errors installing libc6 -- HELP!

["Noah Coccaro" <noah@saros.cs.colorado.edu>]

I recently upgraded to the upgraded packages in debian stable (using dselect)

One newly updated package is the oh so important libc6, however, it
does not install.

I narrowed down it's install probelm due to a configuration problem:


(noahsark:/var/cache/apt/archives) sudo dpkg --configure libc6
Setting up libc6 (2.1.3-19) ...
dpkg: error processing libc6 (--configure):
 md5sum gave malformatted output `fc857c5ac5fb84d80720ed4d1c624f6e'
Errors were encountered while processing:
 libc6
(noahsark:/var/cache/apt/archives) 

I'm not sure why it's coming up with that error. I did some poking
around, and found the following, which means nothing to me, but might
further pinpoint the error: 

(noahsark:/var/lib/dpkg) sudo grep -i fc857c5ac5fb84d80720ed4d1c624f6e *
grep: alternatives: Is a directory
grep: info: Is a directory
grep: methods: Is a directory
status: /etc/default/devpts fc857c5ac5fb84d80720ed4d1c624f6e
status-old: /etc/default/devpts fc857c5ac5fb84d80720ed4d1c624f6e
status.yesterday.0: /etc/default/devpts fc857c5ac5fb84d80720ed4d1c624f6e
grep: updates: Is a directory

So, it seems to be objecting to the md5sum that is coming from
/etc/default/devpts  I don't know what it is supposed to be. 

So here's some more info:

(noahsark:/var/lib/dpkg) md5sum /etc/default/devpts
fc857c5ac5fb84d80720ed4d1c624f6e  /etc/default/devpts

And for completeness:

(noahsark:/var/lib/dpkg) md5sum /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.1.3-19_i386.deb  
6fe4da7d7c6d8602c245b678568dc1cf  /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.1.3-19_i386.deb


(which is supposedly what it's supposed to be.)

Should I report this as a bug?  in dpkg? in libc6? 

If this were any other package, I would uninstall it and reinstall,
but I suspect horrible things would happen if I remove
libc6. Suggestions? Anyone?