apt-get errors

[Russell Poyner <rpoyner@facstaff.wisc.edu>]

I have a newly installed libranet 2.0 system (essentially woody).  I am 
attempting to upgrade to xfree86-common=4.2.1-4 in hopes of getting my radeon 
7500 to work better. 

apt-get install xfree86-common=4.2.1-4 quickly runs into problems as it trys 
to upgrade libc.  The error message is below

Thanks in advance.

R. Poyner

E: Cannot get debconf version. Is debconf installed?
(Reading database ... 32 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libc6 (from .../libc6_2.3.1-9_i386.deb) ...
dpkg not recorded as installed, cannot check for epoch support !
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.3.1-9_i386.deb 
(--unpack):
 subprocess pre-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.3.1-9_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)