apt-get installation hung-up and I cannot remove or purge package
 

Following the instructions on the Ubuntu website, I tried to install codecs for watching DVDs by using the following command:Installation appeared to be progressing normally until it got to the point of the license agreement for Java. The agreement was displayed on my terminal screen, but it was grayed-out and would not respond to any keyboard input. The terminal was frozen at this point.

Finally, I closed the terminal, re-opened a terminal, and ran the command again, but I got the message that the installer was in use. I rebooted the computer and tried again.

This time I got a message that I had to run "dpkg --configure -a" to correct a problem caused by dpkg having been interrupted. I ran the command as specified.

Now I am unable to get rid of whatever vestiges of the Java stuff are lingering on the machine. If I try to run I get a message that the "package is in a very bad inconsistent state -- you should reinstall it before attempting a removal." Same response when I try adding the "--purge" to the command line.

If I run I get the message that the package is not installed, so the command is ignored.

If I run the system attempts to complete the installation, including the troublesome Java stuff which hangs up at exactly the same point--with the license confirmation screen frozen in my monitor.

It seems now that I cannot go forward with the installation nor can I back out and try again from scratch.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions how I might get the Java stuff cleared out, so I can try some other way to get the codecs in place?

Try via Synaptic? Also you missed the Ubuntu forum.

Post complete error output.
Probably you could purge it after adding "exit 0" without quotes after the "set -e" line to the sun prerm script in /var/lib/dpkg/info/.

typically when using the console, TAB would be the key to hit to highlight the selection box to approve a license, etc..

I take it from your post that that does not work ?

Thanks for all the quick replies. It was the TAB key, farslayer . . . sometimes the simplest things are the ones I overlook. Thanks!

Sweet, a simple fix. Does that mean you are rolling again with no further installation issues at this time ?

Yes. Well, it means I got the restricted-extras installed without any further problem, and a greater number of DVDs are playing.

From my limited acquaintance with video media, I have the impression that there are several different encoding schemas in use, and apparently the restricted-extras do not cover them all. A DVD compliation of (admittedly-cheesy) early-60s sitcoms still isn't playing, but that might be benevolent divine intervention.

You'll need libdvdcss2 to play many DVDs. It's in debian-multimedia.

Yes, I have that installed already, too.