Cannot uninstall or reinstall a package

Question

I decided to install Quake2 for Ubuntu Linux...not a great idea. I'm an experienced admin (Unix)...but this issue has me scratching my head. I've started several "fix its" from different forums but I'm afraid I'm going to lose track of my changes.

sudo apt-get install quake2 game-data-packager
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: The package quake2-full-data needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.

I get this error after having "successfully" (I guess) installed quake2 - I first knew there was an issue when gdebi (you need gdebi to install the .deb files of quake2) complained of another update process running concurrently.

I've tried:

rm /var/lib/apt/lists/* -vf
dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq quake2
gedit /var/lib/dpkg/status (and removed quake2 section)

My Ubuntu version is: Linux hostname 5.3.0-42-generic #34~18.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Feb 28 13:42:26 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Have you run sudo apt update before installing the package? Also please check cat /etc/apt/sources.list and make sure your sources list is correct for your release. — Raffa, May 03 '20 at 19:38
I ran sudo apt-get update AFTER this issue...I think with no issues. Should I run it now and see if there are any errors? — DaveUnix, May 03 '20 at 19:44
APT needs to be updated before installing or removing packages by running sudo apt update or sudo apt-get update to update its cache. Please refer to this answer and make sure your repositories list is correct. — Raffa, May 03 '20 at 19:49
My sources file is too long to post here even without comments. Where / how can I post it? By the "Answer Your Question" button at the bottom? (I don't want to close my own question) — DaveUnix, May 03 '20 at 19:51
sudo apt-get install - does not: sudo apt-get install Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done E: The package quake2-full-data needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it. — DaveUnix, May 03 '20 at 19:58
quake2-full-data isn't a package from the repository, it is locally created. Check this question if it can help you — jpalecek, May 03 '20 at 20:02
Not a package from a repo? I'm confused. Then why does sudo apt-get install Yell and scream about it? — DaveUnix, May 03 '20 at 20:14
@DaveUnix: not from a repo - meaning the game data packager or whatnot created it on your machine, then installed. APT is seeing it as a package that was installed and (probably) broken, but can't see a source to reinstall it from. You can drop it by apt remove quake2-full-data. Or regenerate the package, install it with dpkg -i and play Quake! — jpalecek, May 03 '20 at 21:55
sudo apt remove quake2-full-data [sudo] password for pewpew: Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done E: The package quake2-full-data needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it. — DaveUnix, May 04 '20 at 12:43
Probably an invalid repo text in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*** — Knud Larsen, May 04 '20 at 15:36

Cannot uninstall or reinstall a package

0 Answers0