package man-db 2.5.7-2 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1

[ryan]

i was trying to install a wireless driver. it crashed and wouldent instal

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: man-db 2.5.7-2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Sat Dec 17 21:59:06 2011
ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
LiveMediaBuild: EasyPeasy 1.6
SourcePackage: man-db
Title: package man-db 2.5.7-2 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Thanks for your report. The basic problem here is that man-db's trigger uses debconf to decide whether to update the manual page database, but debconf is not always reliably usable in triggers. I finally figured out a simple way to avoid this problem, which I'm tracking as bug 1372673. If you are still affected by this locally (which I realise is unlikely in the case of some of the older bugs of this type), then running "sudo dpkg --configure -a && sudo apt-get -f install" in a terminal should normally be enough to get the package management system back to a sensible state.