dpkg --audit
The following packages are only half configured, probably due to problems
configuring them the first time. The configuration should be retried using
dpkg --configure <package> or the configure menu option in dselect:
linux-image-2.6.31-17-generic Linux kernel image for version 2.6.31 on x86/x86

Hi,
I'm new to linux and while trying to setup the system to my requirements made some mistakes.

The last thing I did to try and resolve this issue was to boot under linux-image-2.6.31-16-generic (recovery mode) and purge (dpkg -P ...) the package. That worked ok and dpkg --audit stopped complaining. I then reinstalled the virtual package linux-image-2.6 which installed linux-image-2.6.31-17-generic (2.6.31-17.54) and the problem returns. How can I get dpkg or aptitude to do a clean installation of the latest kernel?
If I do as dpkg --audit suggests and run dpkg --configure, I get:

pierre@Sprint:~$ sudo dpkg --configure linux-image-2.6.31-17-generic
Setting up linux-image-2.6.31-17-generic (2.6.31-17.54) ...
Running depmod.
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-17-generic
Running postinst hook script /usr/sbin/update-grub.
Generating grub.cfg ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-17-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-17-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-16-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-16-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-15-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-15-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
done
Examining /etc/kernel/postinst.d.
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/dkms
* Running DKMS auto installation service for kernel 2.6.31-17-generic
* nvidia (96.43.13)... nvidia (96.43.13): Already installed on this kernel.
[ OK ]
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/nvidia-common
File "/usr/bin/nvidia-detector", line 9
except NoDatadirError, e:
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
run-parts: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/nvidia-common exited with return code 1
Failed to process /etc/kernel/postinst.d at /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-image-2.6.31-17-generic.postinst line 1002.
dpkg: error processing linux-image-2.6.31-17-generic (--configure):
subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
linux-image-2.6.31-17-generic

Appreciate your help,

Pierre

How did you reinstall it?

The latest distro kernel will show up in your updates notification. Use that.
Try not to mix package install methods. Use dpkg, aptitude or apt-get consistently.

However, it looks like:
... which is a bit like:
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/inde...t-1259357.html
... there is a syntax change which the "nvidia-common" package. Perhaps remove the nvidia packages you have, reconfigure the kernel, then reinstall the packages. We expect trouble with packages associated with proprietary drivers. Of course, you can go into the source code and correct it you are told the line number.

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. The problem was that a while ago I installed python3.1.1 and then changed the symbolic link /usr/bin/python to start the new version which is not backward compatible with python2.6.4. Making /usr/bin/python link to /usr/bin/python2.6 solved the problem.
Thanks again.