Re: A Frequently Reported Bug: "process_queue: Assertion `dependtry <= 4' failed." in dpkg

[Richard Braakman <dark@xs4all.nl>]

Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho wrote:
[...]

> In the second case,
>     the package which depends on the virtual package should list
>     real packages as alternatives to the virtual package so that
>     the loop no longer includes the virtual package.

Note you should do this anyway.  See packaging manual section 8.6:

     In the absence of other information `dselect' will offer a default
     selection of the first named package in a list of alternatives.

     However, there is no way to specify the `order' of several packages
     which all provide the same thing, when that thing is listed as a
     dependency.

     Therefore a dependency on a virtual package should contain a concrete
     package name as the first alternative, so that this is the default.

Richard Braakman