package dnsmasq-base 2.75-1ubuntu0.16.04.5 failed to install/upgrade: package is in a very bad inconsistent state; you should reinstall it before attempting configuration

[Daniel Schaller]

Continues throwing errors

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: dnsmasq-base 2.75-1ubuntu0.16.04.5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-171.200-generic 4.4.203
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-171-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.21
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Jan 23 10:48:05 2020
DuplicateSignature:
 package:dnsmasq-base:2.75-1ubuntu0.16.04.5
 Processing triggers for systemd (229-4ubuntu21.23) ...
 dpkg: error processing package dnsmasq-base (--configure):
  package is in a very bad inconsistent state; you should
ErrorMessage: package is in a very bad inconsistent state; you should reinstall it before attempting configuration
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-01-19 (1829 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140722.2)
RelatedPackageVersions:
 dpkg 1.18.4ubuntu1.6
 apt 1.2.32
SourcePackage: dnsmasq
Title: package dnsmasq-base 2.75-1ubuntu0.16.04.5 failed to install/upgrade: package is in a very bad inconsistent state; you should reinstall it before attempting configuration
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

While the error message mentions dnsmasq, the only errors I'm spotting in the log file involve corefonts:

Err:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/impact32.exe
  Protocol "http" not supported or disabled in libcurl

0% [Working]

E: Failed to fetch https://managedway.dl.sourceforge.net/project/corefonts/the fonts/final/impact32.exe Protocol "http" not supported or disabled in libcurl

Perhaps this relates to upstream bug https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=912956 ?

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

Ubuntu 16.04 (xenial) reached end-of-standard-support on April 29, 2021.

This issue has sat with a status of 'Incomplete' for more almost three years now without any comment so it is being closed as 'Invalid'.

Please feel free to re-open this bug report if this is still an issue when using a currently supported release of Ubuntu making sure that you tell us in which release you still experience this issue.