Unable to use apt: I wasn't able to locate file for the ... package

Question：

Recently, I tried to install vmware-server from a deb package converted from rpm alien. The installation did not succeed and it broke the package managers' internal data so that any attempt to use the Update Manager, Synaptic, Aptitute or apt-get ends in the same message:

Writing extended state information... Error!
E: I wasn't able to locate file for the vmware-server package. This might mean you need to manually fix this package.

Solution：

Have you tried refreshing the sources and updating? 
If that doesn't work, try ：

apt-get -f install