Update from 13.10 to 14.04 caused me this problem too: the upgrade failed to install tex-common and emacsen-common and reinstalling did not work. Combining the comments above with instructions on http://tug.org/texlive/ this is what worked for me. If someone can say how this should really be done, I'd be happy to see it.
1. Uninstall everything to do with emacs and xemacs (I used synaptic package manager, to find what to remove and to completely remove) 2. Uninstall tex-common and all texlive-* files and sudo rm -rf /etc/texmf as in comment 12 above. 3. Remove all texlive files (if any) e.g. sudo rm -rf /usr/local/texlive/2014 rm -rf ~/.texlive2014 4. Install emacs24 then auctex using synaptic package manager 5. Install tex-common using synaptic package manager 6. Install texlive following the instructions on http://tug.org/texlive/ (Installation from dpkg or Ubuntu software centre or synaptic package manager don't work for me.) 7. Add paths to /etc/environment as suggested by the installation program in 6. That is, for the version I installed, to the end of the PATH line add :/usr/local/texlive/2014/bin/x86_64-linux just before the closing" and add 2 new lines INFOPATH=":/usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/doc/info" MANPATH=":/usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/doc/man" (without the colon, the manpath to everything except tex will be broken) 8. Edit /etc/manpath.config by adding line MANPATH_MAP /usr/local/texlive/2014/bin/x86_64-linux /usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/doc/man after the last MANPATH_MAP line that already exists. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1236951 Title: package tex-common 4.04 failed to install/upgrade: ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1 To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tex-common/+bug/1236951/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs