Jtdcftul

I got this error when I tried to install wine:

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree       

Reading state information... Done

winetricks is already the newest version (0.0+20180217-1).

0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

3 not fully installed or removed.

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dpkg: error processing package libopenal1:i386 (--configure):

 package is in a very bad inconsistent state; you should

 reinstall it before attempting configuration

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libwine:i386:

 libwine:i386 depends on libopenal1 (>= 1.14); however:

  Package libopenal1:i386 is not configured yet.



dpkg: error processing package libwine:i386 (--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 wine32:i386:

 wine32:i386 depends on libwine (= 3.0-1ubuntu1); however:

  Package libwine:i386 is not configured yet.



dpkg: error processing package wine32:i386 (--configure):

 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured

Errors were encountered while processing:

 libopenal1:i386

 libwine:i386

 wine32:i386

E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

As usual, in such cases the real cause is the first error, namely:

dpkg: error processing package libopenal1:i386 (--configure):

 package is in a very bad inconsistent state; you should

 reinstall it before attempting configuration

So, the wine package requires the libopenal1:i386 package to work, but this is in a "very bad inconsistent state". The following error messages are only dependency problems - wine can't be installed because also libopenal1 can't be installed, but wine would require it.

It is probably not your first try to install wine, this state happens only if multiple install/uninstall/upgrade tries failed and also the automatical correction mechanisms failed.

You shouldn't imagine what microsoft is doing with his .msi files. A deb package has only these components:

1. A tar.xz archive


2. Some package metadata (this is what is shown for a dpkg --info something.deb or with an apt-cache show something)


3. Install/uninstall scripts, these are typically 10-20 lines long shellscripts which are being called on package installation/uninstallation/upgrade. They are in /var/lib/dpkg/info, and their name is <packagename>.preinst, <packagename>.postinst, <packagename>.prerm and <packagename>.postrm.

If the package install/uninstall scripts give an error, your package goes into an inconsistent state. How deeply inconsistent, it depends on the circumstances. The important thing to know: it is not like some mysterious windows system failure requiring a reinstall. It is a simple error message in a simple installscript and you can easily fix it.

You can check your system for packages in inconsistent state with the command dpkg -C. As in Unixes it is usual, empty answer means that everything happened correctly and you have no bad package.

Most problems can be automatically fixed by an apt-get -f install. This command tries its best to take your system into a consistent state again. It is particularly useful if you are doing some "harder" things, like switching from a 32-bit system to a 64-bit one or vice versa without a reboot, or you are switching between distros, also without a reboot.

In your case, being this "very bad inconsistent state" the worst, an apt-get -f install probably won't work, but you can give him a try. If it doesn't work, your next task should be to fix this libopenal1:i386. It is some 3d-acceleration or direct hardware access library for the x11, I don't know exactly what it is exactly doing, but it isn't even important. What is important: it is coming into your system with the wine, so only wine needs it. Wine is using it probably to emulate graphically accelerated, 32-bit windows programs. So you can safely play with its removal/reinstall.

After apt-get -f install failed, your next step should be to exterminate this libopenal1:i386 from your system. The "strongest" thing you can do it is a dpkg --force-depends --purge libopenal1:i386. Probably also this won't work, because the error message clearly shows that the package requires a reinstall.

So, you have to reinstall libopenal1:i386 first. In /var/cache/apt/archives, you have your package files, it should contain a file matching libopenal1*i386.deb. If it doesn't, then you can use apt-get download libopenal1:i386 to download it, directory from the ubuntu package repositories.

A dpkg -i libopenal1*i386.deb will try to install this file again. If it goes, you have luck, an apt-get -f install will fix your system and install your wine correctly. If not, then you have to debug the install scripts.

_{Extend the question, what happened and I will extend the answer, on this point, what to do.}