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When installing the IBM tsm backup client I have the following message on lucid (works on precise)

> sudo apt-get upgrade
Setting up tsm-client (6.4.0.7-3) ...
xdg-desktop-menu: No writable system menu directory found.
dpkg: error processing tsm-client (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 3
Errors were encountered while processing:
 tsm-client
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

What is the problem here?

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4
  • Looks like a bug in the tsm-client package.
    – guntbert
    Jan 16, 2014 at 21:07
  • Re: the off-topic. This isn't the development version of Ubuntu, it is lucid LTS, works on precise.
    – mirams
    Jan 18, 2014 at 10:16
  • Nobody said anything about the development version - bug reports in general are off topic here :-)
    – guntbert
    Jan 18, 2014 at 12:52
  • Ah - OK, I'll see if I can figure out how to do that on Launchpad then
    – mirams
    Jan 18, 2014 at 18:31

1 Answer 1

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25

I found the answer on linux bug reports. It is a bug in xdg. I have found that you can get around it by simply creating the folder it is looking for. i.e.

sudo mkdir /usr/share/desktop-directories/
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3
  • 2
    What!? I don't understand. Creating this directory fixed my problem (installing spotify-client), but nothing was put into that directory. It's still completely empty.
    – Hubro
    Jun 10, 2016 at 10:44
  • I guess xdg just wants to look in the directory and then does things differently depending on whether there's anything in there. It gets upset if it can't look in the directory (a bug in xdg).
    – mirams
    Jun 10, 2016 at 10:52
  • 5
    Good stuff. It's been over a year, and today I'm setting up my new work laptop. Trying to install Spotify I got this error again and had to Google it, found this answer and my own old comment. Trippy. Also it's pretty disappointing that such an old bug is still present and bothering me in Debian 9.1
    – Hubro
    Aug 16, 2017 at 17:38

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