Fix Package is in a very bad inconsistent state

Posted by Benjamin Piller on Ask Ubuntu See other posts from Ask Ubuntu or by Benjamin Piller
Published on 2012-06-09T19:51:54Z Indexed on 2012/06/09 22:47 UTC
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I can't update my system because it freezes while installing a third-party update (zramswap-enabler)!!

Sometimes I get the following message in Update manager:

Could not initialize the package information An unresolvable problem occurred while initializing the package information.

Please report this bug against the 'update-manager' package and include the following error message:

E:The package zramswap-enabler needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.

I tried to remove the zramswap-enabler, but it's impossible because I get the following message:

dpkg: error processing zramswap-enabler (--remove):
 Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should
 reinstall it before attempting a removal.
Errors were encountered while processing:
 zramswap-enabler
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Actually i would really reinstall that package, but it is unable to do it!

If i remove this third-party PPA then the system is warning me about a very very serious problem.

So why can i not install/reinstall/remove/update this package and why freezes the updater if i try to update?

-S O L U T I O N-:

Okay! Finally i found the solution for this Problem!

Step 1. Make sure that your PPA is correctly

Step 2. Remove the broken package via the following command:

sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq zramswap-enabler

Step 3. install the package again (sudo apt-get install zramswap-enabler)

Step 4. After restart (not necessary) you are able to install the updates correctly!

Actually you can fix any "Package is in a very bad inconsistent state” Issues with this solution!!!

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