Brave Browser Beta - uninstall (documenting issue / my process)

mcint · February 7, 2024, 10:47pm

Description of the issue: Can’t uninstall brave-browser-beta debian package. dpkg reports errors from both brave-browser-beta and brave-browser, when trying to uninstall just brave-browser-beta.
How can this issue be reproduced?

(have a messed up system? brave-browser-beta installed to previous, pkcon update , apt manipulation?
attempt to uninstall [sudo] pkcon remove brave-browser-beta and sudo apt remove brave-browser-beta, error with logs from dpkg reporting errors, attached below,

xdg-icon-resource: 12: Syntax error: end of file unexpected (expecting ";;")
- I don’t see any hanging bash case statements, nor unquoted arguments to xdg-icon-resource, or nearby.

Expected result: Uninstalls package

Brave Version( check About Brave): observed with:

1.63.141 of brave-browser-beta, on attempt to uninstall,
between 1.61.116 and 1.62.156 of brave-browser, debian linux similar issue, affecting package updates, . Hopefully, no major file system changes in linux packages.

Additional Information:

$ sudo apt purge brave-browser-beta

$ sudo apt purge brave-browser-beta
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Starting pkgProblemResolver with broken count: 0
Starting 2 pkgProblemResolver with broken count: 0
Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  brave-browser-beta*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 6 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 362 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
(Reading database ... 468248 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing brave-browser-beta (1.63.146) ...
/usr/bin/xdg-icon-resource: 12: Syntax error: end of file unexpected (expecting ";;")
dpkg: error processing package brave-browser-beta (--remove):
 installed brave-browser-beta package pre-removal script subprocess returned error exit status 2
dpkg: too many errors, stopping
/usr/bin/xdg-icon-resource: 12: Syntax error: end of file unexpected (expecting ";;")
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 installed brave-browser-beta package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 brave-browser-beta
Processing was halted because there were too many errors.
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Oddly, when I try to uninstall brave-browser-beta, an error on brave-browser prevents the dpkg operation from succeeding. Odd.

$ sudo apt remove brave-browser-beta

$ sudo apt remove brave-browser-beta
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Starting pkgProblemResolver with broken count: 0
Starting 2 pkgProblemResolver with broken count: 0
Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  brave-browser-beta
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 6 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 362 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'brave-browser-beta' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
(Reading database ... 468038 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing brave-browser-beta (1.63.146) ...
Setting up brave-browser (1.62.156) ...
/usr/bin/xdg-icon-resource: 12: Syntax error: end of file unexpected (expecting ";;")
dpkg: error processing package brave-browser (--configure):
 installed brave-browser package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 brave-browser
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

mcint · February 7, 2024, 11:09pm

Tried some other suggestions to fix package issues.

Digging into package issues directly

Reported error, seems to be in postinst script. dpkg -l reports brave-browser to be iF - installed, and halF-configured. So it attempts to re-run this as a cleanup task on every state-changing apt invocation.

/var/lib/dpkg/info/brave-browser.postinst:18-22:

for icon in product_logo_128.png product_logo_16.png product_logo_48.png product_logo_24.png product_logo_64.png product_logo_32.png product_logo_256.png ; do
  size="$(echo ${icon} | sed 's/[^0-9]//g')"
  "$XDG_ICON_RESOURCE" install --size "${size}" "/opt/brave.com/brave/${icon}" \
    "brave-browser"
done

$ sudo bash -x /var/lib/dpkg/info/brave-browser.postinst |& less

$ sudo bash -x /var/lib/dpkg/info/brave-browser.postinst |& less

+ set -e
+ DEFAULTS_FILE=/etc/default/brave-browser
++ command -v xdg-icon-resource
+ XDG_ICON_RESOURCE=/usr/bin/xdg-icon-resource
+ '[' '!' -x /usr/bin/xdg-icon-resource ']'
+ for icon in product_logo_128.png product_logo_16.png product_logo_48.png product_logo_24.png product_logo_64.png product_logo_32.png product_logo_256.png
++ echo product_logo_128.png
++ sed 's/[^0-9]//g'
+ size=128
+ /usr/bin/xdg-icon-resource install --size 128 /opt/brave.com/brave/product_logo_128.png brave-browser
/usr/bin/xdg-icon-resource: 12: Syntax error: end of file unexpected (expecting ";;")

Updated call: bash -x $XDG_ICON_RESOURCE ...
/var/lib/dpkg/info/brave-browser.postinst:20-21:

  bash -x "$XDG_ICON_RESOURCE" install --size "${size}" "/opt/brave.com/brave/${icon}" \
    "brave-browser"

$ sudo bash /var/lib/dpkg/info/brave-browser.postinst |& less | xsel -b # with bash -x $XDG_ICON_RESOURCE ...

+ check_common_commands install --size 128 /opt/brave.com/brave/product_logo_128.png brave-browser
+ '[' 5 -gt 0 ']'
+ parm=install
+ shift
+ case "$parm" in
+ '[' 4 -gt 0 ']'
+ parm=--size
+ shift
+ case "$parm" in
+ '[' 3 -gt 0 ']'
+ parm=128
+ shift
+ case "$parm" in
+ '[' 2 -gt 0 ']'
+ parm=/opt/brave.com/brave/product_logo_128.png
+ shift
+ case "$parm" in
+ '[' 1 -gt 0 ']'
+ parm=brave-browser
+ shift
+ case "$parm" in
+ '[' 0 -gt 0 ']'
+ '[' -z '' ']'
+ unset XDG_UTILS_DEBUG_LEVEL
+ '[' 0 -lt 1 ']'
+ xdg_redirect_output=' > /dev/null 2> /dev/null'
+ GTK_UPDATE_ICON_CACHE=
+ '[' xinstall '!=' x ']'
+ mode=
+ action=
+ update=yes
+ size=
+ theme=hicolor
+ context=apps
+ icon_file=
+ icon_name=
+ case $1 in
+ action=install
+ shift
+ vendor=true
+ '[' 4 -gt 0 ']'
+ parm=--size
+ shift
+ case $parm in
+ '[' -z 128 ']'
+ echo 128
+ grep '[^0-9]'
+ size=128
+ shift
+ '[' 2 -gt 0 ']'
+ parm=/opt/brave.com/brave/product_logo_128.png
+ shift
+ case $parm in
+ '[' -n '' ']'
+ '[' -n '' ']'
+ '[' install = install ']'
+ check_input_file /opt/brave.com/brave/product_logo_128.png
+ '[' '!' -e /opt/brave.com/brave/product_logo_128.png ']'
+ '[' '!' -r /opt/brave.com/brave/product_logo_128.png ']'
+ icon_file=/opt/brave.com/brave/product_logo_128.png
+ '[' 1 -gt 0 ']'
+ parm=brave-browser
+ shift
+ case $parm in
+ '[' -n '' ']'
+ '[' -n /opt/brave.com/brave/product_logo_128.png ']'
+ icon_name=brave-browser
+ '[' 0 -gt 0 ']'
+ '[' -z install ']'
+ '[' -z apps ']'
+ '[' -n '' ']'
+ '[' -z '' ']'
++ whoami
+ '[' root = root ']'
+ mode=system
+ xdg_dir_name=icons/hicolor
+ xdg_user_dir=
+ '[' -n '' ']'
+ xdg_user_dir=/root/.local/share
+ xdg_user_prefix=/root/.local/share/icons
+ xdg_user_dir=/root/.local/share/icons/hicolor
+ xdg_global_dir=
+ xdg_global_prefix=
+ xdg_system_dirs=
+ '[' -n '' ']'
+ xdg_system_dirs=/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/
++ echo /usr/local/share/:/usr/share/
++ sed 's/:/ /g'
+ for x in `echo "$xdg_system_dirs" | sed 's/:/ /g'`
+ '[' -w /usr/local/share//icons/hicolor ']'
+ for x in `echo "$xdg_system_dirs" | sed 's/:/ /g'`
+ '[' -w /usr/share//icons/hicolor ']'
+ xdg_global_prefix=/usr/share//icons
+ xdg_global_dir=/usr/share//icons/hicolor
+ break
+ '[' -w /usr/share//icons/hicolor ']'
+ dot_icon_dir=
+ dot_base_dir=
+ '[' xsystem = xuser ']'
+ xdg_base_dir=/usr/share//icons/hicolor
+ '[' -z /usr/share//icons/hicolor ']'
+ '[' xinstall = xforceupdate ']'
+ '[' -z /opt/brave.com/brave/product_logo_128.png ']'
+ xdg_size_name=
+ extension=
+ '[' -z 128 ']'
+ xdg_size_name=128x128
+ '[' xinstall = xinstall ']'
+ case "$icon_file" in
+ extension=png
+ '[' -n brave-browser ']'
+ case "$icon_name" in
/usr/bin/xdg-icon-resource: line 1041: unexpected EOF while looking for matching ``'
/usr/bin/xdg-icon-resource: line 1090: syntax error: unexpected end of file

I’m not seeing progress on this line of inquiry.

mcint · February 7, 2024, 11:24pm

Ok, in a process that is very likely to cause future issues, and may irreparably break future updates.

I’ve updated the dpkg status file manually,

dpkg status file

/var/lib/dpkg/status

from

Package: brave-browser
Status: install ok half-configured
...
Version: 1.62.156
Config-Version: 1.61.116
Provides: www-browser
...

with approximately s/half-configured/installed/ & /^Config-Version:/d to:

Package: brave-browser
Status: install ok installed
...
Version: 1.62.156
Provides: www-browser
...

My system has stopped reporting errors. Hope there were no major file system changes in linux packages between 1.61.116 and 1.62.156. Wish me luck.

mcint · February 8, 2024, 8:50pm

I’ve confirmed that between 1.61.116 and 1.62.156, there were no file additions to nor deletions from the debian package. Just changes in size.

$ apt-get download brave-browser=1.61.116 brave-browser=1.62.156  ; ls
brave-browser_1.61.116_amd64.deb       brave-browser_1.62.156_amd64.deb

$ for f in *.deb; do dpkg -c $f > $f.list & done  ; ls *.list
brave-browser_1.61.116_amd64.deb.list  brave-browser_1.62.156_amd64.deb.list

diffs

example record, filter for diffs

-rw-r--r-- root/root       203 2024-01-09 23:09 ./usr/share/doc/brave-browser/changelog.gz
$ _awk6(){ awk '{print $1,$2,$3,$6}';}  # ignore date & time

Any of these suffice:

diff - with filtered listings

diff -dyW $COLUMNS <(<brave-browser_1.61.116_amd64.deb.list _awk6)  <(<brave-browser_1.62.156_amd64.deb.list _awk6) | wdiff -d | colordiff | less -RS

wdiff (word diff) with filtered listings – most focused on salient differences

wdiff <(<brave-browser_1.61.116_amd64.deb.list _awk6)  <(<brave-browser_1.62.156_amd64.deb.list _awk6) | colordiff | less -RS

faster, wdiff. shows sizes, but also dates (build date differences), highlighted:

 wdiff brave-browser_1.6*list | colordiff | less -RS

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Brave on Ubuntu didn't install correctly and same error prevents un-install Browser Support linux	1	337	March 7, 2022
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Installed brave on debian 12 it installed ok but dosen't run Desktop Support linux	7	4056	September 15, 2023
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Brave removed accidentally Desktop Support linux	5	897	June 18, 2020

Brave Browser Beta - uninstall (documenting issue / my process)

Digging into package issues directly

diffs

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