Apt-get and aptitude break on aspell-en (ubuntu)
 

Hello, I cannot install anything via apt-get or aptitude. Anything I try to install breaks trying to process aspell-en. Aptitude's output is pasted below. Any thoughts?

aptitude install fluxbox

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
Building tag database... Done
The following packages are unused and will be REMOVED:
aspell aspell-en libaspell15
The following NEW packages will be automatically installed:
menu
The following NEW packages will be installed:
fluxbox menu
0 packages upgraded, 2 newly installed, 3 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/1114kB of archives. After unpacking 217kB will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]
Writing extended state information... Done
(Reading database ... 21753 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing aspell-en ...
dpkg: error processing aspell-en (--remove):
subprocess post-removal script returned error exit status 1
Removing aspell ...
Removing libaspell15 ...
Processing triggers for libc6 ...
ldconfig deferred processing now taking place
Errors were encountered while processing:
aspell-en
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install. Trying to recover:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
Writing extended state information... Done
Building tag database... Done

#sudo dpkg --configure -a

Then reinstall aspell-en first

...then proceed

Here is the output

sudo dpkg --configure -a

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of aspell-en:
aspell-en depends on dictionaries-common (>= 0.49.2); however:
Package dictionaries-common is not installed.
dpkg: error processing aspell-en (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of aspell:
aspell depends on dictionaries-common (>> 0.40); however:
Package dictionaries-common is not installed.
dpkg: error processing aspell (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
aspell-en
aspell

apt-get install aspell-en

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
aspell-en is already the newest version.
aspell-en set to manual installed.
You might want to run `apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
aspell: Depends: dictionaries-common (> 0.40) but it is not going to be installed
aspell-en: Depends: dictionaries-common (>= 0.49.2) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

Now, I have tried installing dictionaries-common also to no avail.

apt-get install dictionaries-common

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
ispell emacsen-common jed-extra
The following NEW packages will be installed:
dictionaries-common
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B/237kB of archives.
After unpacking 856kB of additional disk space will be used.
Preconfiguring packages ...
Info: dictionaries-common/default-wordlist is already set to
[english (Webster's Second International English wordlist)]. Preserving it.
(Reading database ... 21753 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking dictionaries-common (from .../dictionaries-common_0.62.5ubuntu2_all.deb) ...
No alternatives for ispell-dictionary.hash.
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/dictionaries-common_0.62.5ubuntu2_all.deb (--unpack):
subprocess pre-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/dictionaries-common_0.62.5ubuntu2_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

btw after dpkg --configure -a I also tried

apt-get remove aspell-en

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:
aspell: Depends: dictionaries-common (> 0.40) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

Allright, so

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:
dictionaries-common
Suggested packages:
ispell emacsen-common jed-extra
The following NEW packages will be installed:
dictionaries-common
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B/237kB of archives.
After unpacking 856kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
Preconfiguring packages ...
Info: dictionaries-common/default-wordlist is already set to
[english (Webster's Second International English wordlist)]. Preserving it.
(Reading database ... 21753 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking dictionaries-common (from .../dictionaries-common_0.62.5ubuntu2_all.deb) ...
No alternatives for ispell-dictionary.hash.
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/dictionaries-common_0.62.5ubuntu2_all.deb (--unpack):
subprocess pre-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/dictionaries-common_0.62.5ubuntu2_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I keep going in circles here.