Packages marked for 'purge': dselect/dpkg database broken?

[Wolfgang Pfeiffer <roto@gmx.net>]

Hi all,
System is testing/unstable

# dpkg-checkbuilddeps
dpkg-checkbuilddeps: error: cannot read control file debian/control:
No such file or directory

And when I open a dselect window, most packages are set for "purge".

Gnome,only one example of many I could give:

In the dselect window this line:

gnome        installed ;  purge (was: purge).  Optional

When I press + (install it), I get a dependency message from dselect,
declaring me these packages as a dependency problem:

gnome depends on gnome-core (= 36)
gnome depends on evolution or balsa
gnome depends on epiphany-browser or galeon
gnome depends on pan
gnome depends on gnumeric
gnome depends on abiword-gnome or abiword
gnome depends on gnucash
gnome depends on xscreensaver
gnome depends on synaptic or gnome-apt

The packages above all have an installed version on the system (I'm
not so much worried about that last point, because this dependency
message *might* be usual behavior of dselect. I don't know):

$ apt-cache policy gnome gnome-core evolution epiphany-browser pan
gnumeric abiword-gnome gnucash xscreensaver synaptic | grep -C 1
Installed
gnome:
  Installed: 36
  Candidate: 36
--
gnome-core:
  Installed: 36
  Candidate: 36
--
evolution:
  Installed: 1.4.5-1
  Candidate: 1.4.5-1
--
epiphany-browser:
  Installed: 1.0.3-2
  Candidate: 1.0.3-2
--
pan:
  Installed: 0.14.2-1
  Candidate: 0.14.2-1
--
gnumeric:
  Installed: 1.2.1-3
  Candidate: 1.2.1-3
--
abiword-gnome:
  Installed: 2.0.0+cvs.2003.09.25-1.1
  Candidate: 2.0.0+cvs.2003.09.25-1.1
--
gnucash:
  Installed: 1.8.7-4
  Candidate: 1.8.7-4
--
xscreensaver:
  Installed: 4.12-1
  Candidate: 4.12-1
--
synaptic:
  Installed: 0.45-1
  Candidate: 0.45-1

But I don't understand why all these packages are marked for "purge":

$dpkg -l gnome gnome-core evolution epiphany-browser pan
gnumeric abiword-gnome gnucash xscreensaver synaptic
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
|
Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed
|/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err:
uppercase=bad)
||/ Name           Version        Description
+++-==============-==============-================================
pi  gnome          36             The GNOME Desktop Environment
pi  gnome-core     36             The GNOME Desktop Environment --
pi  evolution      1.4.5-1        The groupware suite
pi  epiphany-brows 1.0.3-2        Intuitive GNOME web browser
pi  pan            0.14.2-1       A Newsreader based on GTK2, which
pi  gnumeric       1.2.1-3        A GNOME spreadsheet application
pi  abiword-gnome  2.0.0+cvs.2003 WYSIWYG word processor based on
pi  gnucash        1.8.7-4        A personal finance tracking program
pi  xscreensaver   4.12-1         Automatic screensaver for X
pi  synaptic       0.45-1         Gtk GUI-frontend for APT

Broken dpkg databases? Or did I miss something?

Thanks in anticipation,

Regards,
Wolfgang

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