I've been running 12.04 x64 LTS desktop for about a year with no issues, but recently I've done something - no idea what - that that appears to have resulted in a broken or partially installed extlinux package.

Now most of the apt installs or daily updates I run either fail or partially fail, with errors similar to below.

I've tried apt-get clean, apt-get autoclean, using the aptitude ncurses interface to find broken packages (no results) and to complete the installation of partially-installed extlinux (fails with the error below), no luck.

Anyone know what might be the problem and how to fix it?

$> aptitude



(Reading database ... 681145 files and directories currently installed.)



Removing libio-pty-perl ...



Removing libllvm3.0:i386 ...



Removing linux-headers-3.2.0-31-generic ...



Removing linux-headers-3.2.0-31 ...



Removing sdparm ...



Removing ttf-umefont ...



Removing ttf-unfonts-core ...



Removing wine-gecko1.7 ...



Removing wine-gecko1.7:i386 ...



Removing wine-mono0.0.4 ...



Processing triggers for man-db ...



Processing triggers for libc-bin ...



ldconfig deferred processing now taking place



Setting up extlinux (2:4.05+dfsg-2) ...



P: Checking for EXTLINUX directory... found.



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-51-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-49-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-48-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-45-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-44-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-43-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-41-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-40-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-39-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-38-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-37-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-36-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-35-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-34-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-33-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-32-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-31-generic...



P: Writing config for Windows 7 (loader) on /dev/sda1...



P: Writing config for Windows Recovery Environment (loader) on /dev/sda2...



P: Installing debian theme...cp: cannot stat `/usr/share/syslinux/themes/debian-squeeze/extlinux/memtest.bin': No such file or directory



dpkg: error processing extlinux (--configure):



subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1



No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already



Errors were encountered while processing:



extlinux



E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)



A package failed to install.  Trying to recover:



Setting up extlinux (2:4.05+dfsg-2) ...



P: Checking for EXTLINUX directory... found.



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-51-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-49-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-48-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-45-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-44-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-43-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-41-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-40-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-39-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-38-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-37-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-36-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-35-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-34-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-33-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-32-generic...



P: Writing config for /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-31-generic...



P: Writing config for Windows 7 (loader) on /dev/sda1...



P: Writing config for Windows Recovery Environment (loader) on /dev/sda2...



P: Installing debian theme...cp: cannot stat `/usr/share/syslinux/themes/debian-squeeze/extlinux/memtest.bin': No such file or directory



dpkg: error processing extlinux (--configure):



subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1



Errors were encountered while processing:



extlinux



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