APT is broke, what do I do?

[stiles]

I'm running woody and sence the last brakage in dpkg apt is dead on my box. It will "apt-get update" just fine but "apt-get upgrade" will download packages but when it tries to install them it errors out:


/bin/sh: /usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure: No such file or directory
E: Sub-process /usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt returned an error code (127)
E: Failure running script /usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt

anybody know what to try to fix this? Has anybody else had this problem (and I hope been able to fix it)? Please help.

[Jedi_Clampett]

From the debian-user mailing list:


In-Reply-To: <20001111232050.4301.qmail@web702.mail.yahoo.com >; from art_lem@yahoo.com on Sat, Nov 11, 2000 at 03:20:50PM -0800
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On Sat, Nov 11, 2000 at 03:20:50PM -0800, Art Lemasters wrote:
> I am running woody.
>
> Running dselect in apt access mode, none of the upgrade
> packages will install. I also tried running apt-get.
> The error message when trying to install is
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~
> /bin/sh: /usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure: No such file or directory
> E: Sub-process /usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt returned an error
> code (127) E: Failure running script /usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure
> --apt ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~
>
> /usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure *is* there and contains less than 127
> lines
> How can I fix this system so that it will upgrade for
> the time being?

looks like you got caught by dpkg 1.7.0 which has a broken
update-alternatives, this caused /usr/bin/perl to be deleted that is
the error your getting.

create a /usr/bin/perl symlink yourself to fix it, usually its a link
to /etc/alternatives/perl which is a link to /usr/bin/perl-5.005 or
perl-5.6 something in your case (the perl upgrade is how the link got
trashed)

--
Ethan Benson http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/