First of all, I believe I should say that I just installed Ubuntu 18.04 LTS earlier this week so I basically don't know anything.
I was installing the python3 idle today and encountred an error:
dpkg: error processing package linux-modules-4.15.0-22-generic (--configure):
package is in a very bad inconsistent state; you should
reinstall it before attempting configuration
No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-image-4.15.0-22-generic:
linux-image-4.15.0-22-generic depends on linux-modules-4.15.0-22-generic; however:
Package linux-modules-4.15.0-22-generic is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing package linux-image-4.15.0-22-generic (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.27-3ubuntu1) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-22-generic:
linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-22-generic depends on linux-image-4.15.0-22-generic | linux-image-unsigned-4.15.0-22-generic; however:
Package linux-image-4.15.0-22-generic is not configured yet.
Package linux-image-unsigned-4.15.0-22-generic is not installed.
dpkg: error processing package linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-22-generic (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.
Processing triggers for man-db (2.8.3-2) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.13.3-11ubuntu1) ...
Setting up libtcl8.6:amd64 (8.6.8+dfsg-3) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-image-generic:
linux-image-generic depends on linux-image-4.15.0-22-generic; however:
Package linux-image-4.15.0-22-generic is not configured yet.
linux-image-generic depends on linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-22-generic; however:
Package linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-22-generic is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing package linux-image-generic (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Setting up libtk8.6:amd64 (8.6.8-4) ...
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
Setting up tk8.6-blt2.5 (2.5.3+dfsg-4) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-generic:
linux-generic depends on linux-image-generic (= 4.15.0.22.23); however:
Package linux-image-generic is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing package linux-generic (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Setting up blt (2.5.3+dfsg-4) ...
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
Setting up python3-tk:amd64 (3.6.5-3) ...
Setting up idle-python3.6 (3.6.5-3) ...
Setting up idle (3.6.5-3) ...
Setting up idle3 (3.6.5-3) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.27-3ubuntu1) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
linux-modules-4.15.0-22-generic
linux-image-4.15.0-22-generic
linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-22-generic
linux-image-generic
linux-generic
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
So I ran Sudo apt-get upgrade thinking it's just about upgrading the linux modules and I got the same error message. I look up the error message online and I find this post that has the same error message. So I first ran the command the asker used: sudo apt-get install -f and got this error message:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
5 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/12.9 MB of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
dpkg: error processing package linux-modules-4.15.0-22-generic (--configure):
package is in a very bad inconsistent state; you should
reinstall it before attempting configuration
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-image-4.15.0-22-generic:
linux-image-4.15.0-22-generic depends on linux-modules-4.15.0-22-generic; however:
Package linux-modules-4.15.0-22-generic is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing package linux-image-4.15.0-22-generic (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.
No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-22-generic:
linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-22-generic depends on linux-image-4.15.0-22-generic | linux-image-unsigned-4.15.0-22-generic; however:
Package linux-image-4.15.0-22-generic is not configured yet.
Package linux-image-unsigned-4.15.0-22-generic is not installed.
dpkg: error processing package linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-22-generic (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-image-generic:
linux-image-generic depends on linux-image-4.15.0-22-generic; however:
Package linux-image-4.15.0-22-generic is not configured yet.
linux-image-generic depends on linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-22-generic; however:
Package linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-22-generic is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing package linux-image-generic (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-genNo apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
eric:
linux-generic depends on linux-image-generic (= 4.15.0.22.23); however:
Package linux-image-generic is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing package linux-generic (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
linux-modules-4.15.0-22-generic
linux-image-4.15.0-22-generic
linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-22-generic
linux-image-generic
linux-generic
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
Which from what I understood differs a bit from the first in that the first said the package is not configured and the second said I should reinstall it because it's in a bad state before configuring. It gives an almost identical error message to that of the asker. so I tried the steps mentioned in the accepted answer. I ran this command sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list and then this one sudo software-properties-gtkand I get this error message:
WARNING:root:could not open file '/etc/apt/sources.list'
WARNING:root:could not open file '/etc/apt/sources.list'
So I wrote the second command again and it opened software-properties-gtk and wrote this into the terminal:
Gtk-Message: 20:43:48.389: GtkDialog mapped without a transient parent. This is discouraged.
So I used these settings. I hit Revert, nothing happened. I hit it again and still nothing happened. So, I hit Close and got this error message/notification. I realized that I can't follow with that tutorial because he just purged chrome and I can't purge linux modules. So, I reran sudo apt-get -f install and now, it shows a way shorter error message:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: The package linux-modules-4.15.0-22-generic needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.
I tried sudo apt-get clean and nothing showed up on the terminal and then I tried to use this command I saw on this post: sudo apt-get install --reinstall linux-modules-4.15.0-22-generic I don't know if that's the name of the package to reinstall but it was worth a try. I got the same error message.
Did I break something? Do I need to reformat my system?
Edit: Output of ls -la /etc/apt/sources.list is -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 84 May 26 20:43 /etc/apt/sources.list
Output of uname -a is Linux Oussema 4.15.0-20-generic #21-Ubuntu SMP Tue Apr 24 06:16:15 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Best Answer
From the comments I can read that you have cleaned out your sources.list file, so let's fix this first by copying the following block over into your terminal:
Now we can begin to fix your installation which seems to have ended up in a weird state.
First remove the removable packages after having run an update to get the proper package archives updated:
This should remove all removable packages so far except the one which managed to get messed up which we can then remove then by installing it and then removing it properly:
Now cleaning up the archives by running:
And now we can reinstall the packages properly after having run an complete update process:
with the following line:
This should have fixed your system into a complete working state again. Have fun and welcome to the Linux community.