result of dpkg --set-selections (2.2r5)

[Sven Hartrumpf <Sven.Hartrumpf@FernUni-Hagen.de>]

If I run:
dpkg --set-selections < selections.old
dpkg --get-selections > selections.new
I expect the two files selections.* to be equal.
However, selections.new contains some additional lines marked "deinstall".

Then, I tried to install the package locales (which I removed accidentally)
with dselect. But the [I]nstall step in dselect returns without doing
any work.

How can this be explained?

I should mention that I am struck by bug 154670 (multicd upgrade with dselect
from 2.2 to 3.0) and the proposed workaround
(1. apt-get install dpkg ; 2. apt-get install apt ; ...)
did not work for me.
(Step 1 led to
   E: Internal Error, couldn't configure a pre-depend )

So, my system is running fine, but completely static :-(
(I can not install potato packages, nor upgrade to woody.)