Comment 0 for bug 189005

when install a kernel dpkg fails and reports deconf locked

linux1@ubuntu:/usr/src$ sudo dpkg -i linux-image-2.6.24-hydra2_2.6.24-hydra2-10.00.Custom_amd64.deb
[sudo] password for linux1:
Selecting previously deselected package linux-image-2.6.24-hydra2.
(Reading database ... 274328 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking linux-image-2.6.24-hydra2 (from linux-image-2.6.24-hydra2_2.6.24-hydra2-10.00.Custom_amd64.deb) ...
Done.
Setting up linux-image-2.6.24-hydra2 (2.6.24-hydra2-10.00.Custom) ...
Running depmod.
Finding valid ramdisk creators.
Using mkinitramfs-kpkg to build the ramdisk.
find: /lib/firmware/2.6.24-hydra2: No such file or directory
find: /lib/firmware/2.6.24-hydra2: No such file or directory
find: /lib/firmware/2.6.24-hydra2: No such file or directory
find: /lib/firmware/2.6.24-hydra2: No such file or directory
find: /lib/firmware/2.6.24-hydra2: No such file or directory
find: /lib/firmware/2.6.24-hydra2: No such file or directory
Running postinst hook script update-grub.
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
Searching for default file ... found: /boot/grub/default
Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst
Searching for splash image ... none found, skipping ...
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.24-hydra2
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.24-5-generic
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.24-4-generic
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic
Found kernel: /memtest86+.bin
debconf: DbDriver "config": /var/cache/debconf/config.dat is locked by another process: Resource temporarily unavailable
User postinst hook script [update-grub] exited with value 1
dpkg: error processing linux-image-2.6.24-hydra2 (--install):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 linux-image-2.6.24-hydra2

can confirm with link to http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=687448

hope this helps