dpkg fails to run after update (error: file triggers record mentions illegal package name `libgtk2.0-0' (for interest in file `/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/immodules'): ambiguous package name 'libgtk2.0-0' with more than one installed instance)

dpkg 1.16.3ubuntu1 aborts with an error if any multiarch libraries are installed which declare triggers. The error message looks like this:

dpkg: error: file triggers record mentions illegal package name `libgtk2.0-0' (for interest in file `/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/immodules'): ambiguous package name 'libgtk2.0-0' with more than one installed instance

This makes it impossible to install any further packages with the dpkg command until the triggers file is updated for the new syntax.

To fix the triggers file, run the following command from a terminal:

arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture | tail -n1); while true; do res=$(sudo dpkg --configure -a 2>&1 | sed -n -e"s/.*file triggers record mentions illegal package name \`\([^']*\)'.*/\1/p"); if [ -z "$res" ]; then break; fi; echo Fixing trigger for package $res; sudo sed -i -e"s/$res\$/$res:$arch/" /var/lib/dpkg/triggers/File; done

This will correct the dpkg configuration and allow you to proceed with the upgrade.

dpkg 1.16.3ubuntu2 will be released later today with a fix for this issue. Users who have not yet upgraded to dpkg 1.16.3ubuntu1 in quantal are advised to wait for 1.16.3ubuntu2 before upgrading.

Original bug description below.

Here’s the log from the upgrade.

$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  db4.8-util debhelper dpkg-dev gimp-resynthesizer haskell-platform
  haskell-platform-prof libblas3gf libc-bin libc-dev-bin libc6 libc6-dbg
  libc6-dev libc6-dev-i386 libc6-i386 libdpkg-perl libghc-blaze-builder-dev
  libghc-cairo-dev libghc-cairo-prof libghc-diagrams-dev libghc-diagrams-doc
  libghc-gio-dev libghc-gio-prof libghc-glut-dev libghc-glut-prof
  libghc-hashable-dev libghc-hashable-prof libghc-http-dev libghc-http-prof
  libghc-mtl-dev libghc-mtl-prof libghc-network-dev libghc-network-prof
  libghc-parsec3-dev libghc-parsec3-prof libghc-regex-base-dev
  libghc-regex-base-prof libghc-stm-dev libghc-stm-prof libghc-syb-dev
  libghc-syb-prof libghc-text-dev libghc-text-prof libghc-transformers-dev
  libghc-transformers-prof libghc-xhtml-dev libghc-xhtml-prof libghc-xml-dev
  liblapack3gf libnm-glib-vpn1 lilypond-data nmh xz-utils
The following packages will be upgraded:
  debsums dpkg liblzma5 libsyncdaemon-1.0-1 multiarch-support
  python-ubuntuone-client ubuntuone-client
7 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 52 not upgraded.
Need to get 2,294 kB of archives.
After this operation, 44.0 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main dpkg amd64 1.16.3ubuntu1 [1,834 kB]
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main liblzma5 amd64 5.1.1alpha+20120614-1 [89.0 kB]
Get:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main multiarch-support amd64 2.15-0ubuntu14 [4,476 B]
Get:4 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/universe debsums all 2.0.52 [43.7 kB]
Get:5 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main libsyncdaemon-1.0-1 amd64 3.99.0-0ubuntu1 [45.8 kB]
Get:6 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main ubuntuone-client all 3.99.0-0ubuntu1 [47.0 kB]
Get:7 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main python-ubuntuone-client all 3.99.0-0ubuntu1 [230 kB]
Fetched 2,294 kB in 2s (794 kB/s)
(Reading database ... 447277 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace dpkg 1.16.1.2ubuntu8 (using .../dpkg_1.16.3ubuntu1_amd64.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement dpkg ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
dpkg: error: file triggers record mentions illegal package name `libgtk2.0-0' (for interest in file `/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/immodules'): ambiguous package name 'libgtk2.0-0' with more than one installed instance
dpkg-query: error: file triggers record mentions illegal package name `libgtk2.0-0' (for interest in file `/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/immodules'): ambiguous package name 'libgtk2.0-0' with more than one installed instance
debsums: dpkg-query --admindir=/var/lib/dpkg --showformat=${Package}

${PackageSpec}

${binary:Package}

${Version}

${Status}

${Conffiles}

${Replaces}

 --show failed (exit status 2)
E: Problem executing scripts DPkg::Post-Invoke 'if [ -x /usr/bin/debsums ]; then /usr/bin/debsums --generate=nocheck -sp /var/cache/apt/archives; fi'
E: Sub-process returned an error code
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)