I have broken samba, and it looks like most other things.
 

Long story short.

Tried to install a gui on samba, fiddled with things i shouldnt have, decided to uninstall samba and start again, uninstalled using synaptic, thought i was home free, re-installed but it seemed to still have my old configuration, so and heres where the newb in me comes out, i decided to manually uninstall bits i thought it left behind.

SO... now..after a day or so of googling and trying many things if i run $ sudo apt-get remove --purge samba samba-*

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Note, selecting 'samba-client' for glob 'samba-*'
Note, selecting 'samba-dbg' for glob 'samba-*'
Note, selecting 'samba-dev' for glob 'samba-*'
Note, selecting 'samba-doc' for glob 'samba-*'
Note, selecting 'samba-dsdb-modules' for glob 'samba-*'
Note, selecting 'samba-ad-dc' for glob 'samba-*'
Note, selecting 'samba-libs' for glob 'samba-*'
Note, selecting 'samba-common' for glob 'samba-*'
Note, selecting 'samba-vfs-modules' for glob 'samba-*'
Note, selecting 'samba-common-bin' for glob 'samba-*'
Note, selecting 'samba-tools' for glob 'samba-*'
Note, selecting 'samba-testsuite' for glob 'samba-*'
Package 'samba-doc' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'samba-tools' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'samba-ad-dc' is not installed, so not removed
Note, selecting 'smbclient' instead of 'samba-client'
Package 'samba-dbg' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'samba-dev' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'samba-dsdb-modules' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'samba-vfs-modules' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'samba-testsuite' is not installed, so not removed
The following packages will be REMOVED:
python-samba* samba* samba-common* samba-common-bin* samba-libs*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 5 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 43.6 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
(Reading database ... 289663 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing samba (2:4.3.11+dfsg-0ubuntu0.16.04.13) ...
invoke-rc.d: samba-ad-dc.service doesn't exist but the upstart job does. Nothing to start or stop until a systemd or init job is present.
invoke-rc.d: dangling symlink: /etc/rc5.d/S07smbd
dpkg: error processing package samba (--purge):
subprocess installed pre-removal script returned error exit status 102
dpkg: samba-common: dependency problems, but removing anyway as you requested:
samba-common-bin depends on samba-common (= 2:4.3.11+dfsg-0ubuntu0.16.04.13).
samba depends on samba-common (= 2:4.3.11+dfsg-0ubuntu0.16.04.13).

Removing samba-common (2:4.3.11+dfsg-0ubuntu0.16.04.13) ...
Purging configuration files for samba-common (2:4.3.11+dfsg-0ubuntu0.16.04.13) ...
dpkg: samba-libs:amd64: dependency problems, but removing anyway as you requested:
samba-common-bin depends on samba-libs (= 2:4.3.11+dfsg-0ubuntu0.16.04.13); however:
Package samba-libs:amd64 is to be removed.
samba depends on samba-libs (= 2:4.3.11+dfsg-0ubuntu0.16.04.13); however:
Package samba-libs:amd64 is to be removed.
python-samba depends on samba-libs (= 2:4.3.11+dfsg-0ubuntu0.16.04.13).

Removing samba-libs:amd64 (2:4.3.11+dfsg-0ubuntu0.16.04.13) ...
dpkg: samba-common-bin: dependency problems, but removing anyway as you requested:
samba depends on samba-common-bin (= 2:4.3.11+dfsg-0ubuntu0.16.04.13); however:
Package samba-common-bin is to be removed.

Removing samba-common-bin (2:4.3.11+dfsg-0ubuntu0.16.04.13) ...
dpkg: python-samba: dependency problems, but removing anyway as you requested:
samba depends on python-samba.

Removing python-samba (2:4.3.11+dfsg-0ubuntu0.16.04.13) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.23-0ubuntu10) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
samba
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I get this message "Errors were encountered while processing: samba
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)" at the end of every install / removal of anything.

Synaptic says i have 1 broken package, when i select "fix broken packages" it says it has fixed dependency problems, but alas, i still get the errors while processing "samba" when i try and re-install anything :|

where to go from here, running linux mint 18.3, i fear trying to upgrade to 19 to fix the problem, the good old fashioned windows way
as i think it will fail miserably, dont want to have to start all over :(

By joves i think i found the problem.

(Reading database ... 289663 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing samba (2:4.3.11+dfsg-0ubuntu0.16.04.13) ...
invoke-rc.d: samba-ad-dc.service doesn't exist but the upstart job does. Nothing to start or stop until a systemd or init job is present.
invoke-rc.d: dangling symlink: /etc/rc5.d/S07smbd
dpkg: error processing package samba (--purge):

I deleted symlink: /etc/rc5.d/S07smbd then ran $ sudo apt-get remove --purge samba samba-*

and it installed. YUS i feel somewhat less of a noob :)

Only until reality comes back and slaps you down again ... :p

We've all been there ...