potato -> woody: E: Internal Error, Couldn't configure a pre-depend

["Karsten M. Self" <kmself@ix.netcom.com>]

When attempting an upgrade from Potato to Woody via either apt-get or
dselect, I get the following error:

    E: Internal Error, Couldn't configure a pre-depend

This appears after placing disk 1 of the update set into the CDROM tray,
and the disk is read for several seconds.

I've researched this on Google and tracked down several related bugs,
but no solution:

   #58827
   #154670 
   #138217

Part of the problem is that the package(s) whose pre-depends is/are
failing aren't noted.  Google suggests that it's a libc issue, but I
can't confirm this.  Running a 'strace' on apt-get doesn't provide any
clues to me, it ends with the following output:

    <...>
    munmap(0x40491000, 266240)              = 0
    munmap(0x40205000, 2669540)             = 0
    close(-1)                               = -1 EBADF (Bad file descriptor)
    write(2, "E: ", 3E: )                      = 3
    write(2, "Internal Error, Couldn\'t configu"..., 47Internal Error, Couldn't conf
    igure a pre-depend) = 47
    write(2, "\n", 1
    )                       = 1
    close(3)                                = 0
    munmap(0x40015000, 4096)                = 0
    munmap(0x40014000, 4096)                = 0
    _exit(100)    


I applied the "" option suggested in the Potato x86 release notes with
no effect.

    http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/release-notes/ch-upgrading.en.html  

    # apt-get --fix-broken --show-upgraded -o APT::Force-LoopBreak=1 dist-upgrade


I also updated via apt-get http sources to the most recent potato
packages, hoping that this might resolve the problem.  No joy.

dselect output:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Merging Available information
Replacing available packages info, using /var/cache/apt/available.
Information about 8452 package(s) was updated.
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  blt8.0 freetype-tools fvwm-common gnome-print gnotes guile1.3 libguile6
  libguile6-slib librpm1 octave octave-headers pnmtopng python-base python-dev
  tetex-lib vim-rt wmspaceweather xcontrib xpm4g xpm4g-dev 
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  abiword-common abiword-doc abiword-gtk abiword-plugins apt-utils
  asclock-themes atlas2-base bind9-host blas blas-dev bonobo build-essential
  console-common cpp-2.95 cpp-3.0 cupsys-client cupsys-pstoraster curl defoma
  docbook docbook-xml eieio elib esound-clients fsviewer-icons fvwm-icons
  g++-2.95 g77-3.0 gcc-2.95 gcc-3.0 gcc-3.0-base gconf gij-3.0
  gimpprint-locales gnome-applets gnome-mime-data gnupg gnupg-doc groff-base
  gs-common gsfonts-x11 guile-common guile1.4 guile1.4-slib hermes1 ifupdown
  ipchains ipmasqadm iptables jikes-gij klogd libarts libast1 libbonobo2
  libbz2-1.0 libcap1 libcapplet1 libcdparanoia0 libcupsys2 libcurl2
  libdate-manip-perl libdb3 libdb3-util libdigest-md5-perl libdns5 libdps1
  libefs1 libexpat1 libfinance-quote-perl libfreetype6 libgal-data libgal19
  libgc6 libgcc1 libgcj2 libgconf11 libgdk-pixbuf-gnome2 libgdk-pixbuf2
  libggi-target-terminfo libggimisc2 libghttp1 libgimpprint1 libgmp3
  libgnome-vfs-common libgnome-vfs0 libgnomeprint-bin libgnomeprint-data
  libgnomeprint15 libgtk1.2-common libgtkhtml20 libguile9 libguppi16
  libgwrapguile1 libhtml-format-perl libhtml-tableextract-perl
  libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl libimlib2 libisc4 libjcode-pm-perl
  libkpathsea3 liblcms libldap2 libltdl3 liblwres1 libmagick5
  libmailtools-perl libnet-ph-perl libnet-snpp-perl libnetpbm9 libnss-db
  libnss3 liboaf0 libogg0 libole2-0 libpcap0 libpcre3 libperl5.6 libpng3
  libpspell-ispell1 libpspell4 libreadline4-dev librep9 librpm4 libsane
  libsasl7 libscrollkeeper0 libsigc++0 libslp1 libstdc++2.10-glibc2.2
  libstdc++3 libstroke0 libtimedate-perl libttf2 libungif4g libusb-0.1-4
  libvorbis0 libwmf0.2-2 libwraster2 libxaw6 libxaw7 libxaw7-dev libxml2
  libxslt1 mozilla-browser mozilla-mailnews mozilla-psm mtr-tiny nano nas-lib
  net-tools netkit-inetd netkit-ping oaf octave2.0 octave2.1 p4fftwgel2 perl
  perl-doc perl-modules perl-suid portmap psfontmgr psutils python2.1-doc
  r-base-core r-base-dev r-base-html r-base-latex r-recommended sawfish
  scrollkeeper semantic speedbar tcl8.3 tcl8.3-dev texi2html tk8.3 tk8.3-dev
  util-linux-locales vacation x-ttcidfont-conf xfonts-abi xlibs xlibs-dev
  xpdf-common xpdf-utils xscreensaver-gnome xserver-common-v3 xutils 
407 packages upgraded, 190 newly installed, 20 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/326MB of archives. After unpacking 407MB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] 
Media Change: Please insert the disc labeled 'Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 r0 _Woody_ - Official i386 Binary-1 (20020718)' in the drive '/cdrom/' and press enter

E: Internal Error, Couldn't configure a pre-depend
------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- 
Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com>        http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
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