How to remove a SharePoint solution that is giving an error

A while back I had a solution that would just not be removed. In the Solution Management screen in Central Administration, the Status for the solution was a bright red "Error". Attempting to remove it from there would give an error.

Luckily, I found a great post by Alex Thissen that clearly explains how to use stsadm to remove a malfunctioning solution. The blog post is called Remove malfunctioning Windows SharePoint Services solutions.

In a nutshell, if retracting the solution:

stsadm -o retractsolution -name solutionname.wsp -immediate

doesn't work, and if deleting the solution:

stsadm -o deletesolution -name solutionname.wsp -override

doesn't work, then

1. run an enumeration to see the scheduled deployments

stsadm -o enumdeployments

2. use the JobId to cancel the deployment

stsadm -o canceldeployment -id 2529c788-971c-46a3-b69f-a2a0a1fcc851


Afterwards, you can verify it by doing 1. again.