E: Cannot get debconf version. Is debconf installed?

Question

I installed Java 7 and later I got troubles with my system, I can't update anymore. The package system is broken.

Check if you are using third party repositories. If so disable them, since they are a common source of problems. Furthermore run the following command in a Terminal:

1. sudo dpkg --check ==> no results, does not recognise command

2. sudo apt-get check

   Reading package lists... Done
   Building dependency tree       
   Reading state information... Done
   You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these.
   The following packages have unmet dependencies:
    libc6 : Depends: libgcc1 but it is not installed
            Depends: tzdata but it is not installed
   E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f.
   

3. apt-cache policy debconf

   debconf:
     Installed: (none)
     Candidate: 1.5.42ubuntu1
     Version table:
        1.5.42ubuntu1 0
           500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main i386 Packages
   

4. apt-get install -f

   The following packages have unmet dependencies:
   libc6: Depends: libc-bin (= 2.15-0ubuntu10.5) but 2.15-0ubuntu10.5 is installed
          Depends: libgcc1 but it is not installed
          Depends: tzdata but it is not installed
   
   sudo apt-get install -f
   Reading package lists... Done
   Building dependency tree       
   Reading state information... Done
   Correcting dependencies... Done
   The following extra packages will be installed:
     apt-utils coreutils debconf debconf-i18n dpkg libacl1 libapt-inst1.4
     libapt-pkg4.12 libattr1 libbz2-1.0 libdb5.1 libgcc1 liblocale-gettext-perl
     liblzma5 libselinux1 libstdc++6 libtext-charwidth-perl libtext-iconv-perl
     libtext-wrapi18n-perl perl-base tar tzdata xz-utils zlib1g
   Suggested packages:
     debconf-doc debconf-utils whiptail dialog gnome-utils
     libterm-readline-gnu-perl libgtk2-perl libnet-ldap-perl libqtgui4-perl
     libqtcore4-perl apt bzip2 ncompress xz-lzma
   The following NEW packages will be installed:
     apt-utils coreutils debconf debconf-i18n dpkg libacl1 libapt-inst1.4
     libapt-pkg4.12 libattr1 libbz2-1.0 libdb5.1 libgcc1 liblocale-gettext-perl
     liblzma5 libselinux1 libstdc++6 libtext-charwidth-perl libtext-iconv-perl
     libtext-wrapi18n-perl perl-base tar tzdata xz-utils zlib1g
   0 upgraded, 24 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
   2 not fully installed or removed.
   Need to get 0 B/9303 kB of archives.
   After this operation, 29.7 MB of additional disk space will be used.
   Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
   perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
   perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
       LANGUAGE = (unset),
       LC_ALL = (unset),
       LC_TIME = "de_CH.UTF-8",
       LC_MONETARY = "de_CH.UTF-8",
       LC_ADDRESS = "de_CH.UTF-8",
       LC_TELEPHONE = "de_CH.UTF-8",
       LC_NAME = "de_CH.UTF-8",
       LC_MEASUREMENT = "de_CH.UTF-8",
       LC_IDENTIFICATION = "de_CH.UTF-8",
       LC_NUMERIC = "de_CH.UTF-8",
       LC_PAPER = "de_CH.UTF-8",
       LANG = "en_US.UTF-8"
       are supported and installed on your system.
   perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
   locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory
   E: Cannot get debconf version. Is debconf installed?
   debconf: apt-extracttemplates failed: No such file or directory
   dpkg: regarding .../libgcc1_1%3a4.6.3-1ubuntu5_i386.deb containing libgcc1, pre-dependency problem:
    libgcc1 pre-depends on multiarch-support
     multiarch-support is unpacked, but has never been configured.
   dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libgcc1_1%3a4.6.3-1ubuntu5_i386.deb (--unpack):
    pre-dependency problem - not installing libgcc1
   No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                                 Errors were encountered while processing:
    /var/cache/apt/archives/libgcc1_1%3a4.6.3-1ubuntu5_i386.deb
   E: Internal Error, No file name for libc6
   W: Could not perform immediate configuration on 'multiarch-support:i386'. Please see man 5 apt.conf under APT::Immediate-Configure for details. (2)
   E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
   

Answer 1

If coreutils is not installed, your system is seriously hosed.

Does /bin/date exist and work? If yes, “just” your package database is corrupt. In this case, restore /var/lib/dpkg/status from a backup – e.g. /var/lib/dpkg/status-old or one of the files /var/backups/dpkg.status.* (remember to uncompress the *.gz files).