I was attempting to install OpenVPN, via the webif2 interface.  While installing packages, it ran out of space, and bombed.

/jffs was reporting only 26k left.  None of the openvpn packages are listed, when doing 'ipkg list_installed'.  Running the filesystem out of space screwed up ipkg.

So, I attempted to delete some other packages, that I do not need (e.g. ppp, ppoe).  That produced a segfault.   Busybox was limping along, at this point.  Occasionally, locking up.  'reboot' from shell wouldn't work.

So I powercycled, and it came back.  This time I tried deleting 'tcpdump', as it doesn't have dependencies.  IT WORKED!  /jffs was down to 85%.  So, then I deleted several ppp/pppoe related packages.  However /jjfs usage remained at 85%.

Prior to the failed openvpn install, I was ~ 60-65%.  So, obviously the remnants of openvpn are still there, but ipkg doesn't know it, and I have no way to clean it up.

Is there a way to recover the space, and clean up the botched openvpn install?  Without going into failsafe and blowing away /jffs?

Regards,
Ben

Apologies for replying to an old post but I have just hit the exact same problem with the same package. I tried a similar solution as well by removing packages I wasn't using but was not able to reclaim the space. 

The router affected was a Asus wl500g with a 2mb /jffs partition.

My solution was simple.  I had already successfully installed openvpn on a Linksys WRT54GS so I pulled of a list of files contained in openvpn and its dependencies (kmod-tun libopenssl zlib liblzo) and deleted them from the wl500g.  It worked and I got the space back. 

It seems to me that ipkg is not handling the situation of installation failures particularly well.  Should it not attempt to remove files from a package when it fails to complete an installation?  Especially if the package is not considered as installed when "ipkg list_installed" is run?  Packages must be either fully installed or not installed with no remnant files left sitting around.  That might be acceptable on a PC with a large hard disk but with such small filesystems has exists on these routers ipkg needs to be ruthlessly efficient about cleaning up after itself.

I found the OP by searching and only after writing the above did I notice that it was posted to the WhiteRussian forum.  Both my routers are running Kamikaze 7.09 so I may be posting in the wrong forum.  It does however suggest that ipkg has had this problem for a while.

Cheers,

Gary