package gnome-colors-common 5.5.1-1 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2

[Erlend Dahl]

Cannot install package gnome-colors:

E: gnome-colors-common: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
E: gnome-brave-icon-theme: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: gnome-dust-icon-theme: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: gnome-human-icon-theme: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: gnome-illustrious-icon-theme: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: gnome-noble-icon-theme: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: gnome-wine-icon-theme: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: gnome-wise-icon-theme: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: gnome-colors: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: gnome-colors-common 5.5.1-1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-9.14-generic 3.0.3
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-9-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Sat Aug 27 13:58:09 2011
DuplicateSignature:
 Setting up gnome-colors-common (5.5.1-1) ...
 update-alternatives: using /usr/share/icons/gnome-colors-common/scalable/places/gnome-colors.svg to provide /usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/places/start-here.svg (start-here.svg) in auto mode.
 update-alternatives: error: unable to make /usr/share/icons/gnome/16x16/places/start-here.png.dpkg-tmp a symlink to /etc/alternatives/start-here-16.png: No such file or directory
 dpkg: error processing gnome-colors-common (--configure):
  subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Alpha i386 (20110826.1)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: gnome-colors
Title: package gnome-colors-common 5.5.1-1 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Tonal (tonal-promsoft)]

See also https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-icon-theme/+bug/407817

[Marcus Sundman (sundman)]

It seems that the postinst tries to add some symlinks to directories that don't exist. The fix should be very easy, so I don't know why this is still unresolved.

Anyway, here is a workaround (run as root):

for d in $(ls /usr/share/icons/gnome-colors-common/*/places | sed -rn 's,^.*/([0-9]+x[0-9]+)/.*$,\1,p'); do mkdir -p "/usr/share/icons/gnome/$d/places"; done