solution to problem in installing tetex-bin debian/ubuntu package

If you install TeTeX in Debian or Ubuntu and get an error like this:
Running fmtutil-sys. This may take some time... Error: `pdfetex -ini  -jobname=l
atex -progname=latex -translate-file=cp227.tcx *latex.ini' possibly failed.
Error: `pdfetex -ini  -jobname=pdflatex -progname=pdflatex -translate-file=cp227
.tcx *pdflatex.ini' possibly failed.

###############################################################################
fmtutil: Error! Not all formats have been built successfully.
Visit the log files in directory
  /var/lib/texmf/web2c
for details.
###############################################################################

This is a summary of all `failed' messages and warnings:
`pdfetex -ini  -jobname=latex -progname=latex -translate-file=cp227.tcx *latex.i
ni' possibly failed.
`pdfetex -ini  -jobname=pdflatex -progname=pdflatex -translate-file=cp227.tcx *p
dflatex.ini' possibly failed.

fmtutil-sys failed. Output has been stored in:
  /tmp/tetex.format_creation.BIc31413/fmtutil-sys.log
Please include this file if you report a bug.
dpkg: error processing tetex-bin (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 tetex-bin
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

The problem is sometimes that /var is full. The easiest way to fix this is to type "apt-get clean", which removes most of /var/cache/apt/archives (which is stuff you can (and automatically will) get again from the net as needed) (and this is probably why your /var is full anyway).

However, sometimes /var isn't full and I still get the above error -- I'm not sure what it is in those cases. But when /var is full it does also trigger the above error and "apt-get clean" fixes it. So I write the current web page in hopes that others for whom a full /var is the problem will stumble upon it.