Comment 3 for bug 987096

Not sure what is at the core of this, but here is a workaround that worked for me:

texlive-base postinst script /var/lib/dpkg/info/texlive-base.postinst
has a problem. When calling:

localpaper=$(texconfig-sys xdvi paperconf)

at line 102, the program returns an empty string and then:

texconfig-sys $binary paper $localpaper no-recreate-formats 2>&1

fails. Replacing the line with a constant paper format, e.g.:

texconfig-sys $binary paper a4 no-recreate-formats 2>&1

makes the script to complete ok, which resolves all the impled texlive installation problems.