have tried all old posts but none managed to rectify my error. I have the same error as follows:

h@ubuntu:~$ sudo su
[sudo] password for h:
root@ubuntu:/home/h# dpkg --purge adobe-flashplugin
dpkg: error processing adobe-flashplugin (--purge):
Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should
reinstall it before attempting a removal.
Errors were encountered while processing:
adobe-flashplugin



Get this again & again:
Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should
reinstall it before attempting a removal


help!

You can download flash for linux directly from Adobe:

http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

it has been in pretty good working order for years now. Get the tar.gz version, not a .deb package. I believe this installs via firefox.

If not, untar/unzip it:

tar -xzf thefile.tar.gz

go into the directory this creates and read the instructions.

This should overwrite your non-functioning version -- just remember that you did, because debian will still think it's the package, so don't use any more apt commands on it!