I don't know if it's the right place to fill in my "bug report" ... I had this error on Ubuntu 12.04.1 doing an upgrade via apt-get:
nicola@popeye:~$ sudo apt-get remove courier-authlib-mysql Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required: libmysqlclient16 Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them. The following packages will be REMOVED: courier-authlib-mysql 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 5 not upgraded. After this operation, 123 kB disk space will be freed. Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y (Reading database ... 271905 files and directories currently installed.) Removing courier-authlib-mysql ... /var/run/courier/authdaemon/pid.lock: No such file or directory dpkg: error processing courier-authlib-mysql (--remove): subprocess installed pre-removal script returned error exit status 1 Errors were encountered while processing: courier-authlib-mysql After some other tries I had a: dpkg - trying script from the new package instead ... /var/run/courier/authdaemon/pid.lock: No such file or directory which lead me to http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=540374 - a Debian's known bug since 2009 (!!!). Following the tip of starting courier-authdaemon, running the upgrade and then stopping it all went ok. ** Bug watch added: Debian Bug tracker #540374 http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=540374 -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/496261 Title: package courier-authdaemon 0.62.2-1 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed pre-removal script returned error exit status 1 To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/courier-authlib/+bug/496261/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs