I am a newcomer to linux and have had lots of problems in installing java on my newly installed Ubuntu 11.10. I use a statistical programming environment called R and many of the packages there require java (the sun variety, I am told). I tried the following :

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ferramroberto/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-fonts

(after this, I wanted to continue with (but never got that far) :

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk

After this, a window appeared with the heading, "Configuring jre", or something like that. Below was a long list of legal text about accepting Sun's terms. I did not know how to close this window (no obvious option like pressing return worked). After a long time, when nothing seemed to happen, I finally closed the window. After that, I could not open synaptic.

I got the error message :

dpkg was interrupted. You must manually run 'sudo dpkg --configure -a'

I did this. But it does not help. I have java as a "broken" program. When I try to remove the program from synaptic, I get a message that I must reinstall it again.I do not know what I should do.

I want to install jdk6. And also remove the open jdk which is still persistently present in my system.

I tried the clean and purge command shown below. Next, I tried to remove the sun-java6-jre from synaptic. I get the following message :E: sun-java6-jre: Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should reinstall it before attempting a removal. When I tried to follow the procedure suggested in the related question (from the link suggested below), I get the following message on trying to install again :Could not mark all packages for installation or upgrade.The following packages have unresolvable dependancies. Make sure that all required repositories are added and enabled in the preferences. sun-java6-bin : Depends: sun-java6-jre but it is not going to be installed