Bug#189552: dpkg: xlibs 4.2.1-6 package fails silently

[Dan Kegel <dkegel@ixiacom.com>]

re: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=189552

I'm seeing the same problem installing magicfilter.  None of the filters
are getting installed, and dpkg happily exits thinking it did
everything right.  Running dpkg-verify.pl (got it off the web somewhere)
shows that package magicfilter failed to install any filters.

dpkg -D2 shows the same crash as you saw, but I'm hoping that's
just a bug in -D2.

dpkg -D100 -i magicfilter_1.2-53_i386.deb

outputs in part

D000010: process_archive looking for overwriting `/usr/share/man/man8/magicfilterconfig.8.gz'
D000010: process_archive looking for overwriting `/usr/lib/menu/magicfilter'
D000010: process_archive looking for overwriting `/etc/magicfilter/StylusColor-1520@1440dpi-filter'
D000100: process_archive ... found in magicfilter
D000010: process_archive looking for overwriting `/etc/magicfilter/StylusColor-500@360dpi-filter'
D000100: process_archive ... found in magicfilter

And sure enough, it installs /usr/lib/menu/magicfilter
but not /etc/magicfilter/StylusColor-1520@1440dpi-filter
which it thought already existed.  Where is it getting that idea?

Here's what I did before I got into this jam.  I had a filter problem
(stairstepping), and lamely decided to uninstall and reinstall magicfilter.
To avoid losing any local changes to /etc/magicfilter,
I renamed it /etc/magicfilter.old before doing the uninstall.
I have a feeling this blew dpkg's little mind.
Tried to reproduce this problem with another package (ircii), but
couldn't.

Now I just want to know how to get magicfilter to install... maybe I
should use alien to convert it to an rpm and install it with rpm :-)
- Dan