apt-get permission denied

[Tom H]

On Sun, Aug 9, 2015 at 3:52 PM, Jack McGee <jack at greendesk.net> wrote:
>
> Preconfiguring packages ...
> Setting up util-linux (2.20.1-5.1ubuntu20.6) ...
> /var/lib/dpkg/info/util-linux.postinst: 6:
> /var/lib/dpkg/info/util-linux.postinst: update-alternatives: Permission
> denied
> dpkg: error processing package util-linux (--configure):
>  subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status
> 126
> E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
> mythuser at ZBOX84:/var/lib/dpkg/info$

These are the update-alternatives invocations.

update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/pager pager /bin/more 50 \
  --slave /usr/share/man/man1/pager.1.gz pager.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/more.1.gz
update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/pager pager /usr/bin/pg 10 \
  --slave /usr/share/man/man1/pager.1.gz pager.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1/pg.1.gz

Can you add "-x" to "/var/lib/dpkg/info/util-linux.postinst" and run
the upgrade again?