package tex-common 3.13 failed to install/upgrade: el subproceso instalado el script post-installation devolvió el código de salida de error 1

I have tried to reproduce, but on my Quantal installation the tex common 3.13 installation works properly. The cause may be that I have a 64bit installation here.

Can you try it again direct with apt on terminal (and not with software-center or synaptics), like

sudo apt-get install tex-common

Thank you in advance

This is the output running the command:

$ sudo apt-get install tex-common
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
tex-common is already the newest version.
tex-common set to manually installed.
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  compizconfig-backend-gconf duplicity latex-cjk-xcjk libglew1.6 libglewmx1.6 libnl2 librsync1 libwireshark1 libwiretap1 libwsutil1
  python-dateutil python-pyatspi2 ubuntuone-couch
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
19 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
Setting up 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...
updmap-sys failed. Output has been stored in
/tmp/updmap.idTSe5TP
Please include this file if you report a bug.

Sometimes, not accepting conffile updates in /etc/texmf/updmap.d
causes updmap-sys to fail. Please check for files with extension
.dpkg-dist or .ucf-dist in this directory

dpkg: error processing tex-common (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                              dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of texlive-latex-base:
 texlive-latex-base depends on tex-common (>= 3); however:
  Package tex-common is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing texlive-latex-base (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                              dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of latex-beamer:
 latex-beamer depends on tex-common (>= 3); however:
  Package tex-common is not configured yet.
 latex-beamer depends on texlive-latex-base; however:
  Package texlive-latex-base is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing latex-beamer (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of latex-cjk-common:
 latex-cjk-common depends on texlive-latex-base; however:
  Package texlive-latex-base is not configured yet.
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                               latex-cjk-common depends on tex-common (>= 3); however:
  Package tex-common is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing latex-cjk-common (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of latex-cjk-chinese:
 latex-cjk-chinese depends on latex-cjk-common (= 4.8.3+git20120621-1); however:
  Package latex-cjk-common is not configured yet.
 latex-cjk-chinese depends on tex-common (>= 3); however:
  Package tex-common is not configured yet.No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already

dpkg: error processing latex-cjk-chinese (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving u...

Yes, absolute, there is something wrong:

"dpkg: error processing tex-common (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1"

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 : (defa...

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

So, when I understand you correct it is a problem with the package itself.

Is it possible to you to point the debian project here as upstream report?Over the also affects project option above.

I have informed the Debian maintainers.

Thank you Angel. You found the reason for the problem that has plagued me for months! I found a lot of lines similar to yours, all removed now and it works.