diff -Nru emacsen-common-1.4.19/debian/changelog emacsen-common-1.4.19ubuntu1/debian/changelog
--- emacsen-common-1.4.19/debian/changelog	2009-05-17 23:42:24.000000000 +0100
+++ emacsen-common-1.4.19ubuntu1/debian/changelog	2009-10-26 11:39:57.000000000 +0000
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+emacsen-common (1.4.19ubuntu1) karmic; urgency=low
+
+  * emacs-package-install: don't throw an error when maintainer scripts call
+    this hook while emacsen-common isn't yet configured; LP: #456523.
+
+ -- Loïc Minier <loic.minier@ubuntu.com>  Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:39:15 +0000
+
 emacsen-common (1.4.19) unstable; urgency=low
 
   * Move the sample package install/remove scripts from
diff -Nru emacsen-common-1.4.19/emacs-package-install emacsen-common-1.4.19ubuntu1/emacs-package-install
--- emacsen-common-1.4.19/emacs-package-install	2009-02-13 06:18:08.000000000 +0000
+++ emacsen-common-1.4.19ubuntu1/emacs-package-install	2009-10-26 11:39:12.000000000 +0000
@@ -38,13 +38,12 @@
 
 if (! -e '/var/lib/emacsen-common/installed-flavors')
 {
-  die <<EOS;
-ERROR: emacsen-common being used before being configured.
-ERROR: This is likely a bug in the ${pkg} package, which needs to
-ERROR: add one of the appropriate dependencies.
-ERROR: See /usr/share/doc/emacsen-common/debian-emacs-policy.gz
-ERROR: for details.
-EOS
+  # This could be considered an error condition, but it's actually fine to
+  # just do nothing when this hook is called while emacsen-common isn't
+  # configured -- emacsen-common will just add all packages when configuring.
+  # See LP #456523 for some background on why it's best not to throw an error
+  # here.
+  exit 0;
 }
 
 open FLAVORS, "<${var_dir}/installed-flavors" or