update-grub debconf frontend fails running dpkg --compare-versions after kernel upgrade

[Jens]

After running "apt-get upgrade" with a new kernel (3.2.0-64) being installed, I get the following output:

Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
dpkg: error: --compare-versions takes three arguments: <version> <relation> <version>

Type dpkg --help for help about installing and deinstalling packages [*];
Use `dselect' or `aptitude' for user-friendly package management;
Type dpkg -Dhelp for a list of dpkg debug flag values;
Type dpkg --force-help for a list of forcing options;
Type dpkg-deb --help for help about manipulating *.deb files;

Options marked [*] produce a lot of output - pipe it through `less' or `more' !
Searching for default file ... found: /boot/grub/default
Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst
Searching for splash image ... none found, skipping ...
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-64-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-57-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-56-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-43-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-39-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-26-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-25-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-24-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic
Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ... done

This is repeatable by running "update-grub" (and not dependant on the current locale as I used "LANG=C update-grub".

The error seems to happen in the debconf frontend, as the error occurs after running this bit:

root@root:~# bash -x update-grub
+ set -e
+ . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
++ '[' '!' '' ']'
++ PERL_DL_NONLAZY=1
++ export PERL_DL_NONLAZY
++ '[' '' ']'
++ exec /usr/share/debconf/frontend update-grub
(...)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: grub 0.97-29ubuntu66
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-57.87-generic 3.2.52
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-57-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.6
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Jun 11 10:35:48 2014
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: grub
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-05-04 (767 days ago)

[Jens (jens-launchpad-net)]

However, the newly installed kernel was updated correctly and a reboot booted it correctly (at least from the first RAID device I checked).

[dino99 (9d9)]

 grub legacy upstream is stopped, only receiving possible random fixes locally. Grub2 is now the default bootloader with all the ubuntu supported versions