Comment 1 for bug 276878

I took a fit-PC (http://www.fit-pc.com/new/) with an updated installation of 8.04.1 and upgraded it to 8.10 beta. I got a number of error messages of packages that could not be configured, of which rarian-compat was the first. I then did an update/upgrade from the update manager. I got these error messages:

E: rarian-compat: subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
E: gnome-applets-data: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: capplets-data: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: gnome-control-center: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: gnome-session: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: gnome-panel-data: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: gnome-panel: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: gnome-applets: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: gnome-user-guide: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: ubuntu-docs: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: synaptic: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: gnome-app-install: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: apturl: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: fast-user-switch-applet: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: gedit: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: gnome-system-monitor: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: gnome-terminal: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: gnome-utils: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: gucharmap: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: jockey-gtk: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: language-selector: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: nautilus-data: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: nautilus: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: nautilus-cd-burner: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: nautilus-share: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: software-properties-gtk: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: ubufox: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: update-manager: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: update-notifier: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: zenity: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: ubuntu-desktop: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
E: bug-buddy: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured

I rebooted and logged in. X works but Gnome is broken: the whole desktop is gone. I conjecture this is related to the failure to configure a lot of gnome related packages.

I can SSH into the machine.

root@grissom:/etc/X11# dpkg --configure -a
Setting up rarian-compat (0.8.1-1ubuntu1) ...
update-xmlcatalog: error: entity already registered
dpkg: error processing rarian-compat (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of zenity:
 zenity depends on rarian-compat | scrollkeeper; however:
  Package rarian-compat is not configured yet.
  Package scrollkeeper is not installed.
  Package rarian-compat which provides scrollkeeper is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing zenity (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of ubuntu-docs:
 ubuntu-docs depends on scrollkeeper; however:
  Package scrollkeeper is not installed.
  Package rarian-compat which provides scrollkeeper is not configured yet.
...

root@grissom:/etc/X11# uname -a
Linux grissom 2.6.27-4-generic #1 SMP Wed Sep 24 01:30:51 UTC 2008 i586 GNU/Linux
root@grissom:/etc/X11#