Bug#39204: dpkg; assertion `dependtry <= 4' failed -- prevents configuring

[Hannu Koivisto <azure@iki.fi>]

Package: dpkg
Version: 1.4.1.3
Severity: important

Greetings,

When trying to configure the packages not yet configured after
my slink->potato upgrade operations with ``dpkg --configure
--pending'', I get:

"""
dpkg: ../../../main/packages.c:191: process_queue: Assertion `dependtry <= 4' failed.
zsh: 3844 abort (core dumped)  dpkg --configure --pending
"""

This obviously happens when dpkg could actually configure
something, as attempts to configure packages individually result
to:

"""
[deliverance] dpkg --configure cmucl                   [/tmp][23:56][root]
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of cmucl:
 cmucl depends on lisp-core; however:
  Package lisp-core is not installed.
  Package cmucl-safe which provides lisp-core is not configured yet.
  Package cmucl-small which provides lisp-core is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing cmucl (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 cmucl
[deliverance] dpkg --configure cmucl-safe cmucl-small cmucl
dpkg: ../../../main/packages.c:191: process_queue: Assertion `dependtry <= 4' failed.
zsh: 3849 abort (core dumped)  dpkg --configure cmucl-safe cmucl-small cmucl
"""

System:
Debian GNU/Linux potato
Kernel 2.2.9-ac3 i586
Libc6 2.1.1-10

//Hannu