TeTex upgrade problems

[Matt Thompson <mattyt@oz.net>]

OK, multi-part question.

1.)  Just upgraded my hamm dist., got this:

running dpkg --pending --configure ...
Setting up tetex-base (0.9-6) ...
/usr/bin/texconfig: No $TEXMFMAIN; set the environment variable or in
texmf.cnf.
dpkg: error processing tetex-base (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of tetex-nonfree:
 tetex-nonfree depends on tetex-base (>= 0.9-1); however:
  Package tetex-base is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing tetex-nonfree (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of tetex-bin:
 tetex-bin depends on tetex-base (>= 0.9-1); however:
  Package tetex-base is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing tetex-bin (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of tetex-extra:
 tetex-extra depends on tetex-base (>= 0.9-1); however:
  Package tetex-base is not configured yet.
 tetex-extra depends on tetex-bin (>= 0.9-1); however:
  Package tetex-bin is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing tetex-extra (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 tetex-base
 tetex-nonfree
 tetex-bin
 tetex-extra

???

2.)  What the heck *is* TeX anyway, and are there applications that
call/use it regularly?  Because I have never invoked it for any purpose.

TIA for any help :)
Matt


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