Just saw a new linux kernel update and I received the same error as before. I believe this is now fixed as this is what I did. TRIED TO INSTALL THE FAILED PACKAGE david@david-MS-7640:/$ sudo apt-get install -f [sudo] password for david: Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded. 1 not fully installed or removed. After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used. Setting up linux-image-3.2.0-24-generic (3.2.0-24.39) ... Running depmod. Failed to symbolic-link /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-24-generic to initrd.img: File exists dpkg: error processing linux-image-3.2.0-24-generic (--configure): subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 17 E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) THE SYMBOLIC LINK IS THERE david@david-MS-7640:/$ ls bin cdrom etc initrd.img lib64 media opt root sbin srv tmp var boot dev home lib lost+found mnt proc run selinux sys usr vmlinuz MOVED THE SYMLINK TO INITRD.IMG.BAK david@david-MS-7640:/$ sudo mv initrd.img initrd.img.bak CONFIRMED MOVE david@david-MS-7640:/$ ls -al total 105 drwxr-xr-x 24 root root 4096 May 24 13:45 . drwxr-xr-x 24 root root 4096 May 24 13:45 .. drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 20 01:24 bin drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 1024 May 24 13:43 boot drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 20 00:20 cdrom drwxr-xr-x 17 root root 4500 May 24 11:46 dev drwxr-xr-x 140 root root 12288 May 24 13:43 etc drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 May 20 00:32 home lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 33 May 22 11:39 initrd.img.bak -> /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-24-generic drwxr-xr-x 23 root root 4096 May 20 01:47 lib drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 20 00:54 lib64 drwx------ 2 root root 16384 May 20 00:16 lost+found drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 24 09:06 media drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 27 14:05 mnt drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 May 20 01:14 opt dr-xr-xr-x 227 root root 0 May 24 07:46 proc drwx------ 7 root root 4096 May 20 00:59 root drwxr-xr-x 22 root root 820 May 24 11:46 run drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 12288 May 23 13:38 sbin drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 2 06:01 selinux drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Feb 29 23:24 srv drwxr-xr-x 13 root root 0 May 24 07:46 sys drwxrwxrwt 14 root root 4096 May 24 13:45 tmp drwxr-xr-x 11 root root 4096 May 20 01:02 usr drwxr-xr-x 14 root root 4096 May 24 11:46 var lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 29 May 20 01:25 vmlinuz -> boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-24-generic TRIED TO INSTALL THE FAILED PACKAGE AGAIN david@david-MS-7640:/$ sudo apt-get install -f Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded. 1 not fully installed or removed. After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used. Setting up linux-image-3.2.0-24-generic (3.2.0-24.39) ... Running depmod. Not updating image symbolic links since we are being updated/reinstalled (3.2.0-24.38 was configured last, according to dpkg) Examining /etc/kernel/postinst.d. run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/dkms 3.2.0-24-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-24-generic run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools 3.2.0-24-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-24-generic run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/pm-utils 3.2.0-24-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-24-generic run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/update-notifier 3.2.0-24-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-24-generic run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-update-grub 3.2.0-24-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-24-generic Generating grub.cfg ... Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-24-generic Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-17-generic Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-17-generic Found memtest86+ image: /memtest86+.bin Found Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (12.04) on /dev/sda6 Found Windows 7 (loader) on /dev/sdb3 Found Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (12.04) on /dev/sdb5 done WORKED!