package man-db 2.5.7-2 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1

[ljnelke]

I don't know what happened. Today I updated recent updates which were automatically sent to me (easypeasy on an Aspire D257-13450. Everything was running fine until the upgrade. Now my computer fails to awaken from sleep after closing the lid or resting until the power utility darkens the screen. Also, the network now doesn't log into the available wireless and in fact, the wireless is disabled upon awakening. So, I'm trying to reinstall the previous Easypeasy and now it won't install the wireless drivers. Go figure.

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: man-db 2.5.7-2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Sat Jul 6 22:24:56 2013
ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
LiveMediaBuild: EasyPeasy 1.6
SourcePackage: man-db
Title: package man-db 2.5.7-2 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Thanks for your report. The basic problem here is that man-db's trigger uses debconf to decide whether to update the manual page database, but debconf is not always reliably usable in triggers. I finally figured out a simple way to avoid this problem, which I'm tracking as bug 1372673. If you are still affected by this locally (which I realise is unlikely in the case of some of the older bugs of this type), then running "sudo dpkg --configure -a && sudo apt-get -f install" in a terminal should normally be enough to get the package management system back to a sensible state.