package update-motd 2.0-0ubuntu1 failed to install/upgrade:

Same problem as OP

I can confirm. The same happened for my latest upgrade.

sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
Setting up update-motd (2.0-0ubuntu1) ...
 * Starting update-motd [2009-07-13 11:37:45] ERROR: Another instance is running [6720]
invoke-rc.d: initscript update-motd, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error processing update-motd (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I killed update-motd before trying to upgrade again, but it still failed to install.

Setting to "Confirmed" as I'm also seeing this issue

Not sure if kernel panic also affects me, this might be quite different bug. To resolve uptade-motd partial installation you have to run from terminal:
sudo /etc/init.d/update-motd stop
sudo apt-get install

Confirmed.

$ sudo apt-get install update-motd
[sudo] password for arky:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
update-motd is already the newest version.
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  libcompress-raw-zlib-perl libio-compress-base-perl
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Setting up update-motd (2.0-0ubuntu1) ...
 * Starting update-motd [2009-07-13 22:50:42] ERROR: Another instance is running [5060]
invoke-rc.d: initscript update-motd, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error processing update-motd (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 update-motd
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

$ sudo /etc/init.d/update-motd stop
 * Stopping update-motd [ OK ]
iise@karmic-kola:~$ sudo apt-get install update-motd
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
update-motd is already the newest version.
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  libcompress-raw-zlib-perl libio-compress-base-perl
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Setting up update-motd (2.0-0ubuntu1) ...
 * Starting update-motd [ OK ]

This bug was fixed in the package update-motd - 3.0-0ubuntu1

---------------
update-motd (3.0-0ubuntu1) karmic; urgency=low

  [ update-motd 3.0 major redesign ]
  NOTE: this release will be very short lived--this entire package
        should be obsolete when pam_motd assumes this functionality;
        see Launchpad #399071
  * update-motd
    - drop the daemon design, as this was heavily objectionable
    - drop the cronjob design (actually, this was dropped in 2.0)
    - instead, make update-motd a script sourced in /etc/profile.d,
      such that it is *only* run on interactive login, and cpu cycles
      are not wasted otherwise
  * update-motd.sh: script installed in /etc/profile.d
  * update-motd.1: updated accordingly
  * debian/control: updated description, drop python dependency
  * debian/dirs, debian/install: only installing in /usr/bin and
    /etc/profile.d
  * debian/init, debian/iwatch.xml: dropped entirely (also fixes LP: #398646)
  * debian/postinst: purge unneeded /etc files
  * debian/release-build.sh, debian/release.sh: bump major version to '3'
  * debian/rules: drop init script installation, link /usr/bin/update-motd
    into /etc/profile.d

 -- Dustin Kirkland <email address hidden> Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:02:54 -0500

any way to repair?

Repair? Just upgrade to the latest.

:-Dustin

Dustin,

What kind of answer is that? This error message is coming up right after trying to update.

Christian: It is, I would say, a correct kind of answer :)

You will need to get the very latest updates (sudo apt-get update) and then install them (sudo apt-get upgrade). Doing this will install a very very new version of update-motd which does not have this bug. Did you try this? It worked for me.

If you did that, today, and it still fails to install, what does

  sudo apt-get -s upgrade -V

output? Especially, what version of update-motd does it say it would install?

Worst case, if you are still having issues, you might want to try

  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get purge update-motd
  sudo apt-get install update-motd

although I can't see why you'd need to do it that way.