package flashplugin-nonfree 10.0.1.218 really9.0.262.0ubuntu1 failed to install/upgrade: Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should reinstall it before attempting a removal.

[Werner Hett]

Binary package hint: flashplugin-nonfree

I am using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS - the Lucid Lynx

I constantly get the message:
Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should
reinstall it before attempting a removal.

However, when I try to get rid of or reinstall the flashplugin-nonfree
packages with synaptic, I get

Preconfiguring packages ...
dpkg: error processing flashplugin-nonfree (--remove):
 Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should
 reinstall it before attempting a removal.
Errors were encountered while processing:
 flashplugin-nonfree
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install. Trying to recover:

I also tried some command line commands, like

sudo apt-get purge flashplugin-nonfree
or
sudo aptitude reinstall flashplugin-nonfree

I also tried

sudo apt-get -f install

with the equally unpleasant result:

hew@latitude:~$ sudo apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  linux-headers-2.6.24-19-generic libcommons-collections3-java libfreebob0
  junit4 libcommons-pool-java libxpp3-java libcommons-el-java antlr
  libmockobjects-java libregexp-java libcommons-modeler-java
  liblog4j1.2-java openoffice.org-hyphenation-en-us libantlr-java
  libservlet2.4-java libcommons-cli-java libtomcat5.5-java binutils-static
  libbcel-java ant libcommons-launcher-java nvidia-kernel-common
  libcommons-logging-java libgcj-common libjaxp1.3-java libbsf-java
  classpath-gtkpeer openssh-blacklist libjline-java libasm2-java
  libcommons-dbcp-java libxerces2-java libcommons-collections-java
  libcommons-beanutils-java libzip1 classpath-common
  libcommons-digester-java cacao libhamcrest-java libservlet2.3-java
  libcommons-lang-java odt2txt classpath libaudit0 linux-headers-2.6.24-19
  libmx4j-java libclassworlds-java libxstream-java
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following extra packages will be installed:
  flashplugin-installer flashplugin-nonfree
Suggested packages:
  konqueror-nsplugins ttf-xfree86-nonfree xfs
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  flashplugin-installer
The following packages will be upgraded:
  flashplugin-nonfree
1 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 122 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B/21.5kB of archives.
After this operation, 61.4kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Preconfiguring packages ...
dpkg: error processing flashplugin-nonfree (--remove):
 Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should
 reinstall it before attempting a removal.
Errors were encountered while processing:
 flashplugin-nonfree
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
hew@latitude:~$

What can I do?

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: flashplugin-nonfree 10.0.1.218+really9.0.262.0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-22.33-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-22-generic i686
AptOrdering: flashplugin-nonfree: Remove
Architecture: i386
Date: Fri Jun 25 15:47:41 2010
ErrorMessage: Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should reinstall it before attempting a removal.
SourcePackage: flashplugin-nonfree
Title: package flashplugin-nonfree 10.0.1.218+really9.0.262.0ubuntu1 failed to install/upgrade: Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should reinstall it before attempting a removal.