update-alternatives: error: cannot stat file '/usr/bin/python3.6': Too many levels of symbolic links

[Sid Rajput]

trying to upgrade from 16.04 to 18.04

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: tar 1.29b-2ubuntu0.2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-142.146~16.04.1-generic 4.15.18
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-142-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.30
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Dec 8 22:33:18 2021
DuplicateSignature:
 package:tar:1.29b-2ubuntu0.2
 Setting up tar (1.29b-2ubuntu0.2) ...
 update-alternatives: error: cannot stat file '/usr/bin/python3.6': Too many levels of symbolic links
 dpkg: error processing package tar (--configure):
  subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-03-17 (631 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20190227)
RelatedPackageVersions:
 dpkg 1.18.4ubuntu1.7
 apt 1.2.35
SourcePackage: tar
Title: package tar 1.29b-2ubuntu0.2 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to bionic on 2021-12-08 (0 days ago)

[Sid Rajput (sid-8802)]

not able to upgrade to latest version.

[Marc Deslauriers (mdeslaur)]

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We appreciate the difficulties you are facing, but this appears to be a "regular" (non-security) bug. I have unmarked it as a security issue since this bug does not show evidence of allowing attackers to cross privilege boundaries nor directly cause loss of data/privacy. Please feel free to report any other bugs you may find.