Bug#217081: apt-get: incomprehensible error message in some failure scenarios

[Branden Robinson <branden@debian.org>]

Package: apt
Version: 0.5.14
Severity: normal

# apt-get -dy -o Debug::PkgProblemResolver=true dist-upgrade
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
You might want to run `apt-get -f install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  xaw3dg-dev: Depends: libxaw6-dev but it is not installed or
                       libxaw-dev
E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f.

"or libxaw-dev" what?

There is a problem with libxaw-dev (it is a pure virtual package these days),
but apt needs to say something more informative here.

-- Package-specific info:

-- apt-config dump --

APT "";
APT::Architecture "powerpc";
APT::Build-Essential "";
APT::Build-Essential:: "build-essential";
APT::Cache-Limit "16777216";
Dir "/";
Dir::State "var/lib/apt/";
Dir::State::lists "lists/";
Dir::State::cdroms "cdroms.list";
Dir::State::userstatus "status.user";
Dir::State::status "/var/lib/dpkg/status";
Dir::Cache "var/cache/apt/";
Dir::Cache::archives "archives/";
Dir::Cache::srcpkgcache "srcpkgcache.bin";
Dir::Cache::pkgcache "pkgcache.bin";
Dir::Etc "etc/apt/";
Dir::Etc::sourcelist "sources.list";
Dir::Etc::vendorlist "vendors.list";
Dir::Etc::vendorparts "vendors.list.d";
Dir::Etc::main "apt.conf";
Dir::Etc::parts "apt.conf.d";
Dir::Etc::preferences "preferences";
Dir::Bin "";
Dir::Bin::methods "/usr/lib/apt/methods";
Dir::Bin::dpkg "/usr/bin/dpkg";
DPkg "";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs "";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs:: "/usr/bin/apt-listchanges --apt || test $? -ne 10";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs:: "/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt || true";
DPkg::Tools "";
DPkg::Tools::Options "";
DPkg::Tools::Options::/usr/bin/apt-listchanges "";
DPkg::Tools::Options::/usr/bin/apt-listchanges::Version "2";

-- (no /etc/apt/preferences present) --

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
Architecture: powerpc
Kernel: Linux redwald 2.4.21-powerpc #1 mar jui 8 19:36:37 CEST 2003 ppc
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8

Versions of packages apt depends on:
ii  libc6                      2.3.2-8       GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libgcc1                    1:3.3.2-0pre5 GCC support library
ii  libstdc++5                 1:3.3.2-0pre5 The GNU Standard C++ Library v3

-- no debconf information