我首先来介绍一下导致这一事件的一些细节：
- 我正在使用 Ubuntu 14.0（上面是 KDE，虽然这可能不相关）
- 几天前我让系统自动升级。
- 尝试更新 Virtualbox 时，它在中途崩溃了，我认为这是因为我当时正在运行它。（我没有收到它给出的错误）
- 我耸耸肩，说：“去你的吧，以后再处理。”
- 今天停电了，当我尝试重新启动任何虚拟机时，却收到错误。遗憾的是，我没有收到该错误。我认为在我尝试修复它时，该软件包已经彻底损坏。我甚至找不到该程序，更不用说运行它了。
但是现在，我在修复甚至删除软件包时遇到了问题。为简洁起见，我不会在这里包含完整的控制台输出 - 只包含错误。如果需要，我当然可以添加更多。
因此首先，我执行了 apt-get upgrade，并得到了以下结果：
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
virtualbox-dkms : Depends: virtualbox (>= 4.3.18-dfsg-2ubuntu1) but 4.3.18-dfsg-1 is installed
virtualbox-qt : Depends: virtualbox (= 4.3.18-dfsg-2ubuntu1) but 4.3.18-dfsg-1 is installed
根据 apt-get 输出的建议，我这样做了：
apt-get -f install
并得到：
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
linux-headers-3.16.0-23 linux-headers-3.16.0-23-generic
linux-image-3.16.0-23-generic linux-image-extra-3.16.0-23-generic
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following extra packages will be installed:
virtualbox
Suggested packages:
vde2 virtualbox-guest-additions-iso
The following packages will be upgraded:
virtualbox
...
Preparing to unpack .../virtualbox_4.3.18-dfsg-2ubuntu1_amd64.deb ...
File "/usr/bin/pyclean", line 63
except (IOError, OSError), e:
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
dpkg: warning: subprocess old pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: trying script from the new package instead ...
File "/usr/bin/pyclean", line 63
except (IOError, OSError), e:
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/virtualbox_4.3.18-dfsg-2ubuntu1_amd64.deb (--unpack):
subprocess new pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/pycompile", line 35, in <module>
from debpython.version import SUPPORTED, debsorted, vrepr, \
File "/usr/share/python/debpython/version.py", line 24, in <module>
from ConfigParser import SafeConfigParser
ImportError: No module named 'ConfigParser'
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/virtualbox_4.3.18-dfsg-2ubuntu1_amd64.deb
现在，我不是 Python 专家，但我想至少尝试一下，看看我是否可以通过移动这些行括号内的“，e”来修复这些语法错误。当我更改上面提到的那个时，我在 /usr/share/python/debpython/namespace.py 中的一行上得到了同样的错误。我也更改了它，然后得到了这个错误：
root@gonzo:~# apt-get -f remove
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
dkms linux-headers-3.16.0-23 linux-headers-3.16.0-23-generic
linux-image-3.16.0-23-generic linux-image-extra-3.16.0-23-generic
virtualbox-dkms
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following extra packages will be installed:
virtualbox
Suggested packages:
vde2 virtualbox-guest-additions-iso
The following packages will be upgraded:
virtualbox
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 98 not upgraded.
129 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/15.9 MB of archives.
After this operation, 17.4 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
(Reading database ... 209565 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../virtualbox_4.3.18-dfsg-2ubuntu2_amd64.deb ...
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/pyclean", line 32, in <module>
from debpython.namespace import add_namespace_files
File "/usr/share/python/debpython/namespace.py", line 28, in <module>
from debpython.pydist import PUBLIC_DIR_RE
File "/usr/share/python/debpython/pydist.py", line 27, in <module>
from string import maketrans
ImportError: cannot import name 'maketrans'
dpkg: warning: subprocess old pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: trying script from the new package instead ...
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/pyclean", line 32, in <module>
from debpython.namespace import add_namespace_files
File "/usr/share/python/debpython/namespace.py", line 28, in <module>
from debpython.pydist import PUBLIC_DIR_RE
File "/usr/share/python/debpython/pydist.py", line 27, in <module>
from string import maketrans
ImportError: cannot import name 'maketrans'
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/virtualbox_4.3.18-dfsg-2ubuntu2_amd64.deb (--unpack):
subprocess new pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/pycompile", line 35, in <module>
from debpython.version import SUPPORTED, debsorted, vrepr, \
File "/usr/share/python/debpython/version.py", line 24, in <module>
from ConfigParser import SafeConfigParser
ImportError: No module named 'ConfigParser'
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/virtualbox_4.3.18-dfsg-2ubuntu2_amd64.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
这时我意识到我走错了路，并撤销了对上述文件的更改。
然后我（当时真的不知道自己在做什么，只是猜测事情是如何运作的）尝试将 /var/cache/apt/virtualbox* 移到另一个目录并再次运行它。当然，这没有用，所以我把它们移回来了。
所以我打开 Synaptic 尝试修复它。但还是没用。如果我将软件包标记为要删除，就会出现此错误
E: virtualbox: package is in a very bad inconsistent state; you should reinstall it before attempting a removal
但是我无法遵循这些说明，因为“标记为重新安装”选项是灰色的。
Synaptic 尝试的整个控制台输出如下：
(synaptic:21937): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_child_watch_add_full: assertion 'pid > 0' failed
dpkg: error processing package virtualbox (--purge):
package is in a very bad inconsistent state; you should
reinstall it before attempting a removal
Errors were encountered while processing:
virtualbox
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install. Trying to recover:
而此时我完全不知所措。有人能帮我摆脱困境吗？
答案1
好的，如果有人碰巧遇到这个问题，我的老板就设法解决了：
我运行的 Python 版本不对。从 Python 3.4 切换回 Python 2.7.8 后，问题得到解决。