On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 08:45, Stan Goodman <stan.goodman@hashkedim.com> wrote:
My VirtualBox program has become corrupted, and I wish to remove it and start over again from scratch.
Is it only VirtualBox that is corrupted?
At the moment, it won't start at all. I find that reinstalling over what is there is not permitted, because there is a locked file. How can I unlock this file?
I don't see anything about a lock file in what you've posted here.
This is what happens when I try to uninsstall: # rpm -e VirtualBox* error: package VirtualBox-3.1-3.1.4_57640_openSUSE111-1.x86_64.rpm is not installed #
On the other hand, here is what happens when I try to reinstall: # rpm -U VirtualBox* warning: VirtualBox-3.1-3.1.4_57640_openSUSE111-1.x86_64.rpm: Header V4 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 6dfbcbae package VirtualBox-3.1-3.1.4_57640_openSUSE111-1.x86_64 is already installed #
This looks a bit like an RPM database that needs a rebuild. Try rpm --rebuilddb Then try removing VirtualBox with rpm -e Just as an aside, if you want feedback on a clean install... rpm -ivh and on an update, rpm -Uvh.
When I try to reinstall from the user prompt, the response is: rpm -U VirtualBox* warning: VirtualBox-3.1-3.1.4_57640_openSUSE111-1.x86_64.rpm: Header V4 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 6dfbcbae error: can't create transaction lock on /var/lib/rpm/__db.000
That's an expected error. You cannot install RPMs as user. The requires root permissions. When you attempt to install an RPM as a user, you cannot lock the RPM database for the update. Try again as root and it'll work - assuming your other issues are sorted out.
How can I remove VirtualBox from the system completely, so that I can install a clean program?
What really broke though? The VirtualBox binaries (which is really unusual since that is installed as root, and is "protected" from any mucking about by a user) or the user config in the user /home? I've been using Linux a long time (as have you) and I've never seen an installed and previously working app get corrupted (where a reinstall fixes it) without there being more fundamental issues like failing hardware. C. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org