Received this error message today doing apt-get upgrade
Setting up mailman (1:2.1.16-2ubuntu0.1) ...
Looking for enabled languages (this may take some time) ... done.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/eu done.
Directory /etc/mailman/eu not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/no done.
Directory /etc/mailman/no not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/he done.
Directory /etc/mailman/he not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/tr done.
Directory /etc/mailman/tr not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/pt_BR done.
Directory /etc/mailman/pt_BR not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/lt done.
Directory /etc/mailman/lt not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/sk done.
Directory /etc/mailman/sk not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/nl done.
Directory /etc/mailman/nl not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/et done.
Directory /etc/mailman/et not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/hr done.
Directory /etc/mailman/hr not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/de done.
Directory /etc/mailman/de not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/it done.
Directory /etc/mailman/it not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/zh_CN done.
Directory /etc/mailman/zh_CN not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/fr done.
Directory /etc/mailman/fr not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/sr done.
Directory /etc/mailman/sr not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/zh_TW done.
Directory /etc/mailman/zh_TW not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/ru done.
Directory /etc/mailman/ru not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/ja done.
Directory /etc/mailman/ja not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/cs done.
Directory /etc/mailman/cs not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/fi done.
Directory /etc/mailman/fi not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/el done.
Directory /etc/mailman/el not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/ca done.
Directory /etc/mailman/ca not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/ar done.
Directory /etc/mailman/ar not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/sl done.
Directory /etc/mailman/sl not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/pt done.
Directory /etc/mailman/pt not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/hu done.
Directory /etc/mailman/hu not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/es done.
Directory /etc/mailman/es not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/vi done.
Directory /etc/mailman/vi not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/ko done.
Directory /etc/mailman/ko not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/ro done.
Directory /etc/mailman/ro not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/gl done.
Directory /etc/mailman/gl not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/fa done.
Directory /etc/mailman/fa not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/da done.
Directory /etc/mailman/da not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/pl done.
Directory /etc/mailman/pl not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/ia done.
Directory /etc/mailman/ia not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/uk done.
Directory /etc/mailman/uk not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/sv done.
Directory /etc/mailman/sv not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/ast done.
Directory /etc/mailman/ast not empty, not removed.
Installing site language en ............................................ done.
Downgrade detected, from version 0x20112f1 to version 0x20110f0
This is probably not safe.
Exiting.
dpkg: error processing package mailman (--configure):
subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
mailman
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
I am running Ubuntu 14.04.3. My question is:
What would cause this?
Update: Per @Ravan's comment below I was able to fix the problem by
cd /var/lib/dpkg/info/
rm mailman*
apt-get clean all
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
Although things are better now, I still don't have an answer to what would have caused this.
After you have deleted all the files in
/var/lib/dpkg/info/
, it is difficult to say what the problem was.Therefore, don't delete something, if you need an explanation for your problem. Or read this, before you do something.
The error occurred in file
/var/lib/dpkg/info/mailman.postinst
, this was the error message for that:And this is the problematic code or the place from which one could look for the error.
More can not be ascertained, unfortunately.