package apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu5 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1

Earlier this evening this could be circumvented by setting enable=1 in /etc/default/apport and then installing.

If you do this you should set it back to enable=0 after the installation is complete.

Set as confirmed as I can reproduce this as can those reporting duplicates.

This occurred again going from apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu4 to apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu5 .
It did not generate the error report but watching the detail install and looking at the log file, showed that both apport, and the supporting python files were 'half configured' again.
I reset /etc/default/apport enable back to 1 again, went into synaptic, reselected the packages, and selected to have them reinstalled. That seemed to install them and configure them correctly.

It seems the fix in apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu5 did not fix the problem; it may have just suppressed it from reporting the error.

Messages from an apt-get install invokation:
(Reading database ... 256351 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu5 (using .../apport_1.20.1-0ubuntu5_all.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement apport ...
Preparing to replace apport-gtk 1.20.1-0ubuntu5 (using .../apport-gtk_1.20.1-0ubuntu5_all.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement apport-gtk ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme ...
Processing triggers for shared-mime-info ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead ...
Processing triggers for bamfdaemon ...
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf.index...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils ...
Processing triggers for python-gmenu ...
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/desktop.en_US.utf8.cache...
Processing triggers for python-support ...
Setting up apport (1.20.1-0ubuntu5) ...
start: Job failed to start
invoke-rc.d: initscript apport, action "start" failed.
Processing triggers for python-central ...
Setting up apport-gtk (1.20.1-0ubuntu5) ...

I apologize, I double checked my log, and it did not install and configure correctly the 2nd time I tried with /etc/default/apport enable set to 1. Reinstalling it in synaptic with enable as 1 did not seem to correct it.

Here is a copy of my log file:
dpkg.log :

2011-04-20 23:02:51 startup archives unpack
2011-04-20 23:03:02 upgrade python-problem-report 1.20.1-0ubuntu4 1.20.1-0ubuntu5
2011-04-20 23:03:02 status half-configured python-problem-report 1.20.1-0ubuntu4
2011-04-20 23:03:03 status unpacked python-problem-report 1.20.1-0ubuntu4
2011-04-20 23:03:03 status half-installed python-problem-report 1.20.1-0ubuntu4
2011-04-20 23:03:03 status half-installed python-problem-report 1.20.1-0ubuntu4
2011-04-20 23:03:04 status unpacked python-problem-report 1.20.1-0ubuntu5
2011-04-20 23:03:04 status unpacked python-problem-report 1.20.1-0ubuntu5
2011-04-20 23:03:04 upgrade python-apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu4 1.20.1-0ubuntu5
2011-04-20 23:03:04 status half-configured python-apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu4
2011-04-20 23:03:05 status unpacked python-apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu4
2011-04-20 23:03:05 status half-installed python-apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu4
2011-04-20 23:03:05 status half-installed python-apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu4
2011-04-20 23:03:05 status unpacked python-apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu5
2011-04-20 23:03:06 status unpacked python-apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu5
2011-04-20 23:03:06 upgrade apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu4 1.20.1-0ubuntu5
2011-04-20 23:03:06 status half-configured apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu4
2011-04-20 23:03:07 status unpacked apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu4
2011-04-20 23:03:07 status half-installed apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu4
2011-04-20 23:03:07 status triggers-pending man-db 2.5.9-4
2011-04-20 23:03:08 status half-installed apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu4
2011-04-20 23:03:08 status triggers-pending hicolor-icon-theme 0.12-1ubuntu1
2011-04-20 23:03:08 status half-installed apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu4
2011-04-20 23:03:08 status triggers-pending shared-mime-info 0.90-1ubuntu3
2011-04-20 23:03:08 status half-installed apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu4
2011-04-20 23:03:08 status triggers-pending ureadahead 0.100.0-11
2011-04-20 23:03:08 status half-installed apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu4
2011-04-20 23:03:08 status triggers-pending ureadahead 0.100.0-11
2011-04-20 23:03:09 status half-installed apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu4
2011-04-20 23:03:10 status unpacked apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu5
2011-04-20 23:03:10 status unpacked apport 1.20.1-0ubuntu5
2011-04-20 23:03:10 upgrade apport-gtk 1.20.1-0ubuntu4 1.20.1-0ubuntu5
2011-04-20 23:03:10 status half-configured apport-gtk 1.20.1-0ubuntu4
2011-04-20 23:03:10 status unpacked apport-gtk 1.20.1-0ubuntu4
2011-04-20 23:03:10 status half-installed apport-gtk 1.20.1-0ubuntu4
2011-04-20 23:03:11 status triggers-pending bamfdaemon 0.2.90-0ubuntu2
2011-04-20 23:03:11 status half-installed apport-gtk 1.20.1-0ubuntu4
2011-04-20 23:03:11 status triggers-pending desktop-file-utils 0.18-0ubuntu3
2011-04-20 23:03:11 status half-installed apport-gtk 1.20.1-0ubuntu4
2011-04-20 23:03:11 status triggers-pending python-gmenu 2.30.5-0ubuntu3
2011-04-20 23:03:11 status half-installed apport-gtk 1.20.1-0ubuntu4
2011-04-20 23:03:11 status half-installed apport-gtk 1.20.1-0ubuntu4
2011-04-20 23:03:12 status unpacked apport...

In my case as I try to reproduce this I'm not getting the message "ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1" even with /etc/default/apport enable=0, so my case is different.

Don:
Your DpkgTerminalLog.gz file contains:

Setting up apport (1.20.1-0ubuntu4) ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/default/apport ...
start: Job failed to start
invoke-rc.d: initscript apport, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error processing apport (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1

Are you sure you already had 1.20.1-0ubuntu5?

It seems there is a bug with apport version 1.20.1-0ubuntu4 (and not 1.20.1-0ubuntu5). Please reopen a bug if you still have a problem!