Comment 3 for bug 1964561

On Fri, Mar 11, 2022 at 05:53:33PM -0000, Seth Arnold wrote:
> These lines from the logs look most relevant:
>
> Unpacking libpam-runtime (1.3.1-5ubuntu4.3) over (1.3.1-5ubuntu4.1) ...
> Setting up libpam-runtime (1.3.1-5ubuntu4.3) ...
> Can't locate object method "new" via package "Debconf::Element::Noninteractive::Multiselect" (perhaps you forgot to load "Debconf::Element::Noninteractive::Multiselect"?) at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/FrontEnd.pm line 68, <GEN1> line 8.
> Use of uninitialized value $ret in scalar chomp at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/Client/ConfModule.pm line 132, <STDIN> line 7.
> Use of uninitialized value $ret in split at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/Client/ConfModule.pm line 133, <STDIN> line 7.
> Use of uninitialized value $ret[0] in string eq at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/Client/ConfModule.pm line 134, <STDIN> line 7.
> dpkg: error processing package libpam-runtime (--configure):
> installed libpam-runtime package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 255

> Is pam missing a versioned pre-depends?

No. a) this is happening at package setup time (so: in the postinst, not in
the preinst, and pre-depends are not relevant), b) libpam-runtime has had
the correct dep on debconf for years (decades?).

> or is something not prepared to handle a non-interactive update?

Also no. This seems to be some strange breakage of the debconf package on
the system; possibly filesystem corruption, because the packaging system
should not allow such a situation.