Attempted to 'apt-get upgrade' my knoppix system into an unstable
distro and everything seemed to go OK until it tried to install joe.

Here's a log of what happens when I try to manually install it:

*********************************************************************************
omelas:/tmp# apt-get install joe
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following packages will be upgraded
  joe
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 484 not upgraded.
332 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B/141kB of archives.
After unpacking 4096B disk space will be freed.
Selecting previously deselected package joe.
(Reading database ... 111496 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace joe 2.8-21 (using .../archives/joe_2.8-23_i386.deb)
...
Unpacking replacement joe ...
/var/lib/dpkg/info/joe.postrm: line 3: /usr/bin/update-menus: Permission
denied
dpkg: warning - old post-removal script returned error exit status 1
dpkg - trying script from the new package instead ...
/var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/postrm: line 3: /usr/bin/update-menus: Permission
denied
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/joe_2.8-23_i386.deb
(--unpack):
 subprocess new post-removal script returned error exit status 1
/var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/postrm: line 3: /usr/bin/update-menus: Permission
denied
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 subprocess post-removal script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/joe_2.8-23_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
*********************************************************************************

Looking at the errors and doing an 'apt-cache search update-menus', it
thought that I was missing the menu package.  Tried 'apt-get install menu'
and it automatically tried to install joe. Did an 'apt-get remove menu'
and from that it looks like menu is actually installed, so joe is
pointing to the wrong directory for the "update-menus" command. The
problem I'm having now is that anytime I apt-get install anything, the
system tries to complete the installation of the joe package. I tried to
do an apt-get remove, and I get:


*********************************************************************************
omelas:/usr/sbin# apt-get remove joe
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  joe
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 492 not upgraded.
332 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B of archives.
After unpacking 406kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
dpkg: error processing joe (--remove):
 Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should
 reinstall it before attempting a removal.
Errors were encountered while processing:
 joe
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
*********************************************************************************

A reinstall leads to the same error as the install attempt.  

My question is whether there is a method to just purge the pacakge
from my system? I don't care about this package since I'll never
use it.

Tnx,
~Deepak


-- 
Deepak Saxena - dsaxena@plexity.net