) [ In reply to ]
o1bigtenor <o1bigtenor@gmail.com> writes:

> Greetings
>
> I was having space issues in my /usr directory so I deleted some
> programs thinking that the space taken was more an issue than having
> older versions of the program.
>
> So one of the programs I deleted (using rm -r) was python3.9.

Deleting anything from /usr via 'rm -r' which was installed via the
package manager is an extremely bad idea. If you want to remove stuff,
use the package manager.

> Python3.10 was already installed so I thought (naively!!!) that things
> should continue working.
> (Python 3.6, 3.7 and 3.8 were also part of this cleanup.)

Python 3.10 may be installed, but a significant number of packages
depend on Python 3.9. That's why you should use the package manager -
it knows all about the dependencies.

> So now I have problems.

I think you had a problem before that. Debian testing is not an
operating system you should be using if you have a fairly good
understanding of how Debian (or Linux in general) works.

> Following is the system barf that I get when I run '# apt upgrade'.
>
> What can I do to correct this self-inflicted problem?
>
> (running on debian testing 5.17

I think you mean just 'Debian testing', which is what will become the
next version of Debian, i.e. Debian 12. The '5.17' is just the kernel
version, not a version of Debian.

> Setting up python2.7-minimal (2.7.18-13.1) ...
> Could not find platform independent libraries <prefix>
> Could not find platform dependent libraries <exec_prefix>
> Consider setting $PYTHONHOME to <prefix>[:<exec_prefix>]
> /usr/bin/python2.7: can't open file
> '/usr/lib/python2.7/py_compile.py': [Errno 2] No such file or
> directory
> dpkg: error processing package python2.7-minimal (--configure):
> installed python2.7-minimal package post-installation script
> subprocess returned error exit status 2
> Setting up python3.9-minimal (3.9.12-1) ...
> update-binfmts: warning: /usr/share/binfmts/python3.9: no executable
> /usr/bin/python3.9 found, but continuing anyway as you request
> /var/lib/dpkg/info/python3.9-minimal.postinst: 51: /usr/bin/python3.9: not found
> dpkg: error processing package python3.9-minimal (--configure):
> installed python3.9-minimal package post-installation script
> subprocess returned error exit status 127
> dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of python3.9:
> python3.9 depends on python3.9-minimal (= 3.9.12-1); however:
> Package python3.9-minimal is not configured yet.
>
> dpkg: error processing package python3.9 (--configure):
> dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
> dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of python2.7:
> python2.7 depends on python2.7-minimal (= 2.7.18-13.1); however:
> Package python2.7-minimal is not configured yet.
>
> dpkg: error processing package python2.7 (--configure):
> dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
> dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of python3.9-dev:
> python3.9-dev depends on python3.9 (= 3.9.12-1); however:
> Package python3.9 is not configured yet.
>
> dpkg: error processing package python3.9-dev (--configure):
> dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
> . . .
> Errors were encountered while processing:
> python2.7-minimal
> python3.9-minimal
> python3.9
> python2.7
> python3.9-dev

It might be possible to fix the system. If will probably be fairly
difficult, but you would probably learn a lot doing it. However, if I
were you, I would just install Debian stable over your borked system and
then learn a bit more about package management.

Cheers,

Loris

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Re: Request for assistance (hopefully not OT) [ In reply to ]
[snip (26 lines)]

> I think you had a problem before that. Debian testing is not an
> operating system you should be using if you have a fairly good
> understanding of how Debian (or Linux in general) works.

Should be

I think you had a problem before that. Debian testing is not an
operating system you should be using *unless* you have a fairly good
understanding of how Debian (or Linux in general) works.

[snip (62 lines)]

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Re: Request for assistance (hopefully not OT) [ In reply to ]
On 2022-05-17, Loris Bennett <loris.bennett@fu-berlin.de> wrote:

> It might be possible to fix the system. If will probably be fairly
> difficult, but you would probably learn a lot doing it. However, if I
> were you, I would just install Debian stable over your borked system and
> then learn a bit more about package management.

Other then reinstalling, the easiest way to fix a broken system like
that requires access to a similarly configured system that isn't
broken. Find one of those, and start copying binaries from the working
system to the broken system. At some point, the broken system should
start to work well enough that you can re-install the packages you
broke by removing files behind the back of the package manager.

Whether that's going to be faster/easier than backing up your
configuration and data files and reinstalling Debian is another
question. My guess is that reinstalling would probably be faster.

FWIW, this is indeed off-topic for this group. It isn't a really
Python question, it's a Debian question.

--
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Re: Request for assistance (hopefully not OT) [ In reply to ]
On Wed, 18 May 2022 at 04:05, Loris Bennett <loris.bennett@fu-berlin.de> wrote:
> > So now I have problems.
>
> I think you had a problem before that. Debian testing is not an
> operating system you should be using if you have a fairly good
> understanding of how Debian (or Linux in general) works.

I take issue with that! Debian Testing is a perfectly viable operating
system! I wouldn't use it on a server, but it's perfectly fine to use
it on a personal machine. You can generally consider Debian Testing to
be broadly as stable as Ubuntu non-LTS releases, although in my
opinion, it's actually quite a bit more dependable than them.

(Perhaps you're thinking of Debian Unstable?)

ChrisA
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Re: Request for assistance (hopefully not OT) [ In reply to ]
On Wed, 18 May 2022 at 04:05, Loris Bennett <loris.bennett@fu-berlin.de> wrote:
>
> [snip (26 lines)]
>
> > I think you had a problem before that. Debian testing is not an
> > operating system you should be using if you have a fairly good
> > understanding of how Debian (or Linux in general) works.
>
> Should be
>
> I think you had a problem before that. Debian testing is not an
> operating system you should be using *unless* you have a fairly good
> understanding of how Debian (or Linux in general) works.
>
> [snip (62 lines)]
>

Oh! My bad, didn't see this correction, sorry. With this adjustment,
the comment is a bit more reasonable, although I'd still say it's
generally fine to run Debian Testing on a personal desktop machine;
there are a number of distros that base themselves on Testing.

But yes, "unless" makes much more sense there.

ChrisA
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Re: Request for assistance (hopefully not OT) [ In reply to ]
On 5/17/22 05:20, o1bigtenor wrote:
> What can I do to correct this self-inflicted problem?

Those are always the fun ones. Reminds me of when I was first learning
Linux using Red Hat Linux 5.0 or 5.1. This was long before nice
dependency-solving tools like apt. I wanted to install and run
StarOffice, but it needed a newer libc (this was during the painful
transition from libc5 to glibc6). I ended up removing libc which
*everything depends on, trying to get the glibc update installed.
Needless to say that broke the entire system. Nothing but a reinstall
could be done in those days.

Anyway, good luck. I think you can rescue it yet following the advice
others have given.
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Re: Request for assistance (hopefully not OT) [ In reply to ]
Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> writes:

> On Wed, 18 May 2022 at 04:05, Loris Bennett <loris.bennett@fu-berlin.de> wrote:
>>
>> [snip (26 lines)]
>>
>> > I think you had a problem before that. Debian testing is not an
>> > operating system you should be using if you have a fairly good
>> > understanding of how Debian (or Linux in general) works.
>>
>> Should be
>>
>> I think you had a problem before that. Debian testing is not an
>> operating system you should be using *unless* you have a fairly good
>> understanding of how Debian (or Linux in general) works.
>>
>> [snip (62 lines)]
>>
>
> Oh! My bad, didn't see this correction, sorry. With this adjustment,
> the comment is a bit more reasonable, although I'd still say it's
> generally fine to run Debian Testing on a personal desktop machine;
> there are a number of distros that base themselves on Testing.
>
> But yes, "unless" makes much more sense there.

It's lucky I never got "if" and "unless" mixed up when I used to program
in Perl ;-)

Yes, there are a number of distros based on Debian Testing, but those
tend to be aimed more at sysadmins (e.g. Kali and Grml) than people just
starting out with Linux. However, with plain old Debian Testing you
need to be able to deal with things occasionally not working properly.
As the Debian people say about Testing: "If it doesn't work for you,
then there's a good chance it's broken." And that's even before you
delete part of the OS with 'rm'.

Cheers,

Loris

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Re: Request for assistance (hopefully not OT) [ In reply to ]
On Tue, May 17, 2022 at 6:20 AM o1bigtenor <o1bigtenor@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Greetings
>
> I was having space issues in my /usr directory so I deleted some
> programs thinking that the space taken was more an issue than having
> older versions of the program.
>

Found the responses to my request quite interesting - - - actually fascinating.
To me a computer has to date been a tool - - - - not a tool kit - - -
- nor a place
to spend a life. This means that I have had to rely on other more knowledgeable
with the 'under the hood' material for advice. Have found that in the computer
world - - - - and especially the 'Linux' world that the idea of
assisting a requester,
well - - - it seems to be a foreign concept. To wit - - - in this
thread 50% of the
posts were of the variety - - - why would you do such a stupid thing. 40% of
the posts had some suggestions for at the least avenues of inquiry and only
1 post gave a carefully written response that not only gave ideas but suggested
a possible process to finding a solution.

It was necessary to manually install (download from the repository and
then using
dpkg -i to install) all of the necessary bits to each version that was
listed in the
complaint. I tried to use apt but that option did not produce useful results.
This was a lot more involved that one might think as there is not only
the pythonx.xx version but pythonx.xx-minimal and -dev and sometimes even -dbg.
The order of install was also important.

So even though the request for assistance was to much met by kvetching there
was enough 'help' so that it was possible to 'fix' the issue.

Thanks and kudus to those that did 'help' and those who found the kvetching
more useful - - - - well - - - - I don't have to wonder why 'linux' is
used as much
by the general populace as it is. The community likes to destroy
itself - - - it
is a pity - - - - the community has so much to offer.

Regards
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Re: Request for assistance (hopefully not OT) [ In reply to ]
On 5/21/22 06:19, o1bigtenor wrote:
> more useful - - - - well - - - - I don't have to wonder why 'linux' is
> used as much
> by the general populace as it is. The community likes to destroy
> itself - - - it
> is a pity - - - - the community has so much to offer.

As far as community goes, the Linux community (whatever that might refer
to) is pretty typical of all communities, including communities that
surround proprietary systems like Windows. For those that realize that
communication is two-way and individual effort is required, the
community is a wonderful resource of help and support. For those that
approach it with impatience and demands for support without evidence of
individual effort, community members respond with much less alacrity.
This is true of *all* communities of all types.

I think in the Windows world people don't seem to have as many community
problems because most people simply aren't a part of the community--the
most impatient, grumpy people seem to have enough young relatives they
can coax to solve their problems for them.
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