package apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu5.1 failed to install/upgrade: start: Job failed to start, invoke-rc.d: initscript apport, action "start" failed.

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

This appears to be related to bug #767498, post-install failing in initscript for apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu3.

Yes, comments in bug #767498 advised to open a new bug report since it involved a different version. In my case, apt-get upgrade didn't crash however as it did in that other report.

Not an upstream problem.

This happens while apport is disabled in /etc/default/apport, i. e. after release. This is unfortunately how upstart works, but it's just cosmetical.

So, it's safe to ignore then, ok :)

Why not print a warning in the package install script that any errors from invoke-rc.d can be ignored if apport hasn't been turned on?

I'll add a warning then.

Awesome Martin, thank you.

This bug was fixed in the package apport - 1.24-0ubuntu1

---------------
apport (1.24-0ubuntu1) precise; urgency=low

  * New upstream release 1.23.1:
    - apport/crashdb.py: Ensure that duplicate table only has one entry per
      report ID.
    - apport-retrace: Pass correct executable path to gdb in --gdb with
      --sandbox mode.
    - apport-retrace: Do not leave behind temporary directories on errors.
    - apport-retrace: Drop assertion failure for existance of "Stacktrace".
      This isn't present in the case of gdb crashing, and there is not much we
      can do about it. This should not break the retracer.
    - apport/report.py: Unwind XError() from stack traces for the
      "StacktraceTop" field, as they take a significant part of the trace.
      This causes bugs to be duplicated which really have different causes.
  * New upstream release 1.24:
   - apport-retrace: Add --timestamp option to prepend a timestamp to log
     messages. This is useful for batch operations.
   - crash-digger: Call apport-retrace with --timestamps, to get consistent
     timestamps in log output.
   - hookutils.py: Add two new functions attach_gsettings_package() and
     attach_gsettings_schema() for adding user-modified gsettings keys to a
     report. (LP: #836489)
   - hookutils.py: Add new function in_session_of_problem() which returns
     whether the given report happened in the currently running XDG session.
     This can be used to determine if e. g. ~/.xsession-errors is relevant and
     should be attached.
   - backends/packaging-apt-dpkg.py, install_packages(): Also copy
     apt/sources.list.d/ into sandbox.
   - backends/packaging-apt-dpkg.py, install_packages(): Install apt keyrings
     from config dir or from system into sandbox. (LP: #856216)
   - packaging.py, backends/packaging-apt-dpkg.py: Define that
     install_packages() should return a SystemError for broken
     configs/unreachable servers etc., and fix the apt/dpkg implementation
     accordingly.
   - apport-retrace: Don't crash, just give a proper error message if servers
     are unreachable, or configuration files are broken. (LP: #859248)
   - backends/packaging-apt-dpkg.py: Fix crash when
     /etc/apport/native-origins.d contains any files. (LP: #865199)
   - hookutils, recent_logfile(): Fix invalid return value if log file is not
     readable. (LP: #819357)
   - test/crash: Fix race condition in the "second instance terminates
     immediately" check.
   - hookutils.py: Replace attach_gconf() with a no-op stub. It used static
     python modules like "gconf" which broke the PyGI GTK user interface, and
     gconf is rather obsolete these days.
   - ui.py, open_url(): Greatly simply and robustify by just using xdg-open.
     This already does the right thing wrt. reading the default browser from
     GNOME, KDE, XCE, and other desktops. (LP: #198449)
   - data/general-hooks/generic.py: Only attach ~/.xsession_errors if the bug
     is reported in the same XDG session as the crash happened. (LP: #869974)
   - Ignore crashes for programs which got updated in between the crash and
     reporting. (LP: #132904)
   - Special-case crashes of 'twistd': Try to determin...