Comment 24 for bug 380426

Not yet fixed for me - also happens with alsa-base_1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu2:

paul@karmic-sdb:~$ sudo aptitude upgrade
W: The "upgrade" command is deprecated; use "safe-upgrade" instead.
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information
Initialising package states... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
  alsa-base
1 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 269kB of archives. After unpacking 16.4kB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] Y
Writing extended state information... Done
Get:1 http://ubuntu-archive.datahop.it karmic/main alsa-base 1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu2 [269kB]
Fetched 269kB in 0s (975kB/s)
(Reading database ... 183149 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace alsa-base 1.0.19.dfsg-3ubuntu1 (using .../alsa-base_1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu2_all.deb) ...
dpkg (subprocess): unable to execute new pre-installation script: Exec format error
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/alsa-base_1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu2_all.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess pre-installation script returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/alsa-base_1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu2_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install. Trying to recover:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information
Initialising package states... Done

paul@karmic-sdb:~$