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:~$