why apt-get cannot install any application?

Question

when trying to install application using apt-get, I always get

/bin/sh: /usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure: not found

for example:

$sudo apt-get install libssl-dev  
[sudo] password for camino:   
Reading package lists... Done  
Building dependency tree         
Reading state information... Done  
 ....

Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y  
WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated!  
  libssl-dev libssl0.9.8  
Install these packages without verification [y/N]? y  


/bin/sh: /usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure: not found  
Setting up debconf (1.5.35+maemo3+0m6) ...  
exec: 19: /usr/share/debconf/frontend: not found  
dpkg: error processing debconf (--configure):    
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2  
Errors were encountered while processing:  
 debconf  

$sudo dpkg-reconfigure libssl-dev
sudo: unable to execute /usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure: No such file or directory

$ls /usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure
/usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure

$which dpkg-reconfigure
/usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure

$dpkg-reconfigure
bash: /usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure: /usr/bin/perl.real: bad interpreter: No such file or directory

Any suggestions?

===================================================

Thanks all .

the issue has been fixed ,

I use dpkg to show info about debconf

$dpkg -l |grep debconf

ri debconf 1.5.35+maemo3+0m6 Debian configuration management system
ii debconf-i18n 1.5.35+maemo3+0m6 full internationalization support for debcon
ii po-debconf 1.0.16 tool for managing templates file translation
ii ssl-cert 1.0.23ubuntu2 simple debconf wrapper for OpenSSL

it is very strange that debconf is maemo , so I copy debconf and frontend from other's ubuntu machine,
it works now!
but dpkg -l still show it was maemo.

Thanks

Answer 1

Your system is so broken that I will recommend a fresh installation.

Rationale: If these very broken things are just the tip of the iceberg then this system will give you a LOT of problems in time to come. Get it in a known state - the easiest way to do so is with a fresh install.

(and then don't do the things you did, again).

Answer 2

Unless you only messed up your PATH variable, you may have somehow deleted an important program.

-What does your $PATH variable say? -Have you deleted any directories since apt-get has last worked?

Answer 3

try sudo aptitude remove -> sudo aptitude update --> and then try to intall again sudo aptitude install libssl-dev and sudo dpkg-reconfigure libssl-dev

Answer 4

I suspect their may be something wrong with apt or dpkg-config or possible your bash session.

Try running this because it probably can't hurt

sudo su -      (this lets you become root and uses its settings)

apt-get update && sudo apt-get update && sudo aptitude full-upgrade

exit           (get out of root)

The two apt-get updates are intentional. If there is a problem with one, the second run may fix the first run. You can also replace full-upgrade with safe-upgrade if you don't want to clean unused packages.

Answer 5

bash: /usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure: /usr/bin/perl.real: bad interpreter: No such file or directory

perl.real? What the heck? Something or someone has modified your /usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure to contain a wrong path to Perl.

Edit the /usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure with your favourite text editor and sudo, for example sudo nano -w /usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure and change the beginning of the file from

#!/usr/bin/perl.real -w

to

#!/usr/bin/perl -w