Re: Package installation error -- What is going on?

[cjwatson@flatline.org.uk (Colin Watson)]

"David H . Silber" <debian@SilberSoft.com> wrote:
>When I recently tried out aptitude, apt-get replaced apt 0.3.19 with apt
>0.5.3.  On the very next install (docbook-doc), I had problems.  I don't
>know if it was a problem with the docbook-doc package or of the new apt
>package.  In the meanwhile, I'm afraid of installing more packages lest
>I compound some problem with the package maintenance system.

I think you should be OK. I'll explain:

>  Preparing to replace apt 0.3.19 (using .../archives/apt_0.5.3_i386.deb) ...
>  Unpacking replacement apt ...
>  dpkg: warning - unable to delete old file
>`/var/state/apt/lists/partial': Directory not empty
>  dpkg: warning - unable to delete old file `/var/state/apt/lists':
>Directory not empty
>  Setting up apt (0.5.3) ...

You can safely ignore these, although you might want to clean out the
old /var/state/apt directory. apt should probably have handled this.

>  debconf: Perl may be unconfigured (Can't modify goto in lvalue
>subroutine return at /usr/share/
>  perl5/Debconf/Base.pm line 24, near "}"

I'm guessing that you have a version of debconf earlier than 0.9.57,
plus perl 5.6.1. The lvalue code broke with recent versions of perl;
upgrade to debconf 0.9.57 or greater (testing has 0.9.73, unstable has
0.9.74) and this should be fixed.

Cheers,

-- 
Colin Watson                                  [cjwatson@flatline.org.uk]