libc6 upgrade fails, resulting in system wide crashes

[ewanm89]

libc6 upgrade fails, resulting in system wide crashes.

APT output:

Unpacking replacement libc6 ...
Setting up libc6 (2.7-9ubuntu1) ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/gai.conf ...
dpkg: error processing libc6 (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script killed by signal (Segmentation fault), core dumped
Errors were encountered while processing:
 libc6
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install. Trying to recover:
Setting up libc6 (2.7-9ubuntu1) ...
dpkg: error processing libc6 (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script killed by signal (Segmentation fault), core dumped
Errors were encountered while processing:
 libc6

Output of crashing app:
ewanm89@enterprise:/tmp$ su
*** glibc detected *** su: free(): invalid pointer: 0xb7d21ed8 ***
======= Backtrace: =========
/lib/libc.so.6[0xb7eb7a87]
/lib/libc.so.6(cfree+0x89)[0xb7eb9749]
/lib/libdl.so.2(dlerror+0x1e6)[0xb7e4d376]
/lib/libpam.so.0[0xb7f934a7]
/lib/libpam.so.0[0xb7f90f27]
/lib/libpam.so.0[0xb7f917fb]
/lib/libpam.so.0[0xb7f91131]
/lib/libpam.so.0[0xb7f91536]
/lib/libpam.so.0(pam_start+0x32c)[0xb7f92b2c]
su[0x804a2c6]
/lib/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xe0)[0xb7e663a0]
su(misc_conv+0x23d)[0x8049991]
======= Memory map: ========
08048000-0804e000 r-xp 00000000 08:02 3031144 /bin/su
0804e000-0804f000 rw-p 00005000 08:02 3031144 /bin/su
0804f000-08074000 rw-p 0804f000 00:00 0 [heap]
b7c92000-b7c9c000 r-xp 00000000 08:02 1540669 /lib/libgcc_s.so.1
b7c9c000-b7c9d000 rw-p 0000a000 08:02 1540669 /lib/libgcc_s.so.1
b7c9d000-b7c9e000 rw-p b7c9d000 00:00 0
b7ca9000-b7cb4000 r-xp 00000000 08:02 1540774 /lib/security/pam_unix.so
b7cb4000-b7cb5000 rw-p 0000b000 08:02 1540774 /lib/security/pam_unix.so
b7cb5000-b7cc1000 rw-p b7cb5000 00:00 0
b7cc1000-b7cd8000 r-xp 00000000 08:02 1540221 /lib/libselinux.so.1
b7cd8000-b7cda000 rw-p 00016000 08:02 1540221 /lib/libselinux.so.1
b7ce3000-b7ce4000 r--p 00000000 08:02 3637943 /usr/share/locale-langpack/en_GB/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo
b7ce4000-b7ce5000 rw-p b7ce4000 00:00 0
b7ce5000-b7cee000 r-xp 00000000 08:02 1540693 /lib/libnss_files-2.7.so
b7cee000-b7cf0000 rw-p 00008000 08:02 1540693 /lib/libnss_files-2.7.so
b7cf0000-b7cf8000 r-xp 00000000 08:02 1540695 /lib/libnss_nis-2.7.so
b7cf8000-b7cfa000 rw-p 00007000 08:02 1540695 /lib/libnss_nis-2.7.so
b7cfa000-b7d0d000 r-xp 00000000 08:02 1540687 /lib/libnsl-2.7.so
b7d0d000-b7d0f000 rw-p 00012000 08:02 1540687 /lib/libnsl-2.7.so
b7d0f000-b7d12000 rw-p b7d0f000 00:00 0
b7d12000-b7d18000 r-xp 00000000 08:02 1540689 /lib/libnss_compat-2.7.so
b7d18000-b7d1a000 rw-p 00005000 08:02 1540689 /lib/libnss_compat-2.7.so
b7d1a000-b7d1c000 r-xp 00000000 08:02 1540757 /lib/security/pam_mail.so
b7d1c000-b7d1d000 rw-p 00001000 08:02 1540757 /lib/security/pam_mail.so
b7d1d000-b7d20000 r-xp 00000000 08:02 1540744 /lib/security/pam_env.so
b7d20000-b7d21000 rw-p 00002000 08:02 1540744 /lib/security/pam_env.so
b7d21000-b7d22000 rw-p b7d21000 00:00 0
b7d22000-b7d23000 r-xp 00000000 08:02 1540765 /lib/security/pam_rootok.so
b7d23000-b7d24000 rw-p 00000000 08:02 1540765 /lib/security/pam_rootok.so
b7d24000-b7d25000 rw-p b7d24000 00:00 0
b7d25000-b7d64000 r--p 00000000 08:02 3342342 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.utf8/LC_CTYPE
b7d64000-b7d65000 r--p 00000000 08:02 3343525 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.utf8/LC_NUMERIC
b7d65000-b7d66000 r--p 00000000 08:02 3342951 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.utf8/LC_TIME
b7d66000-b7e47000 r--p 00000000 08:02 3342343 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.utf8/LC_COLLATE
b7e47000-b7e48000 r--p 00000000 08:02 3342952 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.utf8/LC_MONETARY
b7e48000-b7e49000 r--p 00000000 08:02 3358742 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.utf8/LC_MESSAGES/SYS_LC_MESSAGES
b7e49000-b7e4a000 r--p 00000000 08:02 3343526 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.utf8/LC_PAPER
b7e4a000-b7e4b000 r--p 00000000 08:02 3343579 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.utf8/LC_NAME
b7e4b000-b7e4c000 rw-p b7e4b000 00:00 0
b7e4c000-b7e4e000 r-xp 00000000 08:02 1540682 /lib/libdl-2.7.so
b7e4e000-b7e50000 rw-p 00001000 08:02 1540682 /lib/libdl-2.7.so
b7e50000-b7f83000 r-xp 00000000 08:02 1540677 /lib/libc-2.7.so
b7f83000-b7f84000 r--p 00133000 08:02 1540677 /lib/libc-2.7.so
b7f84000-b7f86000 rw-p 00134000 08:02 1540677 /lib/libc-2.7.so
b7f86000-b7f89000 rw-p b7f86000 00:00 0
b7f89000-b7f8b000 r-xp 00000000 08:02 1540739 /lib/libpam_misc.so.0.81.2
b7f8b000-b7f8c000 rw-p 00001000 08:02 1540739 /lib/libpam_misc.so.0.81.2
b7f8c000-b7f8d000 rw-p b7f8c000 00:00 0
b7f8d000-b7f96000 r-xp 00000000 08:02 1540731 /lib/libpam.so.0.81.6
b7f96000-b7f97000 rw-p 00008000 08:02 1540731 /lib/libpam.so.0.81.6
b7f97000-b7fa0000 r-xp 00000000 08:02 1540681 /lib/libcrypt-2.7.so
b7fa0000-b7fa2000 rw-p 00008000 08:02 1540681 /lib/libcrypt-2.7.so
b7fa2000-b7fc9000 rw-p b7fa2000 00:00 0
b7fc9000-b7fca000 r--p 00000000 08:02 3342953 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.utf8/LC_ADDRESS
b7fca000-b7fcb000 r--p 00000000 08:02 3342954 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.utf8/LC_TELEPHONE
b7fcb000-b7fcc000 r--p 00000000 08:02 3343522 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.utf8/LC_MEASUREMENT
b7fcc000-b7fd3000 r--s 00000000 08:02 3327665 /usr/lib/gconv/gconv-modules.cache
b7fd3000-b7fd4000 r--p 00000000 08:02 3342955 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.utf8/LC_IDENTIFICATION
b7fd4000-b7fd5000 rw-p b7fd4000 00:00 0
b7fd5000-b7fd6000 r-xp b7fd5000 00:00 0 [vdso]
b7fd6000-b7ff0000 r-xp 00000000 08:02 1540239 /lib/ld-2.7.so
b7ff0000-b7ff1000 r--p 00019000 08:02 1540239 /lib/ld-2.7.so
b7ff1000-b7ff2000 rw-p 0001a000 08:02 1540239 /lib/ld-2.7.so
bfd04000-bfd19000 rw-p bffeb000 00:00 0 [stack]
Aborted

[Peter C. Norton (spacey-launchpad-net)]

Yep, it's bit a lot of people already. There's a ubuntuforums sticky note on this with a number of suggestions for fixing it that work (essentially replace new libc with old libc):

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=722886

-Peter