Package Installation error and solution

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Some times you might see the following error message when you try to install any package using apt-get or synaptic
E: The package webmin needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.

E: The package mfc8500lpr needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.

This error might be with any package in the above examples webmin and mfc8500lpr packages this error mostly occour when you try to install a debian package in to ubuntu system

Error

E: The package package name needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.

Package name in the above error could be any package

Solution

Run the following command

For webmin Pakage

dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq webmin

You can replace webmin to any of your package name which is giving the error

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52 Responses

  1. Hi guys, I’m in linux Lucid Lynx and i was trying to install java jre 6 in the synaptic center, but my laptop ran out of battery and I get the problem that you have mentioned up there, but when I’m trying to remove by ‘sudo dpgk –force-remove-reinsreq ‘ I get this

    dpkg: error processing openjdk-6-jre (–remove): subprocess installed post-removal script returned error exit status 2

    So, i’m unavailable to do what you have already said… Do you have any ideas? I’m not that expert to go and erase the files directly from de / directory

    Regards,

    Felipe.

  2. Bouke says:

    Hey thanks!
    I had this problem with package skype just yet, and your solution still works on Kubuntu maverick!

  3. Josh says:

    You are the man!!! Thanks so much for this! I could hug you!!

  4. lnxjenn says:

    I am getting this error but trying to remove the package I get

    dpkg: error processing icaclient (–remove):
    Package is in a very bad inconsistent state – you should
    reinstall it before attempting a removal.
    Errors were encountered while processing:
    icaclient

    But I can’t reinstall either. I am getting this on several package I’m trying to reinstall or configure and cannot even locate on my Linux machine. Any ideas??

  5. not-so-super-user says:

    I get the following error:

    dpkg: error: requested operation requires superuser privilege

    superuser???

    Thanks

  6. Jason says:

    Thanks heaps man was having trouble with skype.

    ^ dude above just put “sudo ” infront worked for me

  7. Neil says:

    Hi.
    I know this is an old post, but I hope someone sees it.
    Unfortunately, this did not work for me.
    I get the following message:
    $ sudo dpkg –remove –force-remove-reinstreq mfc5490cnlpr
    dpkg: dependency problems prevent removal of mfc5490cnlpr:
    mfc5490cncupswrapper depends on mfc5490cnlpr.
    dpkg: error processing mfc5490cnlpr (–remove):
    dependency problems – not removing
    Errors were encountered while processing:
    mfc5490cnlpr

    I then removed mfcncupswrapper and tried again.
    The result was:
    $ sudo dpkg –remove –force-remove-reinstreq mfc5490cncupswrapper
    (Reading database …
    dpkg: warning: files list file for package `mfc5490cncupswrapper’ missing, assuming package has no files currently installed.
    (Reading database … 221988 files and directories currently installed.)
    Removing mfc5490cncupswrapper …
    njm@WOLF359:~$ sudo dpkg –remove –force-remove-reinstreq mfc5490cnlpr
    dpkg: warning: overriding problem because –force enabled:
    Package is in a very bad inconsistent state – you should
    reinstall it before attempting a removal.
    (Reading database … 221988 files and directories currently installed.)
    Removing mfc5490cnlpr …
    start: Unknown job: lprng
    dpkg: error processing mfc5490cnlpr (–remove):
    subprocess installed post-removal script returned error exit status 1
    Errors were encountered while processing:
    mfc5490cnlpr

    If anyone out there has any ideas about how to solve this, without a full reinstall of my system, it would be appreciated.

    Best regards,

    Neil.

  8. Tim McDaniel says:

    In my case it was blindly following Brother’s Web page instructions for an MFC-7460DN. I believe that Ubuntu’s System – Administration – Printing is all I needed to do.

    Anyway, in re Neil: mine was

    # dpkg –remove –force-all mfc7460dnlpr
    dpkg: warning: overriding problem because –force enabled:
    Package is in a very bad inconsistent state – you should
    reinstall it before attempting a removal.
    (Reading database … 180087 files and directories currently installed.)
    Removing mfc7460dnlpr …
    start: Unknown job: lpd
    dpkg: error processing mfc7460dnlpr (–remove):
    subprocess installed post-removal script returned error exit status 1
    Errors were encountered while processing:
    mfc7460dnlpr

    Worse, the Synaptic package manager threw an error on startup and aborted!

    What I did was

    locate postrm

    which pointed to, inter alia, a lot of files named /var/lib/dpkg/info/[PACKAGE].postrm
    I cd’ed there and found /var/lib/dpkg/info/mfc7460dnlpr.postrm.

    #!/bin/sh
    if [ -e /etc/init.d/lprng ]; then
    /etc/init.d/lprng restart
    elif [ -e /etc/init.d/lpd ]; then
    /etc/init.d/lpd restart
    fi

    I appended ” || true” to make it ignore command exit statuses:

    #!/bin/sh
    if [ -e /etc/init.d/lprng ]; then
    /etc/init.d/lprng restart || true
    elif [ -e /etc/init.d/lpd ]; then
    /etc/init.d/lpd restart || true
    fi

    Then I got

    # dpkg –remove –force-all mfc7460dnlpr
    dpkg: warning: overriding problem because –force enabled:
    Package is in a very bad inconsistent state – you should
    reinstall it before attempting a removal.
    (Reading database … 180087 files and directories currently installed.)
    Removing mfc7460dnlpr …
    start: Unknown job: lpd

    which removed the package. I ran

    # dpkg –purge –force-all mfc7460dnlpr

    to get rid of everything.


    Tim McDaniel, [email protected]

  9. Neil McLeish says:

    Hi Tim.

    Thanks for the thorough information. Much appreciated.

    In the end, I ended up doing a fresh OS install. I was not too bothered about that as I had only just done it and wasn’t going to lose much time.

    I will keep this bookmarked, in case I need to call upon it again. I am just perplexed as to why the printer worked fine in 10.04 but not 10.10 or later.

    Here’s hoping they sort it soon.

    Many thanks again and best regards,

    Neil.

  10. Raul says:

    Thanks a lot!!!
    It works for me.

  11. Connor Moroney says:

    You are a life saver

  12. Alexander Papadopulos says:

    Why is the right solution, so hard to find!

    Thank you for sharing this valuable information. Worked on Ubuntu 11.10 for my MFC-7360n.

  13. Phil says:

    Thanks Tim – this worked for me – nothing else did.
    Appending “true” to the post removal script made
    all the difference – I haven’t read that tip elsewhere.
    Cheers
    Phil

  14. crisan zoica says:

    Hi guys! I am a newbie when it comes to Ubuntu.
    I have installed on my machine ubuntu-10.04.4-server-i386 , following the exact steps from this website, section Step By Step Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) LAMP Server Setup.
    The problem is , at the end of instllation, when it restarts , the message on the screen is by far as it should be.
    No login appears for me, instead i get a huge message looking like this:
    [184.509153]Call Trace:
    [184.509202] [] ? _spin_lock+0xd/0x/0x10
    [184.509808] —[end trace 53f4e3ab5aed05d1]

    Could you please help me if this happend to you while installing ubuntu 10.04?

    Thanks a lot!!!

  15. Gopu says:

    Hi,

    I tried installing omsa (dell monitoring software) in my ubuntu machine and getting the following error:
    error while loading shared libraries: libpam.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

    When i tried to reinstall getting error as below :

    Depends: srvadmin-storageservices (>= 7.1.0) but it is not going to be installed
    Depends: srvadmin-webserver (>= 7.1.0) but it is not going to be installed
    Depends: srvadmin-rac4 (>= 7.1.0) but it is not going to be installed
    Depends: srvadmin-rac5 (>= 7.1.0) but it is not going to be installed
    Depends: srvadmin-idrac (>= 7.1.0) but it is not going to be installed
    Depends: srvadmin-idrac7 (>= 7.1.0) but it is not going to be installed
    srvadmin-base : Depends: srvadmin-deng (>= 7.1.0) but it is not going to be installed
    Depends: srvadmin-hapi (>= 7.1.0) but it is not going to be installed
    srvadmin-isvc : Depends: srvadmin-deng but it is not going to be installed
    Depends: srvadmin-hapi (>= 7.1.0) but it is not going to be installed
    srvadmin-omacore : Depends: srvadmin-deng but it is not going to be installed
    E: Unmet dependencies. Try ‘apt-get -f install’ with no packages (or specify a solution).

    Please Help!!

  16. Kompass17 says:

    Same problem here, like Gopu’s

    update-manager says e.g. QUOTE:
    Errors were encountered while processing:
    /var/cache/apt/archives/gnome-applets_2.30.0-0ubuntu2_amd64.deb
    /var/cache/apt/archives/empathy-common_2.30.3-0ubuntu1.1_all.deb
    /var/cache/apt/archives/light-themes_0.1.6.6_all.deb
    /var/cache/apt/archives/ubuntu-wallpapers_0.31.3_all.deb
    /var/cache/apt/archives/ubuntu-artwork_53.5_all.deb
    /var/cache/apt/archives/rhythmbox-ubuntuone-music-store_0.0.9-0ubuntu1_all.deb
    Setting up shared-mime-info (0.71-1ubuntu2) …
    Segmentation fault
    dpkg: error processing shared-mime-info (–configure):
    subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 139
    dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of gnome-user-guide:
    gnome-user-guide depends on yelp; however:
    Package yelp is not configured yet.
    :END QUOTE

    and sudo apt-get -f install says QUOTE:
    Preparing to replace rhythmbox-ubuntuone-music-store 0.0.9-0ubuntu1 (using …/rhythmbox-ubuntuone-music-store_0.0.9-0ubuntu1_all.deb) …
    Unpacking replacement rhythmbox-ubuntuone-music-store …
    dpkg: warning: old post-removal script returned error exit status 245
    dpkg – trying script from the new package instead …
    dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/rhythmbox-ubuntuone-music-store_0.0.9-0ubuntu1_all.deb (–unpack):
    subprocess new post-removal script returned error exit status 245
    No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
    dpkg: error while cleaning up:
    subprocess new post-removal script returned error exit status 245

    :END QUOTE

    These (excuse me:) crap / luxury packages in limbo prevent more useful stuff from installing / upgrading.

    A utility for package fault-tracing, clean-up, save-the-working-parts, remove-the-ruins, and suggest-remedy for unresolved dependencies is badly needed.

    HELP!!

  17. Kompass17 says:

    I could add:
    sudo dpkg –remove –force-remove-reinstreq rhythmbox
    (Reading database … 169581 files and directories currently installed.)
    Removing rhythmbox …
    dpkg: error processing rhythmbox (–remove):
    subprocess installed pre-removal script returned error exit status 245
    Errors were encountered while processing:
    rythmbox

    Cannot uninstall, purge, nor install, nor does apt-get -f install make any change.

    Human-readable explanation for error 245 is badly needed.
    HELP!!!

  18. nonsholten says:

    Thank you very much for this piece of information. I wasn’t able to install updates, and then I got this error, but fortunatley this fixed the issue. Thanks again.

  19. Sir Rodness says:

    Thanks man. This saved me a lot of trouble. 🙂

  20. Check says:

    Thanks so much. Worked perfect.

  21. Jake says:

    That totally worked, just replace the webmin with the name of the package,
    bless you man, i searched for the solution for like an hour and yours worked, Thanks!!

  22. Conor Banett says:

    That’s I wanted. Thanks!!

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