I can't remove/purge/install the package flashplugin-nonfree

[mikekgr]

Dear Friends,
I faced on these days a very nasty problem, during the upgrading of my system... something bad happened and I can not remove, purge, install, reinstall the package flashplugin-nonfree no matter what tries I did till now. To see my tries please read bellow.
Do any of you have any advanced advice how can solve this BIG problem that occurs to me??

Best Regards,
Mike Kranidis

====================== start of my tries to solve the problem ======================

root@intra-micro:/home/mikek# apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
flashplugin-installer flashplugin-nonfree
Suggested packages:
ttf-xfree86-nonfree xfs
The following NEW packages will be installed:
flashplugin-installer
The following packages will be upgraded:
flashplugin-nonfree
1 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B/21.4kB of archives.
After this operation, 61.4kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
Preconfiguring packages ...
dpkg: error processing flashplugin-nonfree (--remove):
Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should
reinstall it before attempting a removal.
Errors were encountered while processing:
flashplugin-nonfree
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/locale: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/man: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/gnome/help: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/omf: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/doc/kde/HTML: 0 KiB

Total disk space freed by localepurge: 0 KiB

E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)


root@intra-micro:/home/mikek# dpkg --purge --force-all flashplugin-nonfree
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 ... 180367 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing flashplugin-nonfree ...
update-alternatives: error: no alternatives for iceape-flashplugin.
update-alternatives: error: no alternatives for iceape-flashplugin.
dpkg: error processing flashplugin-nonfree (--purge):
subprocess installed pre-removal script returned error exit status 2
postinst called with argument `abort-remove'
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
flashplugin-nonfree

root@intra-micro:/home/mikek# apt-get --reinstall install flashplugin-nonfree
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run `apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
flashplugin-nonfree: Depends: flashplugin-installer but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).
root@intra-micro:/home/mikek#

====================== stop of my tries to solve the problem ======================

[naithen]

This is most probably because of a bad debian package. If you are using a testing/unstable branch then this is likely to happen and will get fixed over time.

Try using a different mirror or reverting back to an older version.

If everything fails please report a bug

[bugsbunny]

Is this an ubuntu install? (since that's the only place I know of that has flashplugin-installer)

[craigevil]

Is this an ubuntu install? (since that's the only place I know of that has flashplugin-installer)

It is not Debian, there is no flashplugin-installer in any Debian repo.

Ubuntu is that way >>>>> Ubuntu Forums - http://ubuntuforums.org/ Official Ubuntu Documentation - https://help.ubuntu.com/

[Raffles10]

If it ain't ubuntu you must have ubuntu repo's enabled, which would result in the kind of issues you're having.

[edbarx]

In my humble opinion, mixing distributions, is asking for trouble. The reason, as I understand it, is that there is no guarantee that, other distributions, follow the Debian policies of how to organize the system. It should be utterly clear, that placing executables, settings, etc in places that contradict what Debian expects, is literally breaking Debian. Moreover, as far as I can understand, the package management system has no way to repair a system damaged by mixing repositories. I know, it can be done in some way, but I don't imagine Debian caters for silly mistakes and silly decisions.

Note:
By comparing the package database of a damaged system with what is available in official mirrors, one can determine which packages do not belong to legitimate Debian repositories. The offending packages can then be replaced by their Debian equivalents. However, all this, depends very heavily on whether such a damaged system can repair itself.

[bugsbunny]

Actually I think this would be relatively simple to fix, but need to know exactly (including versions) what we're dealing with. I refuse to guess (more than I already have). Give good information or don't get good help. Simple really.

[mikekgr]

Dear Friends,
first of all I would like to say a BIG 'thank you' for your replies and help tries.

Yes, my installation that develop the referenced problem, was/is kubuntu and sorry to bother you her *as Debian forum) for a *ubuntu related problem.

Naturally I bring this question to Debian forum (here ) just to get some good advices in order to solve futured related problems with "bad packages" that refuse to install and/or reinstall and/or remove and/or purge ...

Just to have the solution here for somebody having the same root of problem do (using root account or privileges or sudo) :

rm /var/lib/dpkg/info/flashplugin-nonfree.prerm ### that is the most important step, the manual removing of the bad script ###
dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq flashplugin-nonfree ### after the above step this is possible now ###
dpkg --purge --force-remove-reinstreq flashplugin-nonfree ### use this in order to purge everything is *package* related ###

and then reinstall as usual !!!

Thanks and Best Regards,
Mike Kranidis

[edbarx]

Actually I think this would be relatively simple to fix

If course, but it depends whether one knows which packages to replace or remove. My answer was intended to include when one does not know which packages to remove/install.

[Raffles10]

Naturally I bring this question to Debian forum (here ) just to get some good advices in order to solve futured related problems with "bad packages" that refuse to install and/or reinstall and/or remove and/or purge ...

I'm not trying to just shove you out the door, but kubuntu do have their own forum and you really are better of talking to people using the same system as you as thay may have experienced and already resolved the same problem.

[bugsbunny]

Actually I think this would be relatively simple to fix

If course, but it depends whether one knows which packages to replace or remove. My answer was intended to include when one does not know which packages to remove/install.

Of course - hence the rest of my sentence, which you cut off. ", but need to know exactly (including versions) what we're dealing with."

I wasn't responding to your post so much as trying to prod the OP into giving the needed info. I'm glad he solved it (I would have done it a bit differently, by modifying the postrm script, but the end result would be the same.)