package emacs24 24.3+1-2ubuntu1 failed to install/upgrade: ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1

[Dominique Gonzalez]

Automatic upgrade of this package failed during the upgrade to Ubuntu 14.4.
Manual installation afterward succeeds.

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: emacs24
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.11.0-12.19-generic 3.11.3
Uname: Linux 3.11.0-12-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Apr 18 09:44:50 2014
DuplicateSignature: package:emacs24:24.3+1-2ubuntu1:ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
ErrorMessage: ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-10-23 (176 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" - Release amd64 (20131016.1)
SourcePackage: emacs24
Title: package emacs24 24.3+1-2ubuntu1 failed to install/upgrade: ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2014-04-18 (0 days ago)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Lennart Karssen (l.c.karssen)]

I had to remove the emacs24 package, which led to the removal of several other packages (e.g. apel, org-mode, auctex, emacs-goodies-el), then reinstalled emacs24. This went well. Next I reinstalled the packages that depended on emacs24 (apel, org-mode, etc.). The install was succesful, but I notced this error message for each of them:

ERROR: org-mode is broken - called emacs-package-install as a new-style add-on, but has no compat file.

[Christopher D. Long (galizur)]

May be an issue with gforth - removing gforth before upgrading distribution or installing emacs24 appears to eliminate this bug.

[Christopher D. Long (galizur)]

Appears to be the same underlying cause as this bug - https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gforth/+bug/1210525

[Lennart Karssen (l.c.karssen)]

I ran into this again when upgrading another system, which didn't have gforth installed. So I guess the problem is independent of gforth.
As before, uninstalling the emacs-related packages and then installing emacs24, followed by an install of the other packages worked to solve the problem.