title: Dependency problems in Debian Stretch
body: <p>I have a pretty fresh installation of <strong>Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch)</strong>. 
  I have installed python3.7.2 and some python-packages.
  After attempting to install spyder3 using <code>sudo apt-get install python3-spyder</code>, I keep getting error messages whenever I attempt to install or remove packages. </p>
  
  <p>For instance, running <code>sudo apt-get install unixodbc</code> give the following output:</p>
  
  <pre><code>~$ sudo apt-get install unixodbc
  Reading package lists... Done
  Building dependency tree       
  Reading state information... Done
  unixodbc is already the newest version (2.3.4-1).
  0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
  12 not fully installed or removed.
  After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
  Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
  Setting up python-wrapt (1.9.0-2) ...
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/bin/pycompile", line 35, in &lt;module&gt;
      from debpython.version import SUPPORTED, debsorted, vrepr, \
    File "/usr/share/python/debpython/version.py", line 24, in &lt;module&gt;
      from ConfigParser import SafeConfigParser
  ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'ConfigParser'
  dpkg: error processing package python-wrapt (--configure):
   subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
  Setting up python-isort (4.2.5+ds1-2+deb9u1) ...
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/bin/pycompile", line 35, in &lt;module&gt;
      from debpython.version import SUPPORTED, debsorted, vrepr, \
    File "/usr/share/python/debpython/version.py", line 24, in &lt;module&gt;
      from ConfigParser import SafeConfigParser
  ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'ConfigParser'
  dpkg: error processing package python-isort (--configure):
   subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
  Setting up python-lazy-object-proxy (1.2.2-1) ...
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/bin/pycompile", line 35, in &lt;module&gt;
      from debpython.version import SUPPORTED, debsorted, vrepr, \
    File "/usr/share/python/debpython/version.py", line 24, in &lt;module&gt;
      from ConfigParser import SafeConfigParser
  ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'ConfigParser'
  dpkg: error processing package python-lazy-object-proxy (--configure):
   subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
  dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of pylint:
   pylint depends on python-isort; however:
    Package python-isort is not configured yet.
  
  dpkg: error processing package pylint (--configure):
   dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
  Setting up python-backports.functools-lru-cache (1.3-1) ...
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/bin/pycompile", line 35, in &lt;module&gt;
      from debpython.version import SUPPORTED, debsorted, vrepr, \
    File "/usr/share/python/debpython/version.py", line 24, in &lt;module&gt;
      from ConfigParser import SafeConfigParser
  ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'ConfigParser'
  dpkg: error processing package python-backports.functools-lru-cache (--configure):
   subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
  Setting up python-pyflakes (1.3.0-1) ...
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/bin/pycompile", line 35, in &lt;module&gt;
      from debpython.version import SUPPORTED, debsorted, vrepr, \
    File "/usr/share/python/debpython/version.py", line 24, in &lt;module&gt;
      from ConfigParser import SafeConfigParser
  ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'ConfigParser'
  dpkg: error processing package python-pyflakes (--configure):
   subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
  dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of python3-spyder:
   python3-spyder depends on pylint; however:
    Package pylint is not configured yet.
  
  dpkg: error processing package python3-spyder (--configure):
   dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
  dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of python-astroid:
   python-astroid depends on python-lazy-object-proxy; however:
    Package python-lazy-object-proxy is not configured yet.
   python-astroid depends on python-wrapt; however:
    Package python-wrapt is not configured yet.
  
  dpkg: error processing package python-astroid (--configure):
   dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
  Setting up python-sip (4.18.1+dfsg-2) ...
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/bin/pycompile", line 35, in &lt;module&gt;
      from debpython.version import SUPPORTED, debsorted, vrepr, \
    File "/usr/share/python/debpython/version.py", line 24, in &lt;module&gt;
      from ConfigParser import SafeConfigParser
  ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'ConfigParser'
  dpkg: error processing package python-sip (--configure):
   subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
  dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of python-pyqt5:
   python-pyqt5 depends on sip-api-11.3; however:
    Package sip-api-11.3 is not installed.
    Package python-sip which provides sip-api-11.3 is not configured yet.
  
  dpkg: error processing package python-pyqt5 (--configure):
   dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
  dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of pyflakes:
   pyflakes depends on python-pyflakes (&gt;= 1.0.0-2); however:
    Package python-pyflakes is not configured yet.
  
  dpkg: error processing package pyflakes (--configure):
   dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
  dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of python-pyqt5.qtwebkit:
   python-pyqt5.qtwebkit depends on python-pyqt5 (= 5.7+dfsg-5); however:
    Package python-pyqt5 is not configured yet.
  
  dpkg: error processing package python-pyqt5.qtwebkit (--configure):
   dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
  Errors were encountered while processing:
   python-wrapt
   python-isort
   python-lazy-object-proxy
   pylint
   python-backports.functools-lru-cache
   python-pyflakes
   python3-spyder
   python-astroid
   python-sip
   python-pyqt5
   pyflakes
   python-pyqt5.qtwebkit
  E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This is basically the same output I get when running <code>sudo dpkg --configure -a</code>, also.</p>
  
  <p>I have tried every method described at <a href="https://itsfoss.com/dpkg-returned-an-error-code-1/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this post</a> and <a href="https://askubuntu.com/questions/252777/how-can-i-resolve-dpkg-dependency">this thread</a>, but none of them fixes the problem. </p>