Comment 4 for bug 1285791

Correction: apt-get purge openjdk-6-jdk *after* uninstalling it does not work around it (it refuses to purge
because the package isn't installed).
The correct workaround if you know the package is uninstalled is sudo dpkg --purge openjdk-6-jdk.

The problem is present if the package is not installed but is configured, e.g. if you see:

$ dpkg-query -l openjdk-6-jdk
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Cfg-files/Unpacked/Failed-cfg/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-=========================-=========================-==================================================================
rc openjdk-6-jdk 6b27-1.12.6-1ubuntu0.10.0 OpenJDK Development Kit (JDK)

instead of

$ dpkg-query -l openjdk-6-jdk
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Cfg-files/Unpacked/Failed-cfg/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-=========================-=========================-==================================================================
un openjdk-6-jdk <none> (no description available)