Given that this error message comes from evolution, I'm not sure there's much that can be done from update-manager to address it; I think the package itself would need to take care to notice that it's in an inconsistent state somehow and avoid such broken pop-ups.
** Package changed: update-manager (Ubuntu Precise) => evolution (Ubuntu Precise) ** Changed in: evolution (Ubuntu Precise) Assignee: Canonical Foundations Team (canonical-foundations) => Canonical Desktop Team (canonical-desktop-team) -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to evolution in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/965686 Title: Upgrade from lucid trigger an unreadable error dialog (font issue?) Status in “evolution” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Status in “evolution” source package in Precise: Confirmed Bug description: "update-manager -d" on an up-to-date (and almost vanilla) Lucid VM. After a while (while installing the upgrades), an error message appears whose text is unreadable (each char is a square). Same thing in the network manager applet. Please see the attached screenshot. nb: apport did not want to report this bug during the upgrade process... Ask me if you need any log. To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/evolution/+bug/965686/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp