/usr/bin/dpkg returned an error when remove & install broken packages

Question

I tried to remove unstable openoffice and reinstall libreoffice however I accidently removed directory of openoffice under /opt before I purged it. Now I cannot clean the broken package, and cannot remove/install libreoffice too. apt-get -f install doesn't work with error:

....
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libreoffice-common_1%3a4.2.7-0ubuntu2_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

and I followed How to fix a broken package by removing the packages manually via dpkg but it did not remove it clean. Same problems hold still.

And I have unmet dependencies which I cannot clean or move up:

dpkg: error processing package libreoffice-calc (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 libreoffice-java-common
 libreoffice-sdbc-hsqldb
 libreoffice-core
 python3-uno
 libreoffice-math
 libreoffice-impress
 libreoffice-writer
 libreoffice-base-core
 libreoffice-gnome
 libreoffice-base
 libreoffice-sdbc-firebird
 libreoffice-report-builder-bin
 libreoffice-pdfimport
 libreoffice-avmedia-backend-gstreamer
 libreoffice-gtk
 libreoffice-base-drivers
 libreoffice-draw
 libreoffice-calc

Basically they depend on a package named libreoffice-common, but I have no idea how to purge or install it.

---

Update:

Followed instructions from mchid and sudo apt-get install ... reports (actually they did the same things as apt-get install libreoffice) terminated with:

Selecting previously unselected package xfonts-mathml.
Preparing to unpack .../xfonts-mathml_6ubuntu1_all.deb ...
Unpacking xfonts-mathml (6ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.6.7.1-1ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for shared-mime-info (1.2-0ubuntu3) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.10.1-0ubuntu2) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.22-1ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for bamfdaemon (0.5.1+14.04.20140409-0ubuntu1) ...
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.54ubuntu1.1) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.13-1) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-icon-theme (3.10.0-0ubuntu2) ...
Processing triggers for fontconfig (2.11.0-0ubuntu4.1) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libreoffice-common_1%3a4.2.7-0ubuntu2_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

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What all I know now, is that it seems I purged everything with libreoffice and openoffice. Using command:

sudo apt-get purge libreoffice*
sudo apt-get purge openoffice*
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get clean
sudo dpkg --configure -a #double check, reports nothing
sudo dpkg -L libreoffice
sudo dpkg -L openoffice

all of them shows they have been cleanly removed, however, I just couldn't install libreoffice, with a single line of /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1).

Answer 1

Assuming you are running regular ubuntu and not ubuntu-gnome, run the following commands to fix the problem:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get purge openoffice* libreoffice* python3-uno
sudo apt-get install libreoffice-java-common libreoffice-sdbc-hsqldb libreoffice-core python3-uno libreoffice-math libreoffice-impress libreoffice-writer libreoffice-base-core libreoffice-gnome libreoffice-base libreoffice-sdbc-firebird libreoffice-report-builder-bin libreoffice-pdfimport libreoffice-avmedia-backend-gstreamer libreoffice-gtk libreoffice-base-drivers libreoffice-draw libreoffice-calc

Answer 2

Thanks @mchid first, for trying to help. However in this case I have to remove openoffice clean, and sadly it's broken therefore there is no way to purge it in a normal way.

How to make this work? Fix the broken package first. So:

• Step 1. check if any packages broken.

  sudo dpkg -l | grep openoffice # check if any packages remained, and what are they
  sudo dpkg -l | grep libreoffice
  

Since I did have unclear package remove, I have to purge it:

• Step 2. prepare to install.

  sudo apt-get purge openoffice* libreoffice*
  

Repeat step 1 and 2 until dpkg -l | grep office command reports nothing more. Then there should be clean.

• Step 3. install again.

We can move up to fix openoffice, (cannot be purged by step 1 and 2) following: official guide to install openoffice on linux and there're lots of instructions on internet too.

• Step 4. purge it clean.

Once we are done, run: sudo apt-get -f install. There shouldn't be any problem. And we can remove the package again, since we now have apt-get working normally:

sudo apt-get purge openoffice*
sudo dpkg -l | grep openoffice # shouldn't report anything, since we cleanly removed it

• Step 5. install libreoffice.

and we can install libreoffice again:

sudo apt-get install libreoffice

Finally my libreoffice worked.