Package does not upgrade cleanly from precise

[Thomi Richards]

This package does not upgrade cleanly from precise -> quantal. I get the following:

update-default-wordlist: Question empty but elements installed for class "wordlist"
  dictionaries-common/default-wordlist: return code: "0", value: ""
  Choices: , Manual symlink setting
  shared/packages-wordlist: return code: "10" owners/error: "shared/packages-wordlist doesn't exist"
  Installed elements: american (American English), british (British English)

  Please see "/usr/share/doc/dictionaries-common/README.problems", section
  "Debconf database corruption" for recovery info.

update-default-wordlist: Selected wordlist ""
does not correspond to any installed package in the system
and no alternative wordlist could be selected.
dpkg: error processing dictionaries-common (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 255

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: dictionaries-common 1.12.9
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-5.5-generic 3.5.0-rc7
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-5-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.4-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Jul 20 07:47:52 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release amd64 (20111012)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: dictionaries-common
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to quantal on 2012-07-19 (0 days ago)

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Thomi,

Please attach /var/cache/debconf/config.dat and /var/cache/debconf/templates.dat from the affected system.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Please also attach the output of:

dpkg -S /var/lib/dictionaries-common/wordlist/*

[Thomi Richards (thomir-deactivatedaccount)]

Attaching needed files

[Thomi Richards (thomir-deactivatedaccount)]

$ dpkg -S /var/lib/dictionaries-common/wordlist/*
wamerican: /var/lib/dictionaries-common/wordlist/wamerican
wbritish: /var/lib/dictionaries-common/wordlist/wbritish

[Thomi Richards (thomir-deactivatedaccount)]

Changed back to 'Confirmed' since I've provided the extra information. Bug title is a bit misleading now, but the packlage still fails it's upgrade process...

Cheers,

[Thomi Richards (thomir-deactivatedaccount)]

This was "fixed" by cleaning the dpkg configuration database. Closing the bug.

[roland (roland-micite)]

This happened during the upgrade fromm 12.10 to 13.04.

The "fix" in my case was running:
$ sudo /usr/share/debconf/fix_db.pl

[era (era)]

Duplicate #1173731 apparently suggests a problem upgrading from Quantal, too.

[era (era)]

Tempted to mark this, too, as a duplicate of LP bug #873551.

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

Happens with upgrades to trusty, too (cf. LP bug #1316107)