I got the same error. Here is the log: $ sudo apt-get install emacs Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following extra packages will be installed: emacs22-bin-common emacs22-common emacs22-gtk emacsen-common Suggested packages: emacs22-el The following NEW packages will be installed: emacs emacs22-bin-common emacs22-common emacs22-gtk emacsen-common 0 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 21,0MB of archives. After this operation, 65,7MB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Get:1 http://dk.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main emacsen-common 1.4.17 [17,6kB] Get:2 http://dk.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main emacs22-common 22.2-0ubuntu2 [18,8MB] Get:3 http://dk.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main emacs22-bin-common 22.2-0ubuntu2 [168kB] Get:4 http://dk.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/universe emacs22-gtk 22.2-0ubuntu2 [1980kB] Get:5 http://dk.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main emacs 22.2-0ubuntu2 [6362B] Fetched 21,0MB in 3min37s (96,2kB/s) Selecting previously deselected package emacsen-common. (Reading database ... 259939 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking emacsen-common (from .../emacsen-common_1.4.17_all.deb) ... Selecting previously deselected package emacs22-common. Unpacking emacs22-common (from .../emacs22-common_22.2-0ubuntu2_all.deb) ... Selecting previously deselected package emacs22-bin-common. Unpacking emacs22-bin-common (from .../emacs22-bin-common_22.2-0ubuntu2_i386.deb) ... Selecting previously deselected package emacs22-gtk. Unpacking emacs22-gtk (from .../emacs22-gtk_22.2-0ubuntu2_i386.deb) ... Selecting previously deselected package emacs. Unpacking emacs (from .../emacs_22.2-0ubuntu2_all.deb) ... Processing triggers for man-db ... Setting up emacsen-common (1.4.17) ... emacsen-common: Handling install of emacsen flavor emacs Setting up emacs22-common (22.2-0ubuntu2) ... Setting up emacs22-bin-common (22.2-0ubuntu2) ... Setting up emacs22-gtk (22.2-0ubuntu2) ... Byte-compiling add-on packages, please wait... failed. !! Byte-compilation for emacs22 failed! !! This indicates a bug in one of the add-on packages !! installed on your system, or a bug in Emacs itself. !! Please file a bug report against emacs22 !! and attach the file /tmp/emacs22.HB6241 dpkg: error processing emacs22-gtk (--configure): subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of emacs: emacs depends on emacs22-gtk | emacs22 | emacs22-nox; however: Package emacs22-gtk is not configured yet. Package emacs22 is not installed. Package emacs22-gtk which provides emacs22 is not configured yet. Package emacs22-nox is not installed. dpkg: error processing emacs (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure. Errors were encountered while processing: emacs22-gtk emacs E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) The contens of the log file /tmp/emacs22.HB6241 emacs-install emacs22 install/dictionaries-common: Byte-compiling for emacsen flavour emacs22 /usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/install/dictionaries-common: 70: emacs22: not found emacsen-common: Handling install of emacsen flavor emacs22 emacsen-common: byte-compiling for emacs22 /usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/install/emacsen-common: 44: emacs22: not found emacs-install: /usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/install/emacsen-common emacs22 failed at /usr/lib/emacsen-common/emacs-install line 28, line 2. It seems like a dependency problem when installing the package "emacs". An easy fix for the problem is to directly install the packages "emacs22" instead, it installs without problems.