I seem to have created a catch 22 situation. My notebook failed recently so I have reverted to my old Dell Inspiron 5000e laptop which I had converted to be a dedicated Linux machine with ubuntu 8.10. (I have been unable to upgrade to 9.10; the disc I burned from the 9.10 iso loads successfully if I use the safe graphics mode but gives me a triple screen from the normal mode, the leftmost showing the left third of the ubuntu window and the other two both showing the the right third. I am of course loth to risk installing from the safe graphics mode since I feel it is likely to give me the triple screen)

I downloaded and installed "Ubuntu Tweak" from Computeractive not realising that the current version is only suitable for Ubuntu 9. An error is reported: 'Unknown Error:'<type 'exceptions.SystemError'> (E:The package ubuntu-tweak needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.)' This usually means that your installed packages have unmet dependencies. Please run your package manager.

When I do so the same message comes up and the package manager will not open. If I choose to uninstall, the action is countermanded and I am told that the package is in an inconsistent state and I must reinstall before removal. But I can't reinstall. If I try to do so from the Computeractive web page I am told the package is either corrupt or I do not have the necessary permission - and this continues even if I change the permissions.

I would be glad of any advice.

I suggest others be careful if they try to install Ubuntu Tweak.

Perhaps opening a terminal and executing the command 'sudo apt-get remove ubuntu-tweak' may help? and if not, post the output it gives here, and it might help some more.

NB - you can also substitute 'remove' for 'purge' to remove any stored configuration files it may have created.

And should you choose to re-install, maybe look here - http://blog.ubuntu-tweak.com/downloads. Has instructions for Hardy.
I always find it better to go to the "source".

Intrepid, by the way, not hardy. 8.04 is hardy, 8.10 is intrepid, which is what is being used, if I interpret the original post correctly.

D'oh - too long ago. Has both anyway ...

I tried "sudo apt-get" with the following result:
e@e-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get remove ubuntu-tweak
[sudo] password for e:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: The package ubuntu-tweak needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.
e@e-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get purge ubuntu-tweak
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: The package ubuntu-tweak needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.
e@e-laptop:~$

Problem unchanged!

man apt-get is lengthy, but maybe try

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -f install
sudo apt-get -f remove

More ideas here: http://www.linux.com/archive/feature/48910

syg00 & trdegar,

I have tried both ideas but each time get the same response : the package needs to be reinstalled but can't find an archive.

Thanks anyway for trying.

OK.

So I searched on this and ended up here: http://www.computeractive.co.uk/tags/linux
Where I downloaded the file ubuntu-tweak_0.4.9.2-1~karmic1_i386.deb

It's a .deb file. How did you install it?
I would have done sudo dpkg -i /path/to/ubuntu-tweak_0.4.9.2-1~karmic1_i386.deb

So maybe you can remove it with sudo dpkg --purge /path/to/ubuntu-tweak_0.4.9.2-1~karmic1_i386.deb ?

I have exactly the same problem. I tried the suggested methods of fixing the problem as above but to no avail.

Below is the results of what I got:-

joe@joe-desktop:~$ sudo apt-get remove ubuntu-tweak
[sudo] password for joe:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: The package ubuntu-tweak needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.
joe@joe-desktop:~$ sudo apt-get purge ubuntu-tweak
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: The package ubuntu-tweak needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.
joe@joe-desktop:~$ sudo apt-get update
Hit http://archive.canonical.com jaunty Release.gpg
Ign http://archive.canonical.com jaunty/partner Translation-en_GB
Get: 1 http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty Release.gpg [189B]
Hit http://archive.canonical.com jaunty Release
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty Release.gpg
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Translation-en_GB
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security Release.gpg
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/main Translation-en_GB
Get: 2 http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty Release [74.6kB]
Hit http://archive.canonical.com jaunty/partner Packages
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/restricted Translation-en_GB
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/universe Translation-en_GB
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/multiverse Translation-en_GB
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates Release.gpg
Ign http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/main Translation-en_GB
Ign http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/restricted Translation-en_GB
Ign http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/universe Translation-en_GB
Ign http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/multiverse Translation-en_GB
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/restricted Translation-en_GB
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/universe Translation-en_GB
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/multiverse Translation-en_GB
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security Release
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty Release
Get: 3 http://archive.getdeb.net karmic-getdeb Release.gpg [827B]
Ign http://archive.getdeb.net karmic-getdeb/apps Translation-en_GB
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates Release
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/main Packages
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/restricted Packages
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/restricted Sources
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Sources
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/multiverse Sources
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/restricted Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/restricted Sources
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/main Sources
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/multiverse Sources
Get: 4 http://archive.getdeb.net karmic-getdeb Release [7232B]
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/universe Sources
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/universe Packages
Ign http://archive.getdeb.net karmic-getdeb Release
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/universe Sources
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/universe Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/multiverse Packages
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/multiverse Packages
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/main Packages
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/restricted Packages
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/restricted Sources
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/main Sources
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/multiverse Sources
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/universe Sources
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/universe Packages
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/multiverse Packages
Hit http://archive.getdeb.net karmic-getdeb/apps Packages
Get: 5 http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Sources [555kB]
Get: 6 http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/restricted Sources [3156B]
Fetched 633kB in 1s (488kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
W: GPG error: http://archive.getdeb.net karmic-getdeb Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY A8A515F046D7E7CF
W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems
joe@joe-desktop:~$ sudo apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: The package ubuntu-tweak needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.
joe@joe-desktop:~$ sudo apt-get -f remove
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: The package ubuntu-tweak needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.
joe@joe-desktop:~$

Hampshire,

apt-get can't uninstall ubuntu-tweak because I think that apt-get did not install it (because it is not in your repositories).

Back in your original thread I asked you:

1] Where did you find the package?
2] How did you install it?

Please answer these questions.

Actually, that should not matter. The problem is probably because it is not fully installed. apt will usually try to get the package into a sane state before removing it. This can often be circumvented by using dpkg directly.

If that does not work, please post the output.

Cheers,

Evo2.

Thanks for your help. I have now answered the questions as requested in the original thread. ( http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...-tweak-778975/ )

Regards

HH

Thanks for your advice. I did as you asked but it still did not work. see the details below:-

========================================
joe@joe-desktop:~$ sudo dpkg --purge ubuntu-tweak
[sudo] password for joe:
dpkg: error processing ubuntu-tweak (--purge):
Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should
reinstall it before attempting a removal.
Errors were encountered while processing:
ubuntu-tweak
joe@joe-desktop:~$
========================================

Regards

HH

Ok, time to bring out the big guns:
Evo2.