acpid install crashes

Binary package hint: acpid

while upgrading from 7.04 to 7.10 update manager said:

Setting up acpid (1.0.4-5ubuntu8) ...
 * Loading ACPI modules...
   ...done.
 * Starting ACPI services...
invoke-rc.d: initscript acpid, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error processing acpid (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of acpi-support:
 acpi-support depends on acpid (>= 1.0.4-1ubuntu4); however:
  Package acpid is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing acpi-support (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of powermanagement-interface:
 powermanagement-interface depends on acpi-support (>= 0.17); however:
  Package acpi-support is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing powermanagement-interface (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured

this was encountered much earlier (acpid version 1.0.2) and still in place.