what to do if package can not be removed?

[andreas.sumper@nimbus.at]

Hi list!

I have a strange behaviour with openvpn.
I wanted to upgrade from 1.6.0 to 2.0
by typing apt-get install openvpn after inserting the sarge entries in
my sources.list.
But it stopped with some strange error-codes
like 143

So I tried to remove it by typing apt-get
remove openvpn.

devastator:/# apt-get remove openvpn
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  openvpn
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed,
1 to remove and 6  not upgraded.
1 packages not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking
467kB will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
dpkg: error processing openvpn (--remove):
 Package is in a very bad inconsistent
state - you should
 reinstall it before attempting
a removal.
Errors were encountered while processing:
 openvpn
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned
an error code (1)

The next thing I tried was reinstalling
the package by typing
dpkg --force-remove-reinstreq -r openvpn
dpkg - warning, overriding problem because
--force enabled:
 Package is in a very bad inconsistent
state - you should
 reinstall it before attempting
a removal.
(Reading database ... 8910 files and
directories currently installed.)
Removing openvpn ...
Stopping OpenVPN
/usr/sbin/invoke-rc.d: line 439:  3670
Terminated              "${INITDPREFIX}${INITSCRIPTID}"
"${saction}" "$@"
invoke-rc.d: initscript openvpn, action
"stop" failed.
dpkg: error processing openvpn (--remove):
 subprocess pre-removal script
returned error exit status 143
Usage: openvpn {start|stop}
invoke-rc.d: initscript openvpn, action
"restart" failed.
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 subprocess post-installation script
returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 openvpn

I also tried to download newer deb-files
of this package by using apt-get clean and apt-get update, but the problem
still remains.
Is there any other possibility to remove
a package without using apt or dpkg to make this thing work again?

Thanks in advance!
Andy
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