problem with dpkg-reconfigure and noninteractive frontend

[rc <rc@networkz.ch>]

Hi People.

Sorry, i'am new to debian and i hope i pose the right question to the right
list. I'm currently trying to use dpkg-reconfigure with the "noninteractive"
frontend on sarge, the tool is from package debconf 1.4.16. 

Problem is, when i select the noninteractive frontend, either by saying
-fnoninteractive or by reconfiguring debconf to use noninteractive as the
default frontend, i find myself in the dialog frontend. 

I've inspected the source and found a completely unconditional:
 35 if (lc Debconf::Config->frontend eq 'noninteractive') {
 36         Debconf::Config->frontend('dialog');
 37 }

When i comment this out, noninteractive seems to work just great. I've read the
manpage and discovered that when you use dpkg-reconfigure to reconfigure
debconf itself, it should fallback from noninteractive to dialog. Is it
possible
that this block is meant for this but just fails to check if a reconfiguration
of debconf is in progress?

As i have urgent need for noninteractive reconfiguration, i made this patch:
--- dpkg-reconfigure.orig       2004-04-20 19:19:14.000000000 +0200
+++ dpkg-reconfigure    2004-04-20 19:21:41.000000000 +0200
@@ -32,8 +32,13 @@
 if ($default_priority) {
       
Debconf::Config->priority(Debconf::Question->get('debconf/priority')->value);
 }
-if (lc Debconf::Config->frontend eq 'noninteractive') {
-       Debconf::Config->frontend('dialog');
+# in case of a reconfiguration of debconf itself, disable the noninteractive
frontend
+for(@ARGV){
+       if ($_ =~ m/^debconf$/){
+               if (lc Debconf::Config->frontend eq 'noninteractive') {
+                       Debconf::Config->frontend('dialog');
+               }
+       }
 }
 my $frontend=make_frontend();
 unless ($unseen_only) {

Is it really this or is noninteractive support disabled because of a reason
i've
failed to discover? 


-- 
christian ramseyer
rc@networkz.ch
replace @ with (A) if you want to send spam ; )