Oh... really strange.. Left the machine for a while, came back - tried again - and got the same issue. Tried to dig in further - so the following activities made the problem go away ( but I have no idea why ) # deborphan libdbus-1-3 libgc1c2 libasound2 liblzo1 klibc-utils libdb4.3 libiw28 libc6-i686 root@lump:~# deborphan | xargs apt-get -y remove Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages will be REMOVED: alsa-utils console-setup initramfs-tools klibc-utils libasound2 libc6-i686 libdb4.3 libdbus-1-3 libgc1c2 libiw28 liblzo1 pcmciautils ubuntu-minimal ubuntu-standard udev volumeid w3m wpasupplicant 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 18 to remove and 0 not upgraded. 30 not fully installed or removed. Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 13.5MB disk space will be freed. (Reading database ... 12875 files and directories currently installed.) Removing ubuntu-minimal ... Removing alsa-utils ... Removing console-setup ... Removing pcmciautils ... Removing volumeid ... Removing initramfs-tools ... Removing udev ... Removing ubuntu-standard ... Removing w3m ... Segmentation fault dpkg: error processing w3m (--remove): subprocess post-removal script returned error exit status 139 Removing wpasupplicant ... Removing klibc-utils ... Removing libasound2 ... Removing libc6-i686 ... Removing libdb4.3 ... Removing libdbus-1-3 ... Removing libgc1c2 ... Removing libiw28 ... Removing liblzo1 ... Processing triggers for libc6 ... ldconfig deferred processing now taking place E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) root@lump:~# apt-get install dbus Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following extra packages will be installed: libdbus-1-3 libx11-6 libx11-data libxau6 libxdmcp6 x11-common The following packages will be REMOVED: w3m The following NEW packages will be installed: dbus libdbus-1-3 libx11-6 libx11-data libxau6 libxdmcp6 x11-common 0 upgraded, 7 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded. 22 not fully installed or removed. Need to get 1400kB/1529kB of archives. After unpacking 3248kB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Get:1 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/main x11-common 1:7.2-5ubuntu13 [358kB] Get:2 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/main libxau6 1:1.0.3-2 [11.9kB] Get:3 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/main libxdmcp6 1:1.0.2-2 [16.9kB] Get:4 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/main libx11-data 2:1.1.1-1ubuntu4 [190kB] Get:5 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/main libx11-6 2:1.1.1-1ubuntu4 [607kB] Get:6 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/main dbus 1.1.1-3ubuntu4 [217kB] Fetched 1400kB in 0s (6045kB/s) Preconfiguring packages ... /dev/mem: mmap: Bad address (Reading database ... 12204 files and directories currently installed.) Removing w3m ... Selecting previously deselected package x11-common. (Reading database ... 12204 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking x11-common (from .../x11-common_1%3a7.2-5ubuntu13_i386.deb) ... /dev/mem: mmap: Bad address /dev/mem: mmap: Bad address Selecting previously deselected package libxau6. Unpacking libxau6 (from .../libxau6_1%3a1.0.3-2_i386.deb) ... Selecting previously deselected package libxdmcp6. Unpacking libxdmcp6 (from .../libxdmcp6_1%3a1.0.2-2_i386.deb) ... Setting up x11-common (1:7.2-5ubuntu13) ... /dev/mem: mmap: Bad address /dev/mem: mmap: Bad address Selecting previously deselected package libx11-data. (Reading database ... 12253 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking libx11-data (from .../libx11-data_2%3a1.1.1-1ubuntu4_all.deb) ... Selecting previously deselected package libx11-6. Unpacking libx11-6 (from .../libx11-6_2%3a1.1.1-1ubuntu4_i386.deb) ... /dev/mem: mmap: Bad address Selecting previously deselected package libdbus-1-3. Unpacking libdbus-1-3 (from .../libdbus-1-3_1.1.1-3ubuntu4_i386.deb) ... Selecting previously deselected package dbus. Unpacking dbus (from .../dbus_1.1.1-3ubuntu4_i386.deb) ... Setting up ifupdown (0.6.8ubuntu8) ... and away it went - installing everything without problem. root@lump:~# dpkg --configure -a root@lump:~# Is dbus required ??