base-passwd package failed to install during do-release-upgrade

 sudo apt-get -f install

Paketlisten werden gelesen... Fertig
Abhängigkeitsbaum wird aufgebaut
Reading state information... Fertig
Abhängigkeit werden korrigiert... Fertig
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  openoffice.org-thesaurus-de-ch libotr2 libfluidsynth1 libgdata-google1.2-1
  openoffice.org-thesaurus-de libxalan110 openoffice.org-hyphenation-de
  libbinio1c2 libresid-builder0c2a libsidplay2 openoffice.org-thesaurus-en-au
  ladcca2 libimlib2 libgdata1.2-1
Verwenden Sie »apt-get autoremove«, um sie zu entfernen.
Die folgenden zusätzlichen Pakete werden installiert:
  libcairo-perl libcairo2 libcairo2-dev libcups2 libcups2-dev libcupsys2
  libcupsys2-dev libglib-perl libgnome2-vfs-perl liblocale-gettext-perl
  libnet-dbus-perl libpango1.0-0 libpango1.0-common libpango1.0-dev libsnmp15
  libterm-readkey-perl libtext-charwidth-perl libtext-iconv-perl
  libxml-parser-perl perl-base
Vorgeschlagene Pakete:
  libcairo2-doc cups-common ttf-thryomanes ttf-baekmuk ttf-arphic-gbsn00lp
  ttf-arphic-bsmi00lp ttf-arphic-gkai00mp ttf-arphic-bkai00mp libpango1.0-doc
Die folgenden Pakete werden ENTFERNT:
  gui-apt-key libgnome2-canvas-perl libgnome2-perl libgtk2-perl libperl5.8
  libpurple0 pidgin pidgin-audacious pidgin-encryption pidgin-extprefs
  pidgin-festival pidgin-guifications pidgin-hotkeys pidgin-libnotify
  pidgin-otr pidgin-plugin-pack pidgin-sipe pidgin-themes ubuntu-desktop
Die folgenden NEUEN Pakete werden installiert:
  libcups2 libcups2-dev
Die folgenden Pakete werden aktualisiert:
  libcairo-perl libcairo2 libcairo2-dev libcupsys2 libcupsys2-dev libglib-perl
  libgnome2-vfs-perl liblocale-gettext-perl libnet-dbus-perl libpango1.0-0
  libpango1.0-common libpango1.0-dev libsnmp15 libterm-readkey-perl
  libtext-charwidth-perl libtext-iconv-perl libxml-parser-perl perl-base
18 aktualisiert, 2 neu installiert, 19 zu entfernen und 1116 nicht aktualisiert.
36 nicht vollständig installiert oder entfernt.
Es müssen noch 0B von 6237kB Archiven geholt werden.
After this operation, 21,0MB disk space will be freed.
Möchten Sie fortfahren [J/n]? j

Richte base-passwd ein (3.5.17) ...
Can't locate Pod/Usage.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8 /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.8 /usr/share/perl/5.8 /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at /usr/sbin/install-docs line 18.
Global symbol "$opt_rootdir" requires explicit package name at /usr/sbin/install-docs line 136.
Execution of /usr/sbin/install-docs aborted due to compilation errors.
dpkg: Fehler beim Bearbeiten von base-passwd (--configure):
 Unterprozess post-installation script gab den Fehlerwert 9 zurück
Fehler traten auf beim Bearbeiten von:
 base-passwd
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

same problem here:

 sudo apt-get -f install

Paketlisten werden gelesen... Fertig
Abhängigkeitsbaum wird aufgebaut
Reading state information... Fertig
Abhängigkeit werden korrigiert... Fertig
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  openoffice.org-thesaurus-de-ch libotr2 libfluidsynth1 libgdata-google1.2-1
  openoffice.org-thesaurus-de libxalan110 openoffice.org-hyphenation-de
  libbinio1c2 libresid-builder0c2a libsidplay2 openoffice.org-thesaurus-en-au
  ladcca2 libimlib2 libgdata1.2-1
Verwenden Sie »apt-get autoremove«, um sie zu entfernen.
Die folgenden zusätzlichen Pakete werden installiert:
  libcairo-perl libcairo2 libcairo2-dev libcups2 libcups2-dev libcupsys2
  libcupsys2-dev libglib-perl libgnome2-vfs-perl liblocale-gettext-perl
  libnet-dbus-perl libpango1.0-0 libpango1.0-common libpango1.0-dev libsnmp15
  libterm-readkey-perl libtext-charwidth-perl libtext-iconv-perl
  libxml-parser-perl perl-base
Vorgeschlagene Pakete:
  libcairo2-doc cups-common ttf-thryomanes ttf-baekmuk ttf-arphic-gbsn00lp
  ttf-arphic-bsmi00lp ttf-arphic-gkai00mp ttf-arphic-bkai00mp libpango1.0-doc
Die folgenden Pakete werden ENTFERNT:
  gui-apt-key libgnome2-canvas-perl libgnome2-perl libgtk2-perl libperl5.8
  libpurple0 pidgin pidgin-audacious pidgin-encryption pidgin-extprefs
  pidgin-festival pidgin-guifications pidgin-hotkeys pidgin-libnotify
  pidgin-otr pidgin-plugin-pack pidgin-sipe pidgin-themes ubuntu-desktop
Die folgenden NEUEN Pakete werden installiert:
  libcups2 libcups2-dev
Die folgenden Pakete werden aktualisiert:
  libcairo-perl libcairo2 libcairo2-dev libcupsys2 libcupsys2-dev libglib-perl
  libgnome2-vfs-perl liblocale-gettext-perl libnet-dbus-perl libpango1.0-0
  libpango1.0-common libpango1.0-dev libsnmp15 libterm-readkey-perl
  libtext-charwidth-perl libtext-iconv-perl libxml-parser-perl perl-base
18 aktualisiert, 2 neu installiert, 19 zu entfernen und 1116 nicht aktualisiert.
36 nicht vollständig installiert oder entfernt.
Es müssen noch 0B von 6237kB Archiven geholt werden.
After this operation, 21,0MB disk space will be freed.
Möchten Sie fortfahren [J/n]? j

Richte base-passwd ein (3.5.17) ...
Can't locate Pod/Usage.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8 /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.8 /usr/share/perl/5.8 /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at /usr/sbin/install-docs line 18.
Global symbol "$opt_rootdir" requires explicit package name at /usr/sbin/install-docs line 136.
Execution of /usr/sbin/install-docs aborted due to compilation errors.
dpkg: Fehler beim Bearbeiten von base-passwd (--configure):
 Unterprozess post-installation script gab den Fehlerwert 9 zurück
Fehler traten auf beim Bearbeiten von:
 base-passwd
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Sounds like a doc-base or possibly a perl bug. What were you upgrading from and to?

from hardy to intrepid

Alexander Sack just got this too on his hardy->intrepid upgrade:

Preparing to replace base-passwd 3.5.16 (using .../base-passwd_3.5.17_amd64.deb) ...
Can't locate Pod/Usage.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8 /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.8 /usr/share/perl/5.8 /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at /usr/sbin/install-docs line 18.
Global symbol "$opt_rootdir" requires explicit package name at /usr/sbin/install-docs line 136.
Execution of /usr/sbin/install-docs aborted due to compilation errors.
dpkg: warning - old pre-removal script returned error exit status 9
dpkg - trying script from the new package instead ...
dpkg: ... it looks like that went OK.
Unpacking replacement base-passwd ...
Setting up base-passwd (3.5.17) ...
dpkg: error processing base-passwd (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 9

libmldbm-perl is now required by the new doc-base but its in universe and needs to enter main first. Then the new version of doc-base can enter intrepid and hopefully fix the issue.

  doc-base | 0.8.16 | intrepid | source, all

As Michael says, this should fix the bug, because now calls to install-docs from maintainer scripts are no-ops, and doc-base uses dpkg triggers instead. As I recall, by the time triggers are run, the owning package is configured or in a very similar state, so it shouldn't be possible for this bug to occur any more.

It turns out that this isn't enough; I reproduced this while upgrading to Intrepid myself this morning. doc-base isn't guaranteed to be unpacked before packages that call install-docs. One possible answer would be to have perl-base Conflict with the pre-triggers version of install-docs, although I have a feeling we may be in for other problems here and should pay attention to what Debian is doing with perl.

I had the same problem with upgrading from hardy to intrepid. Just update perl by hand (dpkg -i perl_5.10.0-11_i386.deb). That did the trick.

Seb had this error with confconfig-config today too.

I think a "Breaks" or "Conflicts" doc-base (<< 0.8.16) in perl-base should fix it. I'm testing my theory now.

Still present:

Selecting previously deselected package libmldbm-perl.
(Reading database ... 165829 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libmldbm-perl (from .../libmldbm-perl_2.01-2_all.deb) ...
Preparing to replace doc-base 0.8.7 (using .../doc-base_0.8.16_all.deb) ...
Can't locate Pod/Usage.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8 /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.8 /usr/share/perl/5.8 /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at /usr/sbin/install-docs line 18.
Global symbol "$opt_rootdir" requires explicit package name at /usr/sbin/install-docs line 136.
Execution of /usr/sbin/install-docs aborted due to compilation errors.
dpkg: warning - old pre-removal script returned error exit status 9
dpkg - trying script from the new package instead ...
dpkg: ... it looks like that went OK.
Unpacking replacement doc-base ...

Where can i find the fix to this bug?, I dont have the ability to update perl by hand yet.