after downloading virtualbox and then using installing
got E:dpkg--configure-a install manual
but where do you do this cannot open synaptic
j d

I can't understand what you did or what the error was.

Did you do this (with sudo if appropriate)?
apt-get install virtualbox

Or did you download a package and then try to install it?
What Linux distro are you running?

downloaded virtualbox
tried to install package
got dpkg interupted
install dpkg--configure-a (manual)
question where do you install above manual
distro feisty ubuntu 7.04
thank you j d

If I understand, you download the 'deb' package and are using dpkg to install it. That should work. But more people would choose the easier method using the apt-get program:

sudo apt-get install virtualbox

(This installs virtualbox-ose and maybe virtualbox-ose-modules. You may have to explicitly install the correct virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.* package the same way. I'm not sure what happens by default. Just follow the suggestions.)

Once it's installed, run the command virtualbox. It pops up a GUI application that lets you create, modify and run virtual machines.

when using apt- get install virtualbox
I get dpkg interupted
install dpkg --configure-a manual
also not able to open synaptic
get the same answer as above
j d

I've never seen that happen. You can run this command to list the state of the packages.

dpkg -l 'virtualbox*'

It gives a confusing output, but look at the letter-codes in the first three characters on each line.
"un " means unknown/not-installed/no-error.
"ii " means install/installed/no-error.

If it displays anything else, maybe you should uninstall it and try again:

sudo apt-get remove virtualbox

There actually is a command like the error message says, but even after I read the man page (man dpkg), I'm not sure what it does. (Note there is a space before "-a").

dpkg --configure -a

got now reinstall virtualbox but no archive for it
thanks for your help
j d

tried to install virtualbox after carrying out all the
advice given but a tells me now got no archive for it.
j d

jd, your posts are very hard to follow. Please state more learly what you do and what the results are. If you entered a command in the terminal, please paste it here with the output of the command. You should paste such things in [CODE] tags to preserve formatting. For example, a much better post might read like this:

using feisty ubuntu 7.04 got message as below
package virtualbox needs to be reinstalled
but i cant find an archive for it
j d. i am sure we get there.thank you

using ubuntu feisty 7.04
tried to install virtualbox message i got is
the package virtualbox needs to be reinstalled
but I cant find an archive for it
j d
not able to install new packages
or to use update manager

jd, what command did you use to install it?

used termenal
sudo apt-get -install virtualbox
sudo dpkg
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/downloads
i am using ubuntu 7.04
j d

jan@jan-desktop:~$ sudo apt-get install virtualbox
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: The package virtualbox needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.

jan@jan-desktop:~$ sudo apt-get remove virtualbox
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: The package virtualbox needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.
jan@jan-desktop:~$ dpkg -l virtualbox
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed
|/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-==============-==============-============================================
iHR virtualbox 1.5.2-25433_Ub