My bug (#991526) was marked a duplicate of this bug. I tried "apt-get remove --purge xemacs21" but since xemacs was not installed on my system this did not do much, except generate error messages similar to the ones I had before. Strangely (to me, at least) these error messages involve the packages I've tried to install (emacs and auctex), but were not specified in the actual command I tried now.
I'm copying the output below. Thanks for looking into this! /Mats root@MatsDesk:/home/mats# apt-get remove --purge xemacs21 Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Package xemacs21 is not installed, so not removed 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. 3 not fully installed or removed. After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used. Setting up emacs23 (23.3+1-1ubuntu9) ... emacs-install emacs23 install/auctex: Setting up for emacs23 (log file: /usr/share/emacs23/site-lisp/auctex//CompilationLog)... The current directory must be set to the ITT directory. Change the default to the ITT directory and re-run this script. emacs-install: /usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/install/auctex emacs23 failed at /usr/lib/emacsen-common/emacs-install line 28, <TSORT> line 4. dpkg: error processing emacs23 (--configure): subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of auctex: auctex depends on emacs23 | emacs22 | emacs21 | emacs-snapshot; however: Package emacs23 is not configured yet. Package emacs23-lucid which provides emacs23 is not installed. Package emacs23-nox which provides emacs23 is not installed. Package emacs22 is not installed. Package emacs21 is not installed. Package emacs-snapshot is not installed. dpkg: error processing auctex (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of emacs: emacs depends on emacs23 | emacs23-lucid | emacs23-nox; however: Package emacs23 is not configured yet. Package emacs23-lucid which provides emacs23 is not installed. Package emacs23-nox which provides emacs23 is not installed. Package emacs23-lucid is not installed. Package emacs23-nox is not installed. dpkg: error processing emacs (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure. No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure. Errors were encountered while processing: emacs23 auctex emacs E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) root@MatsDesk:/home/mats# -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/949369 Title: xemacs21 blocks upgrade of emacsen-common To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/emacsen-common/+bug/949369/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs