Cannot un-install a package

[denarced]

It would appear that this is a rather popular topic and I checked a few threads but they didn't help me at all.
Here's the deal: I installed something by mistake. A driver for my epson printer/driver .. the file's name is pips-snx100-debian4.0-3.3.0-CG.install.
I installed some packages and I was able to remove most of them but not all.
pips-snx100 will not go away, it's broken.
Some commands:

denarced@deskUbu:~/Desktop$ sudo apt-get remove pips-snx100
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  pips-snx100
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 3658kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
(Reading database ... 169243 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing pips-snx100 ...
Package `cupsys' is not installed.
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files,
and dpkg --contents (= dpkg-deb --contents) to list their contents.
dpkg: error processing pips-snx100 (--remove):
 subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 pips-snx100
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

denarced@deskUbu:~/Desktop$ sudo apt-get --force-yes purge pips-snx100
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  pips-snx100*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 3658kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
(Reading database ... 169243 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing pips-snx100 ...
Package `cupsys' is not installed.
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files,
and dpkg --contents (= dpkg-deb --contents) to list their contents.
dpkg: error processing pips-snx100 (--purge):
 subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 pips-snx100
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

denarced@deskUbu:~/Desktop$ sudo dpkg --info pips-snx100
dpkg-deb: failed to read archive `pips-snx100': No such file or directory

What to do?

[zvacet]

sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq pips-snx100

[denarced]

sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq pips-snx100

denarced@deskUbu:~$ sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq pips-snx100
(Reading database ... 169243 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing pips-snx100 ...
Package `cupsys' is not installed.
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files,
and dpkg --contents (= dpkg-deb --contents) to list their contents.
dpkg: error processing pips-snx100 (--remove):
subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
pips-snx100

no go

[denarced]

I did a little search and I found a bunch of file relating to this pips-snx100 package from the following directories
/var/crash/
/var/lib/dpkg/info/
/usr/share/doc/pips-snx100-3.3.0
/usr/share/doc/pips-snx100
/usr/share/locale/en/LC_MESSAGES/
/usr/lib/

Would it fix the problem if I just delete these ??
Cause I'm dying to solve this since I can't install packages anymore

[denarced]

Found something that might actually help
This is from /var/lib/dpkg/status
Maybe it'll help someone to figure out what's going on

Package: pips-snx100
Status: purge ok half-configured
Priority: optional
Section: graphics
Installed-Size: 3572
Maintainer: epson <pips@localdomain>
Architecture: i386
Version: 3.3.0-1
Provides: pips-printer
Depends: libstdc++6, libc6, pips-common (>= 3.3.0)
Description: Photo Image Print System - Easy Install System (i386)
 Photo Image Print System is a printer driver for Epson Inkjet Printers.

[Partyboi2]

Have you got the cupsys package installed?

sudo apt-get install cupsys

Then try removing pips-snx100

[denarced]

Have you got the cupsys package installed?

sudo apt-get install cupsys

Then try removing pips-snx100

Can't install a thing..
Tried it anyway and no go

Any other ideas??
Getting desperate and I found an archived forum page which gives a fix but nothing too pretty
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-788820.html

[jacksaff]

sudo aptitude remove pips-snx100

Should give you some options if the package won't go cleanly.

[jjgomera]

go to /var/lib/dpkg/info and remove any entries about pips-snx100

[denarced]

go to /var/lib/dpkg/info and remove any entries about pips-snx100

this did the trick
I can once again use apt
It's not a pretty solution but it'll have to do

For reference, here's what I ultimately did

1) Check the pips-snx100 entries

denarced@deskUbu:/var/lib/dpkg/info$ ll | grep pips
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root      0 2009-08-31 20:53 pips-common.list
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   1055 2008-09-19 04:40 pips-common.postrm
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   3606 2009-08-31 15:25 pips-snx100.list
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   4534 2008-09-19 04:41 pips-snx100.md5sums
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   1832 2008-09-19 04:41 pips-snx100.postinst
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    978 2008-09-19 04:41 pips-snx100.postrm
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   1726 2008-09-19 04:41 pips-snx100.prerm

2) Move the stuff elsewhere ( rm later if no problemo )

denarced@deskUbu:/var/lib/dpkg/info$ sudo mv pips-snx100* /home/denarced/Desktop/pips

3) Let apt clear itself

denarced@deskUbu:~/Desktop/pips$ sudo apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  pips-snx100
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 3658kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
(Reading database ... 
dpkg: serious warning: files list file for package `pips-snx100' missing, assuming package has no files currently installed.
169174 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing pips-snx100 ...

and I can once again use apt
hooray
I'd still like to know what really happened but small chance for that, right

I'll let you know if problems arise but I'd say this one's solved