Re: perl configuration problem

I had this problem once and it was because I upgraded the system Perl with a newer version (it was Debian, but I guess that Ubuntu relies on these parts of Debian). The basic moral of the story is, don't mess with the system Perl. Perl offers you to install itself at /usr/bin/perl or /usr/local/bin/perl, and if you accept that, it will overwrite the Debian version of Perl, which is unfortunately needed for debconf and apt-get.

If you're lucky, you can maybe reinstall the Debian Perl package over your Perl, or fiddle with symlinks to make your new Perl see the other Debian-owned Perl modules.

In my case, I reinstalled the system and resolved to always compile my own Perl versions to live under /opt/perl instead.

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Re^2: perl configuration problem by danmcb (Monk) on Jun 16, 2007 at 21:45 UTC
wow. thanks. I didn't realise that deb/ubuntu were that sensitive, though it makes sense. I'll see if I can fix it, if not maybe it's maybe time to upgrade to Ubuntu 7.xx ... ouch.	[reply]
Re^3: perl configuration problem by moritz (Cardinal) on Jun 16, 2007 at 22:33 UTC
Upgrading while your system is broken is really not a good idea. Try a `aptitude reinstall perl perl-base perl-modules`. Greetings from the DebConf ;-) Perl 6 in German	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: perl configuration problem by danmcb (Monk) on Jun 16, 2007 at 22:51 UTC
well, it's all under vmware, so I'll just do a fresh install. thanks for the suggestion - seems to have same prob though. (later edit)I lied, I lied, mea culpa. That did in fact work perfectly. The same error was shown at first, but then a new and working perl was installed, and dpkg once again knows where it's towel is. Thanks again.	[reply]