Comment 15 for bug 1300434

After a fresh install, I received this error for all packages installed through the software center. The first I attempted was ubuntu-gnome-desktop. With any apt-get install I do now I get this output (however the packages are still installed and functional):

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  alacarte browser-plugin-gnash cli-common finger gdebi gdebi-core gksu gnash
  gnash-common imagemagick-common libamd2.3.1 libappindicator1
  libavahi-ui-gtk3-0 libavresample1 libbabl-0.1-0 libblas3
  libboost-iostreams1.54.0 libboost-program-options1.54.0
  libboost-thread1.54.0 libcamd2.3.1 libccolamd2.8.0 libcholmod2.1.2
  libdiscid0 libgegl-0.2-0 libgfortran3 libgksu2-0 libindicator7
  libjavascriptcoregtk-1.0-0 libjemalloc1 liblapack3 liblqr-1-0 libmagick++5
  libmagickcore5 libmagickcore5-extra libmagickwand5 libmng2 libnet-dbus-perl
  libofx4 libosp5 libsdl1.2debian libumfpack5.6.2 libwebkitgtk-1.0-0
  libwebkitgtk-1.0-common libxml-parser-perl libxml-twig-perl
  system-tools-backends
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  steam
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 151 not upgraded.
9 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/941 kB of archives.
After this operation, 2,797 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 185878 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../steam_1%3a1.0.0.45-1ubuntu1_i386.deb ...
Unpacking steam (1:1.0.0.45-1ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.6.7.1-1) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.13-1) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.10.1-0ubuntu2) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.22-1ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for bamfdaemon (0.5.1+14.04.20140409-0ubuntu1) ...
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.54ubuntu1) ...
dpkg: error processing package gir1.2-clutter-1.0 (--configure):
 package is in a very bad inconsistent state; you should
 reinstall it before attempting configuration
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of gir1.2-mutter-3.0:
 gir1.2-mutter-3.0 depends on gir1.2-clutter-1.0; however:
  Package gir1.2-clutter-1.0 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package gir1.2-mutter-3.0 (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of gnome-shell:
 gnome-shell depends on gir1.2-clutter-1.0 (>= 1.11.11); however:
  Package gir1.2-clutter-1.0 is not configured yet.
 gnome-shell depends on gir1.2-mutter-3.0 (>= 3.10.0); however:
  Package gir1.2-mutter-3.0 is not configured yet.

No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.
                          dpkg: error processing package gnome-shell (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.
                          dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of gdm:
 gdm depends on gnome-shell; however:
  Package gnome-shell is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package gdm (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                              dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of gir1.2-clutter-gst-2.0:
 gir1.2-clutter-gst-2.0 depends on gir1.2-clutter-1.0; however:
  Package gir1.2-clutter-1.0 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package gir1.2-clutter-gst-2.0 (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                              dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of gir1.2-gtkclutter-1.0:
 gir1.2-gtkclutter-1.0 depends on gir1.2-clutter-1.0; however:
  Package gir1.2-clutter-1.0 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package gir1.2-gtkclutter-1.0 (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                              dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of gnome-shell-extensions:
 gnome-shell-extensions depends on gnome-shell (>= 3.10); however:
  Package gnome-shell is not configured yet.
 gnome-shell-extensions depends on gnome-shell (<< 3.11); however:
  Package gnome-shell is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package gnome-shell-extensions (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                              dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of gnome-sushi:
 gnome-sushi depends on gir1.2-clutter-1.0; however:
  Package gir1.2-clutter-1.0 is not configured yet.
 gnome-sushi depends on gir1.2-clutter-gst-2.0; however:
  Package gir1.2-clutter-gst-2.0 is not configured yet.
 gnome-sushi depends on gir1.2-gtkclutter-1.0; however:
  Package gir1.2-gtkclutter-1.0 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package gnome-sushi (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                              dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of ubuntu-gnome-desktop:
 ubuntu-gnome-desktop depends on gdm; however:
  Package gdm is not configured yet.
 ubuntu-gnome-desktop depends on gnome-shell; however:
  Package gnome-shell is not configured yet.
 ubuntu-gnome-desktop depends on gnome-shell-extensions; however:
  Package gnome-shell-extensions is not configured yet.
 ubuntu-gnome-desktop depends on gnome-sushi; however:
  Package gnome-sushi is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package ubuntu-gnome-desktop (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                              Setting up steam (1:1.0.0.45-1ubuntu1) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 gir1.2-clutter-1.0
 gir1.2-mutter-3.0
 gnome-shell
 gdm
 gir1.2-clutter-gst-2.0
 gir1.2-gtkclutter-1.0
 gnome-shell-extensions
 gnome-sushi
 ubuntu-gnome-desktop
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)