this means that Applications manager or apt-worker is currently running. you need to close the former and wait for the latter to finish. the deinstallation icon should only gone when you have successfully deinstalled the pacakge.
/home/user # apt-get install --reinstall -y kernel kernel-flasher Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: libzeemote-conf-client libzeemote Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them. 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 reinstalled, 0 to remove and 47 not upgraded. Need to get 2040kB of archives. After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used. Get:1 https://downloads.maemo.nokia.com ./ kernel-flasher 2.6.28-20094803.3+0m5 [155kB] Get:2 https://downloads.maemo.nokia.com ./ kernel 2.6.28-20094803.3+0m5 [1885kB] Fetched 2040kB in 18s (111kB/s) (Reading database ... 33561 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to replace kernel-flasher 2.6.28-20094803.3+0m5 (using .../kernel-flasher_2.6.28-20094803.3+0m5_armel.deb) ... Unpacking replacement kernel-flasher ... Preparing to replace kernel 2.6.28-20094803.3+0m5 (using .../kernel_2.6.28-20094803.3+0m5_armel.deb) ... Unpacking replacement kernel ... Setting up kernel (2.6.28-20094803.3+0m5) ... Setting up kernel-flasher (2.6.28-20094803.3+0m5) ... softupd (stop) running, process 1657 softupd (stop) pre-stop, (main) process 1657 softupd (stop) stopping, process 1657 softupd (stop) killed, process 1657 softupd (stop) post-stop softupd (stop) waiting Version 0.4.3 started Waiting for messages flasher v2.8.2 (Jan 18 2010) Image 'kernel', size 1704 kB Version 2.6.28-20094803.3+0m5 Using flashing protocol Mk II. ISI message from new source (10, 00) Found device RX-51, hardware revision 2101 Entering update mode Beginning image update nand: Finishing % 1024 / 1704 kB 4687 kB/s] nand: Flashing kernel image Image flashed successfully in 1.390 s (1225 kB/s)! Total flashing time 1.443 s Leaving update mode SIGTERM received /home/user # apt-get remove -y kernel-power kernel-power-modules Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Package kernel-power is not installed, so not removed Package kernel-power-modules is not installed, so not removed The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: libzeemote-conf-client libzeemote Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them. 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 47 not upgraded.