gave up .... on: perl: warning: Setting locale failed.

s1:/etc/default# apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  locales
The following packages have been kept back:
  linux-image-2.6-686 openssh-client openssh-server proftpd
The following packages will be upgraded:
  bind9 bind9-host chkrootkit cpio debconf debconf-i18n dnsutils dpkg dselect
  grub initramfs-tools initscripts libbind9-0 libc6 libc6-dev libc6-i686
  libdns22 libgnutls13 libisc11 libisccc0 libisccfg1 libkrb53 liblwres9
  libpcre3 libperl-dev libperl5.8 libssl-dev libssl0.9.8 libxml2 libxml2-dev
  libxslt1-dev libxslt1.1 login mtr-tiny openssl passwd perl perl-base
  perl-modules python2.4 python2.4-minimal reportbug
  selinux-policy-refpolicy-targeted ssh sysv-rc sysvinit sysvinit-utils tzdata
48 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 4 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B/38.1MB of archives.
After unpacking 9757kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
        LANGUAGE = (unset),
        LC_ALL = (unset),
        LANG = ""en_US.UTF-8""
    are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory
Extracting templates from packages: 100%
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 23932 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing locales ...
dpkg: error processing locales (--remove):
 cannot remove `/usr/sbin/validlocale': Permission denied
Errors were encountered while processing:
 locales
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
s1:/etc/default#

s1:/etc/default# aptitude install locales
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
Reading task descriptions... Done
Building tag database... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  bind9 bind9-host chkrootkit cpio debconf debconf-i18n dnsutils dpkg
  dselect grub initramfs-tools initscripts libbind9-0 libc6 libc6-dev
  libc6-i686 libdns22 libgnutls13 libisc11 libisccc0 libisccfg1 libkrb53
  liblwres9 libpcre3 libperl-dev libperl5.8 libssl-dev libssl0.9.8 libxml2
  libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libxslt1.1 linux-image-2.6-686 login mtr-tiny
  openssh-client openssh-server openssl passwd perl perl-base perl-modules
  proftpd python2.4 python2.4-minimal reportbug
  selinux-policy-refpolicy-targeted ssh sysv-rc sysvinit sysvinit-utils
  tzdata
The following packages will be upgraded:
  locales
1 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 52 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/4014kB of archives. After unpacking 8192B will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]
Writing extended state information... Done
perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
        LANGUAGE = (unset),
        LC_ALL = (unset),
        LANG = ""en_US.UTF-8""
    are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 23932 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace locales 2.3.6.ds1-13etch5 (using .../locales_2.3.6.ds1-13etch8_all.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement locales ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/locales_2.3.6.ds1-13etch8_all.deb (--unpack):
 unable to create `./usr/sbin/locale-gen': Permission denied
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/locales_2.3.6.ds1-13etch8_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install.  Trying to recover:
s1:/etc/default#