check out this link:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/33453...cutable/345116

From above link:
I just solved it. I don't know how sustainable my solution is.

I copied tar from another machine's /bin/tar, then i CHMOD'ed it to 755 on my destination machine's /bin/tar.

now reinstalling tar via apt-get works flawlessly:

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You created a new LQ Identity for just for this subject?

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jack@Built-by-Jack /usr/share/bash-completion/completions $ cd /var/cache/apt/archives/
jack@Built-by-Jack /var/cache/apt/archives $ sudo dpkg -i –force-all tar_1.27.1-1_amd64.deb
dpkg: warning: 'tar' not found in PATH or not executable
dpkg: error: 1 expected program not found in PATH or not executable
Note: root's PATH should usually contain /usr/local/sbin, /usr/sbin and /sbin
jack@Built-by-Jack /var/cache/apt/archives $


continuing on and looking around...
jack@Built-by-Jack /var/cache/apt/archives $ sudo dpkg -i –force-all tar_1.27.1-1_amd64.deb
dpkg: warning: 'tar' not found in PATH or not executable
dpkg: error: 1 expected program not found in PATH or not executable
Note: root's PATH should usually contain /usr/local/sbin, /usr/sbin and /sbin
jack@Built-by-Jack /var/cache/apt/archives $ cd /usr/share/bash-completion/completions
jack@Built-by-Jack /usr/share/bash-completion/completions $ sudo dpkg -i –force-all tar_1.27.1-1_amd64.deb
dpkg: warning: 'tar' not found in PATH or not executable
dpkg: error: 1 expected program not found in PATH or not executable
Note: root's PATH should usually contain /usr/local/sbin, /usr/sbin and /sbin
jack@Built-by-Jack /usr/share/bash-completion/completions $ cd
jack@Built-by-Jack ~ $ sudo dpkg -i –force-all tar_1.27.1-1_amd64.deb
dpkg: warning: 'tar' not found in PATH or not executable
dpkg: error: 1 expected program not found in PATH or not executable
Note: root's PATH should usually contain /usr/local/sbin, /usr/sbin and /sbin
paul@Built-by-Jack ~ $ cd /paul/local/sbin
bash: cd: /jack/local/sbin: No such file or directory
jack@Built-by-Jack ~ $ cd /jack/sbin
bash: cd: /jack/sbin: No such file or directory
jack@Built-by-Jack ~ $ cd sbin
bash: cd: sbin: No such file or directory
jack@Built-by-Jack ~ $ cd /sbin
jack@Built-by-Jack /sbin $ sudo dpkg -i –force-all tar_1.27.1-1_amd64.deb
dpkg: warning: 'tar' not found in PATH or not executable
dpkg: error: 1 expected program not found in PATH or not executable
Note: root's PATH should usually contain /usr/local/sbin, /usr/sbin and /sbin
jack@Built-by-Jack /sbin $


I'm really a dummy, I don't know how to find the file. Using the file viewer I find in the home directory, a hidden archive:
/home/jack/tar_1.27.1-1_amd64.deb 195.4kB Archive
Does this need to be installed? if so how to? You folks are so nice to help me out thank you!

Yes, since dpkg seems to depend on tar, I am not sure how this is going to work out.
Open your terminal and issue:
Let us know the result.

Can you also give us the output of
if it still doesn't work.

If you're on Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca 64 bit
then I'll just send you the bin binary and you can manually copy it to /bin/

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Still not there.

jack@Built-by-Jack ~ $ sudo dpkg -i --force-all /home/jack/tar_1.27.1-1_amd64.deb
dpkg: warning: 'tar' not found in PATH or not executable
dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled:
dpkg: warning: 1 expected program not found in PATH or not executable
Note: root's PATH should usually contain /usr/local/sbin, /usr/sbin and /sbin
dpkg-deb (subprocess): unable to execute tar (tar): No such file or directory
dpkg-deb: error: subprocess tar returned error exit status 2
dpkg: error processing archive /home/jack/tar_1.27.1-1_amd64.deb (--install):
subprocess dpkg-deb --control returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
/home/jack/tar_1.27.1-1_amd64.deb
jack@Built-by-Jack ~ $ inxi -S
System: Host: Built-by-Jack Kernel: 3.13.0-24-generic x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: Gnome Distro: Linux Mint 17 Qiana
jack@Built-by-Jack ~ $

Stick a fork in me, I'm done. Sorry.

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I thought that .deb packages used tar internally. In which case, there is no way to install the tar package.

My suggestion would be to use the install media you used to install Mint in the first place. Boot from it and run a live session. Once its up, mount the / partition from your installed copy, open a terminal, find tar (/bin/tar)? and use "sudo cp" to copy it to the correct place on your root partition. Coming from the same source, it should work.

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or Install LM 17 Qiana to Virtualbox and copy /usr/bin to your Host...?

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Wonder if you could use apt-get clean (clean all) then apt-get remove tar and then try again.

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DownLoad TAR and just install it = easy fix

one could also copy the tar executable from a compatible system, but not to /usr/bin, but , say, to /usr/local/bin or some other location that can be temporarily added to the $PATH.
that way one could safely and conveniently reinstall tar, then just remove the other copy afterwards.
feels safer that way.

Hmmmmm. Thank you all for your wonderful suggestions. I'm tired of this issue, so I'm backing up all my data on thumb drives in preparation for tomorrow, when I'll upgrade from Mint 17 to 17.3. Going from 15 to 17 was easy, so I'm hoping for the same seamless transition this time. It seems this should actually be easier (for dummy me) and a better path, than just working on this one broken dependency. Despite this issue, I still love Linux. I want to try to run Oracle Virtualbox on top of this, to be able to run the two Windows programs, that I still use a windows machine. I tried WINE a couple years ago, but that was not good experiment for me. Again, thank you all for helping me, what a fantastic community this is!!! Enjoy your day! Case Closed