On Wed, 2019-04-24 at 10:42 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote: > I have repeatedly received the following error message: > > E: galternatives: package is in a very bad inconsistent state; > > you should reinstall it before attempting configuration > > I don't recall what triggered it last week. Today I wanted to install > "apt-rdepends" which displayed the above error message. I closed the > message window. The box next to apt-rdepends was colored green > indicating it had been successfully installed. I did a test run of it > and got reasonably looking output. > > I attempt to reinstall "galternatives" and receive: > > E: /var/cache/apt/archives/galternatives_0.13.5+nmu4+deb9u1_all.deb: > > subprocess new pre-removal script returned error exit status 1 > > galternatives > > What should I do next?
Look carefully at everything from the "apt install --reinstall galternatives" command to the end of the output from it. It shouldn't be all that long but is likely to have diagnostic information you can use to identify and correct the problem. If that doesn't clarify it enough, post the output, all of it. Many of us have seen install failures from time to time and given enough output might have suggestions. Exit code from a script bundled in the .deb file is too generic to be useful by itself. Regards, Tom Dial > TIA > > > >
