Cannot remove package vim, using purge or remove

[surfless]

When I do an upgrade, I get the following issue

$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
  libxcb-render0 libxcb-shape0 libxcb-shm0 libxcb-xv0 libxcb1
5 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
3 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 79.8kB of archives.
After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/main libxcb1 1.1.93-0ubuntu3.1 [48.4kB]
Get:2 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/main libxcb-render0 1.1.93-0ubuntu3.1 [11.2kB]
Get:3 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/main libxcb-shape0 1.1.93-0ubuntu3.1 [5842B]
Get:4 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/main libxcb-shm0 1.1.93-0ubuntu3.1 [5252B]
Get:5 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/main libxcb-xv0 1.1.93-0ubuntu3.1 [9140B]
Fetched 79.8kB in 0s (386kB/s)
(Reading database ... 127768 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace libxcb1 1.1.93-0ubuntu3 (using .../libxcb1_1.1.93-0ubuntu3.1_amd64.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libxcb1 ...
Preparing to replace libxcb-render0 1.1.93-0ubuntu3 (using .../libxcb-render0_1.1.93-0ubuntu3.1_amd64.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libxcb-render0 ...
Preparing to replace libxcb-shape0 1.1.93-0ubuntu3 (using .../libxcb-shape0_1.1.93-0ubuntu3.1_amd64.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libxcb-shape0 ...
Preparing to replace libxcb-shm0 1.1.93-0ubuntu3 (using .../libxcb-shm0_1.1.93-0ubuntu3.1_amd64.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libxcb-shm0 ...
Preparing to replace libxcb-xv0 1.1.93-0ubuntu3 (using .../libxcb-xv0_1.1.93-0ubuntu3.1_amd64.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libxcb-xv0 ...
Setting up vim (2:7.2.079-1ubuntu5) ...
dpkg (subprocess): unable to execute post-installation script: Exec format error
dpkg: error processing vim (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Setting up vim-gnome (2:7.2.079-1ubuntu5) ...
update-alternatives: error or eof reading /var/lib/dpkg/alternatives/vim for update_mode ()
dpkg: error processing vim-gnome (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 2
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of vim-full:
 vim-full depends on vim-gnome (>= 1:7.1-135+1); however:
  Package vim-gnome is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing vim-full (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Setting up libxcb1 (1.1.93-0ubuntu3.1) ...
No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.

Setting up libxcb-render0 (1.1.93-0ubuntu3.1) ...

Setting up libxcb-shape0 (1.1.93-0ubuntu3.1) ...

Setting up libxcb-shm0 (1.1.93-0ubuntu3.1) ...

Setting up libxcb-xv0 (1.1.93-0ubuntu3.1) ...

Processing triggers for libc6 ...
ldconfig deferred processing now taking place
Errors were encountered while processing:
 vim
 vim-gnome
 vim-full
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

$ sudo apt-get -f purge vim
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  vim*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
3 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 1937kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
(Reading database ... 127767 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing vim ...
dpkg (subprocess): unable to execute pre-removal script: Exec format error
dpkg: error processing vim (--purge):
 subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 2
dpkg (subprocess): unable to execute post-installation script: Exec format error
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 vim
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I tried this:

$ sudo dpkg --purge vim
(Reading database ... 127767 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing vim ...
dpkg (subprocess): unable to execute pre-removal script: Exec format error
dpkg: error processing vim (--purge):
 subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 2
dpkg (subprocess): unable to execute post-installation script: Exec format error
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Err

And this:

$sudo apt-get -f purge vim
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  vim*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
3 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 1937kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
(Reading database ... 127767 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing vim ...
dpkg (subprocess): unable to execute pre-removal script: Exec format error
dpkg: error processing vim (--purge):
 subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 2
dpkg (subprocess): unable to execute post-installation script: Exec format error
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 vim
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)ors were encountered while processing:
 vim

What should I try next?

[Felix Crux (felixc)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this issue and helping to make Ubuntu better. Examining the information you have given us, this does not appear to be a bug report so we are closing it and converting it to a question in the support tracker.

We appreciate the difficulties you are facing, but it would make more sense to raise problems you are having in the support tracker at https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu if you are uncertain if they are bugs. For help on reporting bugs, see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs .