Can't use, uninstall, or reinstall a few apps (all of a sudden)

Software PureOS
1

Hi all - still newbie on Linux and seem to have an issue with a few apps.

Installed ‘amule’ - the eMuke file sharing client port to debian. Worked great for a couple of weeks then ‘poof’ - I can’t get it to run, I try to uninstall and nothing happens. I can’t reinstall either as the package manager sees it as already installed.

Almost the same issue with the VLC Player - runs long enough to show the splash screen then poof!, can’t uninstall and won’t allow re-installation.

Those are the only two applications affected (that I know of) and I don’t know it isn’t a permission issue, or what.

Aside from that - and not sure it’s related - but I lost all my settings and bookmarks in PureBrowser - it was opening with the Mozilla Firefox splash for a bit (I then went on holidays for two weeks) and now it’s back to PureBrowser. I still lost all my bookmarks etc but the settings are now ‘holding’ - I assume there were updates applied that pooched and then fixed?

Not sure what logs etc. I should be attaching or looking at - any help is appreciated!

Eric

2

Nothing against PureOS but if you are new user and want to try a distrobution like Ubuntu or Manjaro or even fedora which has less strict security restrictions and includes or at least supports some apps a new user may want.
I don’t want to start a while philosphical discussion but there is a trade off between usability and gnu freedom. I feel bad saying it but realism sometimes overrides idealism. There are probably ways to run everything you are mentioning but will require searching and tweaking.
I personally run Manjaro but keep 2 USB sticks, one with live PureOS and one for storage so I can update coreboot and anythign else that requires pureos without changing my data I use daily.

3

Bought the Librem 15 eyes wide open and committed to PureOS - and figure this is a minor hurdle in the ramp up,

Just out of curiousity, do you have any suggestions related to the issues I’m encountering?

Still open to pointers!

4

I am still getting back into the swing of things on Linux too, so use any of my advice with caution. Things have changed and I worked with other distributions.

It is odd that things worked and now do not.

One thing I have found helpful to do first is to launch the application from a terminal’s command line, rather than from the icon. Often there are messages that indicate problems. Sometimes the application will also have a debug flag that can be used on the command line to make it more verbose. Be careful, though. There is often a lot of noise, i.e. warnings that experienced people know to ignore, but drive the rest of us mad.

Failing that, I always look at the logs, particularly the Application log. (One needs to add one’s ID to the ‘adm’ group to view items with the Logs utility. My understanding is that does not make that ID an administrator for sudo or su purposes. It only allows log views, but I welcome anyone to correct me.)

Make sure to do a upgrade:

 sudo apt update
 sudo apt upgrade (or full-upgrade)

I have seen others suggest running one or both of the following:

  sudo apt update --fix-missing
  sudo dpkg --configure -a

I have run them, but I have not had a situation yet where they helped.

As a last resort, you can force a reinstall with:

  sudo apt-get --reinstall install <pkg name>

I have had my PureBrower settings wiped too, but it was on an upgrade to PureBrowser itself. For this, I suggest doing a backup with the Backups utility to a flash drive or something, so you can easily restore it if things go awry. It is a good practice anyway.

As a software developer in a previous life, I suggest always including version numbers when asking for assistance or filing bug reports. Sometimes that helps trigger a thought or someone may know of a problem with a particular version. Along the same lines, it is good that you mention PureBrowser, even though it may not be related to your basic problem. In the past, I have found that sometimes the oddest things are hints.

5

Not sure how you installed the “debian port” but sounds like a shared library or something that the package is looking for but changed since you installed. Running from the command line may give you some useful into, I agree.
You also may want to run

Another command that may be helpful is “journalctl”

https://tracker.pureos.net/T335

Appears to have been fixed a while back.

Not sure if this link will work but you may find something going through the bug tracking.

https://tracker.pureos.net/search/query/6d_851LuqMuK/#R