i get this on one of my systems during a apt-get upgrade: 1 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 43.8kB of archives. After unpacking 0B will be used. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y Get:1 http://security.debian.org stable/updates/main ntpdate 1:4.0.99g-2potato2 [43.8kB] Fetched 43.8kB in 12s (3591B/s) debconf: failed to initialize Dialog frontend debconf: falling back to Text frontend debconf: failed to initialize Text frontend (Reading database ... 10881 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to replace ntpdate 1:4.0.99g-2potato1 (using .../ntpdate_1%3a4.0.99g-2potato2_i386.deb) ... You must customize /etc/init.d/ntpdate before ntpdate can be run. Unpacking replacement ntpdate ... Setting up ntpdate (4.0.99g-2potato2) ... You must customize /etc/init.d/ntpdate before ntpdate can be run.
i tried upgrading debconf: gate-nh:/etc# apt-get install debconf Reading Package Lists... Done Building Dependency Tree... Done The following packages will be REMOVED: debconf-tiny The following NEW packages will be installed: debconf 0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 127kB of archives. After unpacking 250kB will be used. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y Get:1 http://http.us.debian.org stable/main debconf 0.2.80.17 [127kB] Fetched 127kB in 12s (10.5kB/s) debconf: failed to initialize Dialog frontend debconf: falling back to Text frontend debconf: failed to initialize Text frontend Configuring packages ... dpkg: debconf-tiny: dependency problems, but removing anyway as you request: logcheck depends on debconf; however: Package debconf is not installed. Package debconf-tiny which provides debconf is to be removed. lynx depends on debconf; however: Package debconf is not installed. Package debconf-tiny which provides debconf is to be removed. base-config depends on debconf; however: Package debconf is not installed. Package debconf-tiny which provides debconf is to be removed. (Reading database ... 10881 files and directories currently installed.) Removing debconf-tiny ... dpkg - warning: while removing debconf-tiny, directory `/var/lib/debconf' not empty so not removed. Selecting previously deselected package debconf. (Reading database ... 10837 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking debconf (from .../debconf_0.2.80.17_all.deb) ... Setting up debconf (0.2.80.17) ... debconf: failed to initialize Dialog frontend debconf: falling back to Text frontend tried to reconfigure debconf: gate-nh:/etc# dpkg-reconfigure debconf debconf: failed to initialize Dialog frontend debconf: falling back to Text frontend gate-nh:/etc# this is a debian 2.2r2 system, suggestions? i noticed 'dialog' was not installed, so i installed it and now reconfiguring debconf doesn't give an error: gate-nh:/etc# apt-get install dialog Reading Package Lists... Done Building Dependency Tree... Done The following NEW packages will be installed: dialog 0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 60.8kB of archives. After unpacking 166kB will be used. Get:1 http://security.debian.org stable/updates/main dialog 0.9a-20000118-3bis [60.8kB] Fetched 60.8kB in 13s (4504B/s) debconf: failed to initialize Dialog frontend debconf: falling back to Text frontend Selecting previously deselected package dialog. (Reading database ... 10932 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking dialog (from .../dialog_0.9a-20000118-3bis_i386.deb) ... Setting up dialog (0.9a-20000118-3bis) ... gate-nh:/etc# gate-nh:/etc# dpkg-reconfigure debconf gate-nh:/etc# any way to test debconf to be sure its working ?(using the dialog interface) thanks nate
