More happened, but I have a feeling that I forced it to abort a process it needed to do at the end. I repeated it a few times, changing the way I answered "y" -- caps or whole word -- but the result was always the same.
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get update
Ign cdrom://Ubuntu 9.10 _Karmic Koala_ - Release i386 (20091028.5) karmic/main Translation-en_US
Ign cdrom://Ubuntu 9.10 _Karmic Koala_ - Release i386 (20091028.5) karmic/restricted Translation-en_US
Hit
Index of / karmic Release.gpg
Ign
Index of / karmic/main Translation-en_US
Get:1
Ubuntu Security Notices | Ubuntu karmic-security Release.gpg [189B]
Ign
Ubuntu Security Notices | Ubuntu karmic-security/main Translation-en_US
Ign
Index of / karmic/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign
Index of / karmic/universe Translation-en_US
Ign
Index of / karmic/multiverse Translation-en_US
Get:2
Index of / karmic-updates Release.gpg [189B]
Ign
Index of / karmic-updates/main Translation-en_US
Ign
Index of / karmic-updates/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign
Index of / karmic-updates/universe Translation-en_US
Ign
Index of / karmic-updates/multiverse Translation-en_US
Ign
Ubuntu Security Notices | Ubuntu karmic-security/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign
Ubuntu Security Notices | Ubuntu karmic-security/universe Translation-en_US
Ign
Ubuntu Security Notices | Ubuntu karmic-security/multiverse Translation-en_US
Get:3
Ubuntu Security Notices | Ubuntu karmic-security Release [44.1kB]
Hit
Index of / karmic Release
Get:4
Index of / karmic-updates Release [44.1kB]
Hit
Index of / karmic/main Packages
Hit
Index of / karmic/restricted Packages
Get:5
Index of / karmic/universe Packages [5,133kB]
Get:6
Ubuntu Security Notices | Ubuntu karmic-security/main Packages [95.0kB]
Get:7
Ubuntu Security Notices | Ubuntu karmic-security/restricted Packages [14B]
Get:8
Ubuntu Security Notices | Ubuntu karmic-security/universe Packages [50.7kB]
Get:9
Ubuntu Security Notices | Ubuntu karmic-security/multiverse Packages [1,666B]
Get:10
Ubuntu Security Notices | Ubuntu karmic-security/main Sources [28.2kB]
Get:11
Ubuntu Security Notices | Ubuntu karmic-security/restricted Sources [14B]
Get:12
Ubuntu Security Notices | Ubuntu karmic-security/universe Sources [8,743B]
Get:13
Ubuntu Security Notices | Ubuntu karmic-security/multiverse Sources [577B]
Get:14
Index of / karmic/multiverse Packages [190kB]
Hit
Index of / karmic/main Sources
Hit
Index of / karmic/restricted Sources
Get:15
Index of / karmic/universe Sources [2,795kB]
Get:16
Index of / karmic/multiverse Sources [116kB]
Get:17
Index of / karmic-updates/main Packages [201kB]
Get:18
Index of / karmic-updates/restricted Packages [14B]
Get:19
Index of / karmic-updates/universe Packages [125kB]
Get:20
Index of / karmic-updates/multiverse Packages [7,354B]
Get:21
Index of / karmic-updates/main Sources [60.0kB]
Get:22
Index of / karmic-updates/restricted Sources [14B]
Get:23
Index of / karmic-updates/universe Sources [29.8kB]
Get:24
Index of / karmic-updates/multiverse Sources [4,036B]
Fetched 8,934kB in 44s (199kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install gpsd gpsd-clients python-gps libgl1-mesa-glx libglu1-mesa libglib2.0-0 libgtk2.0-0 libstdc++6 libwxbase2.8-0 libwxgtk2.8-0 zlib1g
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
libgl1-mesa-glx is already the newest version.
libglu1-mesa is already the newest version.
zlib1g is already the newest version.
The following extra packages will be installed:
cpp-4.4 gcc-4.4 gcc-4.4-base gtk2-engines-pixbuf lesstif2 libgail-common
libgail18 libgcc1 libgomp1 libgps18
Suggested packages:
gcc-4.4-locales gcc-4.4-multilib libmudflap0-4.4-dev gcc-4.4-doc libgcc1-dbg
libgomp1-dbg libmudflap0-dbg libcloog-ppl0 libppl-c2 libppl7
libgnomeprintui2.2-0
The following NEW packages will be installed:
gpsd gpsd-clients lesstif2 libgps18 libwxbase2.8-0 libwxgtk2.8-0 python-gps
The following packages will be upgraded:
cpp-4.4 gcc-4.4 gcc-4.4-base gtk2-engines-pixbuf libgail-common libgail18
libgcc1 libglib2.0-0 libgomp1 libgtk2.0-0 libstdc++6
11 upgraded, 7 newly installed, 0 to remove and 247 not upgraded.
Need to get 16.6MB of
archives.
After this operation, 14.2MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Abort.
I will retry Hamish's short script now.