I am a Ubuntu noob who apparently did something I wasn't supposed to.

I felt I needed to upgrade my version of python (stupid I know now), in order to compile something related to FFmpeg. Since then I have been unable to install any updates through the synaptic package manager, nor can I install any software through terminal using apt-get.

Synaptic package manager always gives the error:

**
Could not install 'python-support'

The upgrade will continue but the 'python-support' package may not be in a working state. Please consider submitting a bug report about it.

subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
**

Manually through terminal, the attempted installation of a program ends in something like:

**
Errors were encountered while processing:
python-support
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
**

How can I get my system back to normal?

Sincerely,
Andrew