[SOLVED] FTP service installation error

[sopan]

I'm trying to remove the ftp service so I can reinstall it. Using apt-get remove and apt-get purge didn't remove it properly and apt-get install won't overwrite it. Here's what I get now:

"
:~# apt-get remove vsftpd

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
vsftpd
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 258 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 475kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
(Reading database ...
dpkg: warning: files list file for package `ramlog' missing, assuming package has no files currently installed.

dpkg: warning: files list file for package `libparted0' missing, assuming package has no files currently installed.
(Reading database ... 18505 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing vsftpd ...
userdel: error deleting shadow password entry
/usr/sbin/deluser: `/usr/sbin/userdel ftp' returned error code 1. Exiting.
dpkg: error processing vsftpd (--remove):
subprocess installed post-removal script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
vsftpd
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
"

...After rebooting run a couple of more commands:

"
:~# userdel -f ftp
userdel: error deleting shadow password entry

:~# ps -u ftp
PID TTY TIME CMD
"

..? Please advice

[Daan]

You could try

[CODE]# cat /etc/shadow|grep ftp[\CODE]

and

[CODE]# cat /etc/passwd|grep ftp[\CODE]

to see whether user ftp actually exists.

Maybe reintstalling vsftpd and then removing it again will do the trick?

[sopan]

OK for some reason the user ftp was only in '/etc/passwd' but not in '/etc/shadow'. I managed to remove vsftpd by copying one of lines in etc/shadow ("ntp:*:14638:0:99999:7:::") and editing to "ftp:*:14638:0:99999:7:::", then ran "apt-get purge vsftpd". It worked, vsftpd was removed and the user ftp in both '/etc/passwd' and '/etc/shadow' vanished, excellent!

But now there's an error when trying to install:

:~# apt-get install vsftpd
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  vsftpd
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 258 not upgraded.
Need to get 143kB of archives.
After this operation, 475kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http;//ftp.us.debian.org squeeze/main vsftpd 2.3.2-3+squeeze2 [143kB]
Fetched 143kB in 1s (84.1kB/s)
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ...
dpkg: warning: files list file for package `ramlog' missing, assuming package has no files currently installed.

dpkg: warning: files list file for package `libparted0' missing, assuming package has no files currently installed.
(Reading database ... 18505 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking vsftpd (from .../vsftpd_2.3.2-3+squeeze2_powerpc.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/vsftpd_2.3.2-3+squeeze2_powerpc.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite '/etc/logrotate.d/vsftpd', which is also in package wd-nas 01.00.01-46026
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/vsftpd_2.3.2-3+squeeze2_powerpc.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

So I renamed '/etc/logrotate.d/vsftpd' to avoid the overwrite, but when I run the install the output is the same as above. Unpacking fails with the same error even when '/etc/logrotate.d/vsftpd' does not even exist?

[sopan]

Thanks for the guidelines, finally got it installed!

dpkg -i --force-overwrite /var/cache/apt/archives/vsftpd_2.3.2-3+squeeze2_powerpc.deb