The answer is that libdialog, the library on which sysinstall depends
for these menus, is genuinely evil. It is the unloved, satanic
bastard child of multiple parents and torturing users like yourself
constitutes the only joy in life it has left. Its source files are
all chmod'd 0666 and dire README files warn against trespass by
neophyte programmers. It is the 7th gate of Hell. It makes the baby
Jesus cry. Were libdialog given anthropomorphic representation, it
would be promptly burnt at the stake and its ashes scattered in the