Synaptic, Update Manager & Software Manager All Broken <SOLVED>

[rbeltz48]

Running Mint 17.3 MATE. Somehow or another I keep getting this error with Synaptic, Update Manager and Software Manager:

"The package adobereader-enu:i386 needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it."

When I try to reinstall Adobe Reader Debian package with the GDebi Package Installer, I get this error:

Software Index is Broken
"This is a major failure of your software management system. Please check for broken packages with synaptic, check the file permissions and correctness of the file '/etc/apt/sources.list' and reload the software information with: 'sudo apt-get update' and 'sudo apt-get install -f'. "

I have tried both Sudo commands above and others that I've found through a search engine and nothing has worked. Any ideas? Thanks.

[gm10]

Run these commands

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sudo rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* 
sudo apt-get update

If that generates an error post the full output here, not just the error message, as well as the output of

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inxi -r

If there was no error above run

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sudo apt-get install -f

and if there's an error, post the full output.

[rbeltz48]

All commands ran well except the last one. Here's the full output for the final command. Same error as before:

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rick@Rick-Production ~ $ sudo apt-get install -f
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: The package adobereader-enu:i386 needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.

[gm10]

All commands ran well except the last one. Here's the full output for the final command. Same error as before:

E: The package adobereader-enu:i386 needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.

That error is normal though because that package is not in the repository (nor does Adobe even still support the reader on Linux). If you actually need it (do you?), you'll need to install the package manually. I take it from your first post that you still have the package, so try

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sudo dpkg -i <packagename>

(replace <packagename> with the name and, if it's in a different folder, the path of your Acrobat Reader .deb package)

This will possibly complain about missing dependencies, so just run

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sudo apt-get install -f

again afterwards, that should pull them in.

PS: If you do not actually want to install Acrobat Reader, then sudo apt-get remove adobereader-enu:i386 should take care of it.

[rbeltz48]

Thanks gm10. Before you replied back I poked around and found a solution. I was able to forcibly remove the Adobe Reader (which I really don't need) like this:

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sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq adobereader-enu
[sudo] password for rick: 
dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled:
dpkg: warning: package is in a very bad inconsistent state; you should
 reinstall it before attempting a removal
(Reading database ... 208726 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing adobereader-enu (9.5.5) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.6.7.1-1ubuntu1) ...
rick@Rick-Production ~ $

Synaptic, Software Manager and Update Manager are now restored and work OK. I figured there must be something wrong with that version of Adobe Reader. Your advice motivated me to look deeper into the error which I did. Thanks for the motivation! Good to know there are good people like you here on the forums who are willing to help! Thanks again.