Comment 3 for bug 1069209

I reproduce this bug.
I have xemacs installed :

iU xemacs21 21.4.22-3.2ubuntu2 all highly customizable text editor
ii xemacs21-basesupport 2009.02.17.dfsg.1-1 all Editor and kitchen sink -- compiled elisp support files
iU xemacs21-bin 21.4.22-3.2ubuntu2 amd64 highly customizable text editor -- support binaries
iU xemacs21-mule 21.4.22-3.2ubuntu2 amd64 highly customizable text editor -- Mule binary
ii xemacs21-mulesupport 2009.02.17.dfsg.1-1 all Editor and kitchen sink -- Mule elisp support files
iU xemacs21-support 21.4.22-3.2ubuntu2 all highly customizable text editor -- architecture independent support files

This issue is indeed related to xemacs :

WARNING:
Couldn't find obvious defaults for:
data-directory
mule-lisp-directory
lisp-directory
Perhaps some directories don't exist, or the XEmacs executable,
/usr/bin/xemacs21
is in a strange place?

So I tried to remove xemacs, but it's not so easy...

In the end, I had to remove xemacs AND emacs, and reinstall emacs (can't live without it :-) )

Here are the commands I had to use :

#----- xemacs removal
sudo mv /var/lib/dpkg/info/xem*prerm /tmp
sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq xemacs21 xemacs21-basesupport xemacs21-bin xemacs21-mule xemacs21-mulesupport xemacs21-support
sudo dpkg --purge --force-remove-reinstreq xemacs21 xemacs21-basesupport xemacs21-bin xemacs21-mule xemacs21-mulesupport xemacs21-support

#----- emacs removal
sudo mv /var/lib/dpkg/info/em*prerm /tmp
sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq emacsen-common dictionaries-common ienglish-common iamerican ispell emacs23-common aspell emacs23-bin-common gnuserv hyphen-en-us wfrench aspell-en emacs23

sudo dpkg --purge --force-remove-reinstreq emacsen-common ienglish-common iamerican ispell emacs23-common aspell emacs23-bin-common gnuserv hyphen-en-us aspell-en emacs23

Then sudo dpkg --configure -a works like a charm.

Please note that I use a french distro, so you may not have some of my packages...

Hope it helps.