"Inconsistency Detected by ld.so..." with apt-get dist-upgrade

[Bruce <bestb@sympatico.ca>]

I was attempting to dist-upgrade a machine running (mostly) potato to woody 
this evening, and eventually got stuck on the package xfonts-scalable. I 
can't seem to install, remove, purge, force or do anything with either 
apt-get or dpkg that will let me get beyond the problem the system has with 
this package. This is on a Sony VaioPCG-SR17 PIII laptop, before the upgrade 
mostly potato w. kernel 2.4.17. System is now stuck  1/2 way through upgrade, 
and I can't even start X.

The error message I get with _any_ apt-get or dpkg command comes with the 
configure script of xfonts-scalable. The following came from an "apt-get 
install xfonts-scalable --reinstall", though the same error messages are 
returned for any apt-get or dpkg command:

  Running xftcache in Speedo font directory...Inconsistency detected by ld.so:
  dynamic-link.h: 62: elf_get_dynamic_info: Assertion '! "bad dynamic tag"'
  failed!
  dpkg: error processing xfonts-scalable (--configure):
   subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 127
  Errors were encountered while processing:
   xfonts-scalable
  E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I am fairly familiar with Debian, and with using apt-get or dpkg to get past 
upgrade problems, but this one is beyond me. I can't seem to either install, 
reinstall or uninstall xfonts-scalable, and cannot continue the upgrade until 
this problem is dealt with, so am really stuck. 

Does anyone know what is going on here?? What can I do to finish upgrading the 
system??

Thanks, 

Bruce