I'm running under Ubuntu 9.10. I received the following error message while trying to update my system via the Update Manager:

E: /var/cache/apt/archives/xserver-xorg-core_2%3a1.6.4-2ubuntu4.2_i386.deb: unable to create `/usr/lib/nvidia/libglx.so.xserver-xorg-core.dpkg-new' (while processing `./usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so')

What does the message mean? What steps should I take from here in order to correct or resolve the situation which causes the error?

Find out why you can't write to /usr/lib/nvidia/libglx.so.xserver-xorg-core.dpkg-new. Does the file exist already? Are you running as root? Is the filesystem it's on read-write? etc

Thanks for your response. It pointed me in some interesting (for me) directions. Here is what I discovered:

No, the file does not exist already. In fact, there was no /usr/lib/nvidia directory at all. So, I created one by doing:

> cd /usr/lib
> sudo mkdir nvidia

I then ran the Update Manager utility (I'm running under Gnome). As you know, under Ubuntu you are not allowed to log in as root. Instead, the Update Manager utility asks me to enter an authorized password. Since I'm the only user on my Ubuntu system, the only authorised password recognized is my own. So that's what I entered.

At this point the Update Manager says I have only one thing available to update. It's called "xserver-xorg-core".

This time the update process seemed to move along further. In fact, an examination of /usr/lib/nvidia now shows it contains the file "libglx.so.xserver-xorg-core". But the update still fails. This time it gives an error message which says:

"E: metacity: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
E: packagekit-backend-apt: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1"

Any ideas about what I should try next?

Not really, is there anything before it?

I’ve decided this is no longer a problem I need to worry about and probably one I created for myself. Here’s the background:

I use my PC mainly as a Windows machine. I can dual boot into either Windows or Ubuntu but keep all of my serious or important documents on partitions which are equally accessible to either operating system. I boot into the Ubuntu side when I want to experiment with Linux and learn new things.

My PC came with an nVidia GeForce 7350 graphics card. I never could get my graphics card to work automatically, easily, or well under Ubuntu 8.04 or 8.10. I just put up with the rather blah vesa generic output.

When Ubuntu 9.04 came along I redoubled my efforts to get my nVidia card to work with it. I still could not get the card to be recognized using Envy or any of the other tools that were supposed to work easy with nVidia. But I was finally able to manually install and implement the nVidia drivers using directions I found in a Ubuntu Forums Tutorial (which I have since lost, naturally). My monitor now produced excellent output. I backed up that installation setting on a partition set aside for that purpose.

When 9.10 came along I wiped out my Ubuntu partition and performed a clean installation. It was my understanding that 9.10 would provide “better” support for nVidia drivers. Well, it did not for me. I still could only get the rather blah vesa generic output. Until I restored my previous settings from my 9.04 backup. Then all was well and beautiful again.

Now I think it’s my backed up settings which are causing problems with the 9.10 Update Manager. The latter must be expecting key files to be in places where my prior manual installation has not put them. But since my backed up settings work I’m keeping them as they are. At least until a non-beta production-ready version of Ubuntu 10.04 comes out.

From my understanding 10.04 is supposed to include nVidia drivers which work automatically upon installation of Ubuntu. So I’ll be doing another clean install of Ubuntu at that time. In the meantime I’ll just ignore any more Update Manager update errors I receive which seem to be related to nVidia or xorg issues. While continuing to maintain a backed up copy of the manually installed settings which do work.