I was doing one of those auto apt-get gui things with update manager in Debian and not watching the error log so I don't know where it started.
It involves only Python stuff. I don't know Python but apps use it. The current apt state is that python apps are failing install in: /usr/sbin/update-python-modules typical error list looks like: dpkg: warning - old pre-removal script returned error exit status 1 dpkg - trying script from the new package instead ... WARNING: python-gtk2-doc.private does not exist. Some bytecompiled files may be left behind. Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/sbin/update-python-modules", line 437, in <module> public_packages[package].install(need_postinstall) File "/usr/sbin/update-python-modules", line 232, in __getitem__ self[name] = SharedFileList (path) File "/usr/sbin/update-python-modules", line 146, in __init__ for line in file(path): IOError: [Errno 21] Is a directory dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/python-gtk2- doc_2.14.1-2_all.deb (--unpack): subprocess new pre-removal script returned error exit status 1 Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/sbin/update-python-modules", line 437, in <module> public_packages[package].install(need_postinstall) File "/usr/sbin/update-python-modules", line 232, in __getitem__ self[name] = SharedFileList (path) File "/usr/sbin/update-python-modules", line 146, in __init__ for line in file(path): IOError: [Errno 21] Is a directory dpkg: error while cleaning up: on and on and on.... The following: dpkg -C gives: The following packages are in a mess due to serious problems during installation. They must be reinstalled for them (and any packages that depend on them) to function properly: python-reportbug Python modules for interacting with bug tracking systems lsb-release Linux Standard Base version reporting utility python-ogg Python interface to the Ogg library system-config-lvm A utility for graphically configuring Logical Volumes bitpim utility to communicate with many CDMA phones bitpim-lib architecture-dependent helper files for BitPim python-glade2 GTK+ bindings: Glade support python-gtk2 Python bindings for the GTK+ widget set python-feedparser Universal Feed Parser for Python python-gtk2-doc Python bindings for the GTK+ widget set - documentation k3d 3D modeling and animation system The following packages have been unpacked but not yet configured. They must be configured using dpkg --configure or the configure menu option in dselect for them to work: acroread-plugins Plugins for Adobe Acrobat(R) Reader python-roman module for generating/analyzing Roman numerals python-soappy SOAP Support for Python python-glpk Python bindings to the GNU Linear Programming Kit python-dialog Python module for making simple Text/Console-mode user in python-biggles Scientific plotting package for Python python-gd Python module wrapper for libgd python-clutter Open GL based interactive canvas library - Python binding python-decoratortools version-agnostic decorators support for Python python-fpconst Utilities for handling IEEE 754 floating point special va acroread-data data files for acroread python-galago-gtk GTK+ widgets for the Galago presence library (Python inte python-utmp python module for working with utmp python-debianbts Python interface to Debian's Bug Tracking System python-gobject-dev Development headers for the GObject Python bindings acroread-escript Adobe EScript Plug-In python-dhm collection of Python utilities / helper python-unit unit test framework for Python acpid Utilities for using ACPI power management python-sqlalchemy SQL toolkit and Object Relational Mapper for Python python-gnutls Python wrapper for the GNUTLS library python-xlib Interface for Python to the X11 Protocol acroread Adobe Acrobat Reader: Portable Document Format file viewe python-pyinotify simple Linux inotify Python bindings python-facebook Python wrappers for the Facebook API reportbug reports bugs in the Debian distribution python-ll-core Python modules for colors, make, cron, daemons, URLs, tem python-beaker Simple WSGI middleware that uses the Myghty Container API python-xcbgen X C Binding - protocol binding generator libroot-dev Header files for ROOT python-dcop DCOP bindings for Python python-docutils utilities for the documentation of Python modules libroot-python-dev Python extension for ROOT - development files python-extractor extracts meta-data from files of arbitrary type (Python b python-debian Python modules to work with Debian-related data formats python-cheetah text-based template engine and Python code generator python-galago Galago presence library (Python interface) The following packages are only half configured, probably due to problems configuring them the first time. The configuration should be retried using dpkg --configure <package> or the configure menu option in dselect: python-support automated rebuilding support for Python modules The last one appears to be a key problem.... reconfigure gives the same dam error. Chicken egg problem of some sort... I can't add or remove anything python with the debian package tools... Maybe I could install by hand by a tarball if I knew where to stick stuff I unpacked a tarball to: /usr/src/python-support-1.0.2 but have no idea what to do... I am not a python guy... c, c++ perl but brain dead for this... /usr/src/python-support-1.0.2# ls -CF COPYING debian/ movemodules* pysupport.py README update-python-modules* debhelper/ hold parseversions* python-support.private runtime/ update-python-modules.8 SO!!! HELP ... SUGGESTIONS? -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list