package sgml-base 1.26+nmu4ubuntu1 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2

[Mike Fisher]

The bug seems very similar to 1074475, but I encountered it in upgrading from 14.10 to 15.04, and in my case, the post-installation script returns error code 2.

As a consequence of this bug, dpkg reports dependency problems while processing:
 sgml-base
 metacity-common
 libmetacity-private2
 compiz-gnome
 compiz
 unity
 libunity-2d-private0
 metacity
 sgml-data
 ubuntu-desktop
 unity-2d
 unity-2d-common
 unity-2d-panel
 unity-2d-shell
 unity-2d-spread
 compizconfig-backend-gconf

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.04
Package: sgml-base 1.26+nmu4ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.19.0-15.15-generic 3.19.3
Uname: Linux 3.19.0-15-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
ApportVersion: 2.17.2-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Apr 24 17:24:36 2015
DuplicateSignature: package:sgml-base:1.26+nmu4ubuntu1:subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
PackageArchitecture: all
RelatedPackageVersions:
 dpkg 1.17.25ubuntu1
 apt 1.0.9.7ubuntu4
SourcePackage: sgml-base
Title: package sgml-base 1.26+nmu4ubuntu1 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to vivid on 2015-04-23 (0 days ago)

[Mike Fisher (mfisheresq)]

The error message (see attachment DpkgTerminalLog.txt) says:

cannot open /var/lib/sgml-base/supercatalog.new for writing: No such file or directory at /usr/sbin/update-catalog line 312.

"ls /var/lib" shows that /var/lib/sgml-base does not exist. Fixing this manually (sudo mkdir /var/lib/sgml-base) and then running "sudo apt-get upgrade" fixes the problem and sets up sgml-base and the packages that depend on it.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Loren McIntyre (mcint)]

This bug is still present in 1.30. I fixed it the same way as mfisheresq, before finding this report.

## Bug Fix
The sgml-base package should create the /var/lib/sgml-base directory, and not even need to check whether it exists.

$ sudo dpkg --configure sgml-base
Setting up sgml-base (1.30) ...
cannot open /var/lib/sgml-base/supercatalog.new for writing: No such file or directory at /usr/sbin/update-catalog line 312.
dpkg: error processing package sgml-base (--configure):
 installed sgml-base package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 sgml-base

## Context & Importance
This bug prevents any other packages from being installed until it's manually fixed, and sgml-base cannot be blindly removed because of its role as a dependency for help documentation that's a default part of plasma desktop, and presumable other deafult help applications distributed as a default part of desktop environments.