dpkg segfault

[Ryan de Jonckheere <rjd@andrew.cmu.edu>]

I am having trouble with installing packages.  It appears to be related
to the gtk front end to debconf.  Actually, I think the prblem lies ing
the libgtk-perl package.  dpkg-preconfig segfaults at the line:

my $frontend=Debian::DebConf::AutoSelect::frontend();

I traced this into the Gtk::Window call in line 50 of the file
/usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/FrontEnd/Gtk.pm which reads:

50:             my $window = new Gtk::Window('toplevel');

during the execution of the file Carp.pm (from perl-base package) it
segfaults.
Interestingly, this only occurs when I run as root.  On the otherhand,
when I am not root I do not have permission to edit the relevant parts
of the filesystem.  I do not know if this is an alpha specific problem
or not.

I am running on an LX with kernel 2.2.7 using the latest updates of
potato.  My version of what I think are relevant packages are:
debconf:  0.2.40
libgtk-perl: 0.6123-1
dpkg: 1.4.1.18 and 1.4.1.19

Also, I hope this is the correct place for mentioning this problem.  I'd
imagine that if this was occuring on i386 it would have been cought, but
then again, "when you assume, you make an..."

I'd investigate further, but I do not know perl (or programming of any
sort) well enough to do much more, I just a lowly EE wannabe type.

Ryan de Jonckheere
rjd@andrew.cmu.edu