I'm having a problem trying to resolve an issue on an older Raspberry pi 2 a+. When I went to do my latest apt upgrade, I had a power issue that shut it down mid-swing. When I powered back up putting extra power on external hardware, I started getting errors when trying to reconfigure and upgrade again.
Something related to python3.5-minimal is causing a series of errors that shuts down the attempt to install anything that requires python3. When the post-install scripts are running, I get:
Setting up python3.5-minimal (3.5.3-1+deb9u1) ...
Sorry: ValueError: source code string cannot contain null bytes
Sorry: ValueError: source code string cannot contain null bytes
Sorry: ValueError: source code string cannot contain null bytes
Sorry: ValueError: source code string cannot contain null bytes
dpkg: error processing package python3.5-minimal (--configure):
subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of python3-minimal:
python3-minimal depends on python3.5-minimal (>= 3.5.3-1~); however:
Package python3.5-minimal is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing package python3-minimal (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
python3.5-minimal
python3-minimal
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
I have removed those and everything dependent upon them then tried to re-install. I tried re-installing from the apt cached files. I tried clearing the cache, removing everything that was directly dependent upon those files and then started installing the ones I need again one-by-one. But as soon as I get to anything that loads python3 as a dependency again, I get those same 4 'source code string cannot contain null bytes'.
My guess would be that there is some other file somewhere tied to another package or something that is causing the problem or some zombie files in some folder somewhere that isn't getting removed when I purge the packages. But since the errors give me no clue where to look for what 'source code' contains 'null bytes', I have no idea where to find the source of the problem.
SW