Comment 2 for bug 638199

This happened when trying to install driver/firmware for Broadcom card. See bugs #638192 and #638160.

This is all happening running from a usb stick made by startup disk creator, the stick has a r-w file of 4GiB.

In fact, I get errors from initramfs whenever I try to install software:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install lighttpd
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  libterm-readline-perl-perl spawn-fcgi
Suggested packages:
  rrdtool apache2-utils
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libterm-readline-perl-perl lighttpd spawn-fcgi
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 355 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 351kB of archives.
After this operation, 1,303kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick/universe libterm-readline-perl-perl all 1.0303-1 [51.9kB]
Get:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick/universe lighttpd i386 1.4.26-3ubuntu2 [286kB]
Get:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick/universe spawn-fcgi i386 1.6.3-1 [13.4kB]
Fetched 351kB in 16s (21.5kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package libterm-readline-perl-perl.
(Reading database ... 130447 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libterm-readline-perl-perl (from .../libterm-readline-perl-perl_1.0303-1_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package lighttpd.
Unpacking lighttpd (from .../lighttpd_1.4.26-3ubuntu2_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package spawn-fcgi.
Unpacking spawn-fcgi (from .../spawn-fcgi_1.6.3-1_i386.deb) ...
Processing triggers for ufw ...
WARN: uid is 0 but '/' is owned by 1000
Processing triggers for ureadahead ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up initramfs-tools (0.98.1ubuntu2) ...
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
cp: cannot stat `/vmlinuz': No such file or directory
dpkg: error processing initramfs-tools (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Setting up bcmwl-kernel-source (5.60.48.36+bdcom-0ubuntu5) ...
Removing old bcmwl-5.60.48.36+bdcom DKMS files...

-------- Uninstall Beginning --------
Module: bcmwl
Version: 5.60.48.36+bdcom
Kernel: 2.6.35-19-generic (i686)
-------------------------------------

Status: Before uninstall, this module version was ACTIVE on this kernel.

wl.ko:
 - Uninstallation
   - Deleting from: /lib/modules/2.6.35-19-generic/updates/dkms/
 - Original module
   - No original module was found for this module on this kernel.
   - Use the dkms install command to reinstall any previous module version.

depmod......

DKMS: uninstall Completed.

------------------------------
Deleting module version: 5.60.48.36+bdcom
completely from the DKMS tree.
------------------------------
Done.
Loading new bcmwl-5.60.48.36+bdcom DKMS files...
First Installation: checking all kernels...
Building only for 2.6.35-19-generic
Building for architecture i686
Building initial module for 2.6.35-19-generic
Done.

wl.ko:
Running module version sanity check.
 - Original module
   - No original module exists within this kernel
 - Installation
   - Installing to /lib/modules/2.6.35-19-generic/updates/dkms/

depmod....

DKMS: install Completed.
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
cp: cannot stat `/vmlinuz': No such file or directory
dpkg: error processing bcmwl-kernel-source (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Setting up libterm-readline-perl-perl (1.0303-1) ...
Setting up lighttpd (1.4.26-3ubuntu2) ...
Syntax OK
 * Starting web server lighttpd [ OK ]
Setting up spawn-fcgi (1.6.3-1) ...
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/spawn-fcgi.standalone to provide /usr/bin/spawn-fcgi (spawn-fcgi) in auto mode.
update-alternatives: warning: not replacing /usr/share/man/man1/spawn-fcgi.1.gz with a link.
Errors were encountered while processing:
 initramfs-tools
 bcmwl-kernel-source
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$