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# -*- readme-debian -*-

Debugging hints (Known problems below)
======================================

Enable debugging
----------------

To enable debug messages from dictionaries-common,

  export DICT_COMMON_DEBUG=1

To enable debug messages from debconf,

  export DEBCONF_DEBUG=developer

This last is very noisy, enable only if really needed. See
debconf-devel(7) for more info about debconf debugging.

Debugging dictionaries-common first configuration from debian-installer
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
If you want to debug dictionaries-common behavior during its first
pre-configuration when running debian-installer, you need to run
debian-installer in expert mode. Open a shell and near the top of

   /var/lib/dpkg/info/pkgsel.postinst

add

   export DICT_COMMON_DEBUG=1

This way, you should get debugging info in the syslog for the
installation.

Some known problems
===================

debconf question asked on every upgrade
---------------------------------------
If every time you upgrade any wordlist or ispell dictionary are asked
about preferred language (and not only at most the first time you
installed it) there is a problem, because that is not what current
code should do.

This has been noticed to happen due to debconf database corruption
(e,g, #335612). Please read below section "Debconf database
corruption".

Problems installing or removing a wordlist/ispell dictionary
----------------------------------------------
Something like
---
# dpkg --purge wbritish
(Reading database ... 111027 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing wbritish ...
Can't call method "choices" on an undefined value at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/Question.pm line 85, <GEN0> line 4.
dpkg: error processing wbritish (--purge):
 subprocess post-removal script returned error exit status 29
Errors were encountered while processing:
 wbritish
---
may also be related to debconf type 1 db corruption (see
#198297). Please read below section "Debconf database corruption".

Debconf database corruption
---------------------------
Some of the problems listed above are caused by some sort of debconf
database corruption.

In most old cases (See #198297, #224400, #247849, #255193,
#282587, #284287, #297534 and #335612) that corruption has been
related to a nearly full /var partition. This most frequent cause
for this should have been fixed in debconf 1.5.0 (See #198297). From
its changelog,

 * Notice and error out on write errors (such as ENOSPC) when saving
   databases. Should help with a lot of database corruption bugs.

but seems that other still unknown reasons may be flying around.

Please take a look at those bug reports to check whether your problem is
actually the same, and see if you can provide more information about
the problem before proceeding further.

If your problem seems related to debconf database corruption, be it of
above kind or not, the suggested fix is, quoting Joey Hess message in
#198297 bug page

> By purging and reinstalling the package, you only fixed the entries for
> that package. I suggest you run /usr/share/debconf/fix_db.pl as root,
> which will delete all the orphaned questions. You may end up having to
> repeat your answers to some debconf questions during future upgrades,
> but that's a small price to pay for a consistent debconf database.

After running /usr/share/debconf/fix_db.pl as root, please look which
templates were affected,

$ diff -u /var/cache/debconf/config.dat{-old,}    | grep ^[+-]Name
$ diff -u /var/cache/debconf/templates.dat{-old,} | grep ^[+-]Name

Your debconf database should be now in a consistent state and packages
configuration should succeed.

Regarding ispell dictionaries and wordlists, you may still need to run
'dpkg-reconfigure dictionaries-common' as root to make sure defaults
are correct.

 -- Agustin Martin Domingo <agmartin@debian.org>, Tue, 26 Apr 2011 12:51:13 +0200

 LocalWords:  debian debconf usr alioth org wordlists wordlist debhelper http
 LocalWords:  iamerican wspanish miscfiles xemacs wbritish var html dpkg ispell