apt-get errors out religiously while processing 'at' command

[Eric P <eric.maillist@gmail.com>]

I'm running etch, and I recently ran an upgrade which installed many
packages including Gnome 2.10 and Xorg.  During the middle of the
upgrade, apt-get kept erroring out with the following (xbill just as an
example):

Unpacking xbill (from .../archives/xbill_2.1-4_i386.deb) ...
Setting up at (3.1.9) ...
Starting deferred execution scheduler: atdinvoke-rc.d: initscript atd,
action "start" failed.
dpkg: error processing at (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Setting up xbill (2.1-4) ...

Errors were encountered while processing:
 at
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)



Not sure what 'at' is, but that seems to be the culprit.

Regardless of what I install or remove anymore, it ends like above.  The
package(s) install, but I think it's bailing out before some apps get
properly configured (not 100% sure though).

Anyway, thanks for reading, and hopefully someone has a clue for this issue.

Eric P.