Q: Why did I get an OMINOUS WARNING about debathena-hesiod-config during an upgrade?

Answer

The libhesiod0 package overwrites /etc/hesiod.conf with a new file on upgrades, even if it is a symlink. This causes debathena-hesiod-config to print an OMINOUS WARNING, and to fail to remove the dpkg diversion.

This is a known bug (Debian bug 435876) that is fixed in Debian testing and Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty. (So the OMINOUS WARNING still appears on upgrades from Debian 5.0 Etch or Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid to these later versions, but should no longer appear after the upgrade.)

If you see an OMINOUS WARNING for any other reason, please report it, as it may indicate a bug.