I discover the origin of the problem and I try to make some quickly workaround. Some background. I need use the arial font for a university document (I don't like it, but it is a rule specification). I try to install the arial font following some tutorial that I don't remember the url, it could be: sudo mpm --install=arial sudo texhash sudo updmap-sys --enable Map ua1.map From: http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Comp/comp.text.tex/2007-07/msg00417.html I remember execute on some point updmap-sys. The trick doesn't work, and I read that helvet could work as clone font. So I give up with arial. Then some update of tex-common came and break all. So, I inspect and digg the error today. This error seems trigger all bad behaviour: ERROR: The following map file(s) couldn't be found: ua1.map (in /etc/texmf/web2c/updmap.cfg) Did you run mktexlsr? You can disable non-existent map entries using the option --syncwithtrees. I did a grep on the folder: $ grep -irn web2c /etc/texmf/updmap.d /etc/texmf/updmap.d/10lmodern.cfg:20:# regenerate /var/lib/texmf/web2c/updmap.cfg and finally updmap-sys to /etc/texmf/updmap.d/20tex-gyre.cfg:20:# regenerate /var/lib/texmf/web2c/updmap.cfg and finally updmap-sys to This shows: """ # You should *not* modify the aforementioned final map files under # /var/lib/texmf/fonts/map/ directly, for they are automatically generated by # updmap-sys(1). Instead, you should read update-updmap(1), updmap-sys(1) and # if you actually need to make changes to the aforementioned final map files, # you should make the changes in /etc/texmf/updmap.d/, use update-updmap to # regenerate /var/lib/texmf/web2c/updmap.cfg and finally updmap-sys to # regenerate the final map files. """ So, I discover that the file sudo nano /etc/texmf/web2c/updmap.cfg is trying to load this content: Map ua1.map But the file ua1.map is missing. That cause a fatal on updmap-sys and it triggers a error on tex-common post-installation. I comment the content like: #Map ua1.map And i run again manually: $ sudo updmap-sys updmap: resetting $HOME value (was /home/shakaran) to root's actual home (/root). updmap is using the following updmap.cfg files (in precedence order): /etc/texmf/web2c/updmap.cfg /usr/share/texmf/web2c/updmap.cfg /usr/share/texlive/texmf/web2c/updmap.cfg /usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/web2c/updmap.cfg dvips output dir: "/var/lib/texmf/fonts/map/dvips/updmap" pdftex output dir: "/var/lib/texmf/fonts/map/pdftex/updmap" dvipdfmx output dir: "/var/lib/texmf/fonts/map/dvipdfmx/updmap" pxdvi output dir: "/var/lib/texmf/fonts/map/pxdvi/updmap" updmap is creating new map files using the following configuration: LW35 font names : URWkb (/usr/share/texlive/texmf/web2c/updmap.cfg) prefer outlines : true (/usr/share/texlive/texmf/web2c/updmap.cfg) texhash enabled : true download standard fonts (dvips) : true (/usr/share/texlive/texmf/web2c/updmap.cfg) download standard fonts (pdftex) : true (/usr/share/texlive/texmf/web2c/updmap.cfg) kanjiEmbed replacement string : noEmbed (/usr/share/texlive/texmf/web2c/updmap.cfg) kanjiVariant replacement string : (default) create a mapfile for pxdvi : false (default) Scanning for LW35 support files [ 3 files] Scanning for MixedMap entries [ 51 files] Scanning for KanjiMap entries [ 6 files] Scanning for Map entries [173 files] Generating output for dvipdfmx... Generating output for ps2pk... Generating output for dvips... Generating output for pdftex... Files generated: /var/lib/texmf/fonts/map/dvips/updmap: 11448 2012-07-01 06:44:05 builtin35.map 15911 2012-07-01 06:44:05 download35.map 590136 2012-07-01 06:44:05 psfonts_pk.map 852324 2012-07-01 06:44:05 psfonts_t1.map 847783 2012-07-01 06:44:05 ps2pk.map 14 2012-07-01 06:44:06 psfonts.map -> psfonts_t1.map /var/lib/texmf/fonts/map/pdftex/updmap: 847790 2012-07-01 06:44:05 pdftex_dl14.map 846217 2012-07-01 06:44:05 pdftex_ndl14.map 15 2012-07-01 06:44:06 pdftex.map -> pdftex_dl14.map /var/lib/texmf/fonts/map/dvipdfmx/updmap: 5047 2012-07-01 06:44:05 kanjix.map Transcript written on "/var/lib/texmf/web2c/updmap.log". updmap: Updating ls-R files. This time it seems to work. So I try to install the package. $ sudo dpkg --configure -a Configurando tex-common (3.13) ... Running mktexlsr. This may take some time... done. Running mtxrun --generate. This may take some time... done. Running updmap-sys. This may take some time... done. Running mktexlsr /var/lib/texmf ... done. Building format(s) --all. This may take some time... done. Configurando texlive-metapost (2012.20120611-3) ... Warning: Old configuration style found in /etc/texmf/updmap.d Warning: For now these files have been included, Warning: but expect inconsistencies. Warning: These packages should be rebuild with tex-common. Warning: Please see /usr/share/doc/tex-common/NEWS.Debian.gz Warning: found file: /etc/texmf/updmap.d/10lmodern.cfg Warning: found file: /etc/texmf/updmap.d/10texlive-fonts-extra.cfg Warning: found file: /etc/texmf/updmap.d/10texlive-games.cfg Warning: found file: /etc/texmf/updmap.d/10texlive-latex-extra.cfg Warning: found file: /etc/texmf/updmap.d/10texlive-math-extra.cfg Warning: found file: /etc/texmf/updmap.d/10texlive-science.cfg Warning: found file: /etc/texmf/updmap.d/20tex-gyre.cfg Warning: found file: /etc/texmf/updmap.d/50cm-super-minimal.cfg Warning: found file: /etc/texmf/updmap.d/50cm-super.cfg So it works perfectly now. The main problem was a missing file. But I think that it should only show a warning, no a fatal breaking all updmap-sys and breaking also the post-installation. That is a SPOF(Single Point Of Failure) and it is not weird that somebody get the same error on a future. Also, this hits on google as Debian bug with as similar bug-pattern. http://lists.debian.org/debian-tex-maint/2012/05/msg00242.html http://lists.debian.org/debian-tex-maint/2012/06/msg00131.html