dh_gencontrol -a fails for more than one package?

[Andreas Tille <tille@physik.uni-halle.de>]

#Hello, 

I try to build two architecture dependent and two architecture
independent packages from one source (wordnet).

Because of problems with correct marking of the independent packages
I switched to debhelper.  But there are problems too.

...
dh_gencontrol -a
no utmp entry available, using value of LOGNAME ("e2od5") at
/usr/lib/dpkg/controllib.pl line 24.
   [Is there anybody who can fix this long well known bug.
    it's so terribly annoying for beginners and often one can overlock
    real errors.]
no utmp entry available, using value of LOGNAME ("e2od5") at
/usr/lib/dpkg/controllib.pl line 24.
no utmp entry available, using value of LOGNAME ("e2od5") at
/usr/lib/dpkg/controllib.pl line 24.
no utmp entry available, using value of LOGNAME ("e2od5") at
/usr/lib/dpkg/controllib.pl line 24.
no utmp entry available, using value of LOGNAME ("e2od5") at
/usr/lib/dpkg/controllib.pl line 24.
no utmp entry available, using value of LOGNAME ("e2od5") at
/usr/lib/dpkg/controllib.pl line 24.
dpkg-gencontrol: warning: unknown substitution variable ${shlibs:Depends}
    [I havn't the faintest idea why ${shlibs:Depends} works for the
     wordnet binary package but not for wordnet-dev?????]
dh_md5sums -a
dh_builddeb -a
dpkg-deb: building package `wordnet' in `../wordnet_1.6-2_i386.deb'.
dpkg-deb: parse error, in file `debian/wordnet-dev/DEBIAN/control' near
line 6 package `wordnet-dev':
 `Depends' field, missing package name, or garbage where package name
expected
    [Here are the problems caused by dh_gencontrol.  The Depends field
     contains only "wordnet-base, " and nothing after "," so 
     dh_builddeb is wonders about what cames then.]
dh_builddeb: command returned error code
make: *** [binary-arch] Error 1


Any help for a debhelper beginner

       Andreas.