dictionaries-common: debconf corruption

apt-get remove dictionaries-common, and then reinstalling the missing bits of language support with the Language Support utility cleared up the problem.

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

I was able to fix this by running /usr/share/debconf/fix_db.pl as root as per the document:
/usr/share/doc/dictionaries-common/README.problems

fix_db.pl also helped here :) Yee-ha!

The log file contains what I speculate might be early signs of debconf database corruption. Duplicate submitters, do you have these symptoms in your /var/log/dpkg/term.log or similar as well? Notice the truncated lines, too.

Quoting the attached VarLogDistupgradeTermlog.gz:
> Extracting templates from packages: 96%
> ate.pm line 81, <GEN4> chunk 1.
> Use of uninitialized value $item in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/DbDriver/Cache.pm line 39, <GEN4> chunk 1.
> Use of uninitialized value $item in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/DbDriver/Cache.pm line 39, <GEN4> chunk 1.
> Use of uninitialized value $template in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/Template.pm line 81, <GEN5> chunk 1.
> Use of uninitialized value $item in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/DbDriver/Cache.pm line 39, <GEN5> chunk 1.
> Use of uninitialized value $item in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/DbDriver/Cache.pm line 39, <GEN5> chunk 1.
> Use of uninitialized value $template in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/Template.pm line 81, <GEN5> chunk 2.
> Use of uninitialized value $item in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/DbDriver/Cache.pm line 39, <GEN5> chunk 2.
> Use of uninitialized value $item in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/DbDriver/Cache.pm line 39, <GEN5> chunk 2.
> Use of uninitialized value $template in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/Template.pm line 81, <GEN6> chunk 1.
> Use of uninitialized value $item in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/DbDriver/Cache.pm line 39, <GEN6> chunk 1.
> Use of uninitialized value $item in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/DbDriver/Cache.pm line 39, <GEN6> chunk 1.
> Cache.pm line 39, <GEN10> chunk 7.
> Use of uninitialized value $template in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/Template.pm line 81, <GEN10> chunk 8.
> Use of uninitialized value $item in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/DbDriver/Cache.pm line 39, <GEN10> chunk 8.
> Use of uninitialized value $item in exists at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/DbDriver/Cache.pm line 39, <GEN10> chunk 8.

See also bug #862610 which for the time being I am not marking as a duplicate.

fix_db.pl also helped here

Just ran into the same problem with Ubu 13.04

Error dialog in Synaptic:

"E: dictionaries-common: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 255"

fix_db.pl worked for me also. Thanks!

I ran into this and believe I have found the root cause. In update-default-ispell, this logic is wrong:

  # Question is empty, but $class elements are installed. Two possibilities.
  if ( -x "/usr/bin/apt-extracttemplates" ){
    # apt-utils is installed. Other possibility is debconf database corruption.

Just because apt-utils is _installed_ doesn't mean the templates were parsed correctly. For example, if dpkg-preconfigure doesn't like the shell that d-i gives your late_command:

 Preconfiguring packages ...
 Unknown terminal: bterm
 Check the TERM environment variable.
 Also make sure that the terminal is defined in the terminfo database.
 Alternatively, set the TERMCAP environment variable to the desired termcap entry.
 debconf: whiptail output the above errors, giving up!

So update-default-ispell should not conditionalize on the existence of apt-extracttemplates to decide whether the database is corrupted or not. Regardless, update-default-ispell failing in the postinst should not be a fatal error.

Also, lest this bug get closed when 11.10 is de-supported, I'll note that I can reproduce this with Precise and Quantal.

sudo /usr/share/debconf/fix_db.pl
This fixed the problem in my case. Thank you "barbobot (deadlyh)"!

Fixed it through language support

I had this bug too when during upgrade from 13.10 to 14.04.

Happened also during upgrade from 12.04 LTS to 14.04 LTS.

fixed it using 'sudo /usr/share/debconf/fix_db.pl' as recommended above, followed by 'sudo apt-get install -f' to fix the broken packages.