Upgrade problem: MaxLoopCount reached

[jtappin]

Does anybody understand the following error message from an "apt-get dist-upgrade":

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E: Internal error: APT::pkgPackageManager::MaxLoopCount reached in SmartConfigure for whois:amd64, aborting.?

I'd not updated the system for a while, currently apt is at version 0.9.0, and whois is at version 5.0.15.
It is possible to upgrade whois with:

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apt-get install whois
but then the error repeats with package "acl".

When upgrading individual packages, there is an error:

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Error: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ExecFailed: Cannot launch daemon, file not found or permissions invalid.
Which persists after restarting dbus.

Does anyone have any pointers to what to try next?

[jtappin]

OK: Solved, by manually upgrading apt.

But I still don't understand why.

[devil]

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=%23669060%2C

greetz
devil