Annoying #Ubuntu Glitches

I think this has been going on for a couple of years now, but I still get stuck trying to install Ubuntu Restricted Extras to get the additional codecs needed for MP3 playback, etc.  If you the install through the Software Center, it hangs up on a permissions screen in the background that you don't have any access to.  Then you end up rebooting and get this annoying error pop-up:

The following packages requested additional data downloads after package installation, but the data could not be downloaded or could not be processed.

ttf-mscorefonts-installer

This is a permanent failure that leaves these packages unusable on your system.  You may need to fix your Internet connection, then remove and reinstall the packages to fix this problem.

I got hit with this even now (February, 2016) with a new install of Ubuntu 15.10. Note to self:  always remember to do this install from the command line:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Ubuntu 14.04 Upgrade Bug

I upgraded one laptop with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS to 14.04 LTS. Most of the process went pretty smoothly.  However, every software update after the upgrade complains about a failed install:
Calculating upgrade... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
38 not fully installed or removed.

For the sake of brevity, I won't post the entire string of error messages, but it boils down to errors encountered while processing: tex-common

Researching a bit leads me to this bug report - "package tex-common 4.04 failed to install/upgrade" - which proves to be interesting reading.  The issue is also listed on the TrustyTahr Release Notes under Known Issues.

Towards the bottom of the bug report a fix has been suggested (post #12). Also for users that know they have the tex-common package installed (appears to be pretty common), it is suggested to purge the package before the upgrade and then re-install (post #13).

Ah, the joys of upgrades!