package nvidia-current-modaliases not installed failed to install/upgrade: no package named `nvidia-current-modaliases' is installed, cannot configure

[maxburley]

This appears to result after restarting a hung upgrade, and is one among several packages that "failed to install or upgrade."
The upgrade was restarted by attempting to kill dpkg, which although labelled an interruptible process, did begin running again after being hung for six hours or more.
The upgrade eventually completed with many errors.

The bug appears to be in one of the upgrade packages rather any of the nvidia packages per se.

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: nvidia-current-modaliases (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-21.59-generic
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-21-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia wl
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu May 6 10:06:59 2010
ErrorMessage:
 ErrorMessage: no package named `nvidia-current-modaliases' is installed, cannot configure
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release amd64 (20091027)
MachineType: Apple Inc. MacBookPro4,1
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-21-generic root=UUID=e4d44bc2-0d43-4300-9a29-8928e58d3a36 ro quiet splash
SourcePackage: nvidia-graphics-drivers
Title: package nvidia-current-modaliases (not installed) failed to install/upgrade:
dmi.bios.date: 02/09/08
dmi.bios.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.bios.version: MBP41.88Z.00C1.B00.0802091544
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: Mac-F42C89C8
dmi.board.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.board.version: PVT
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset Tag#
dmi.chassis.type: 2
dmi.chassis.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: Mac-F42C89C8
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAppleInc.:bvrMBP41.88Z.00C1.B00.0802091544:bd02/09/08:svnAppleInc.:pnMacBookPro4,1:pvr1.0:rvnAppleInc.:rnMac-F42C89C8:rvrPVT:cvnAppleInc.:ct2:cvrMac-F42C89C8:
dmi.product.name: MacBookPro4,1
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: Apple Inc.
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 codename: lucid
 architecture: x86_64
 kernel: 2.6.31-21-generic

[maxburley (burley)]

I haven't time to troubleshoot this further, but can clarify that dpkg choked when upgrading portmap.conf.
The portmap.conf install immediately followed the upgrade/install of network-manager, which had been previously used on this machine but was uninstalled some time before the upgrade (problematic old n-m config files?).
When the original Lucid upgrade eventually finished after several errors, I reran the Update Manager before rebooting and again it choked on portmap.conf.
However after killing dpkg, rebooting, and running Update Manager again, everything now seems to work.

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

Relevant errors in VarLogDistupgradeApttermlog.gz:

dpkg: error processing portmap (--configure):

 Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should

 reinstall it before attempting configuration.

After this there are many errors for packages not installing.

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

This bug report is being closed due to your last comment regarding this being fixed with an update. The error was indeed when the upgrade for portmap failed. Thank you again for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please submit any future bugs you may find.