Ok,
Seems like the computer had a "diverted" install of /sbin/start-stop-daemon. Fixed it by running: dpkg-divert --remove /sbin/start-stop-daemon mv /sbin/start-stop-daemon /sbin/start-stop-daemon.REAL I need to investigate why it was diverted. Probably because the Debian installer did not complete cleanly. Strange that nothing else (AFAIK) seems to be malfunctioning on this machine when start-stop-daemon is basically not there. Cheers Ruben

