diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 29d10ba..a483763 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -10,8 +10,9 @@ multistrap (2.1.9) experimental; urgency=low
     bugs via the BTS
   * Add support for addimportant in the general section only.
     (Closes: #610634)
+  * Fix unpack option to look only for 'true' values.
 
- -- Neil Williams <codehelp@debian.org>  Sat, 22 Jan 2011 23:43:27 +0000
+ -- Neil Williams <neilw@toby-churchill.com>  Fri, 28 Jan 2011 10:49:01 +0000
 
 multistrap (2.1.8) experimental; urgency=low
 
diff --git a/multistrap b/multistrap
index 977e098..75566f6 100755
--- a/multistrap
+++ b/multistrap
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ setlocale(LC_MESSAGES, "");
 textdomain("multistrap");
 $progname = basename($0);
 $ourversion = &our_version();
-$unpack = "true";
+$unpack = "false";
 %omitdebsrc=();
 
 while( @ARGV ) {
@@ -857,9 +857,9 @@ sub cascade {
 				if (defined $keys{$section}{'directory'} and (not defined $dir));
 			# support the original value but replace by new value.
 			$unpack = lc($keys{$section}{'unpack'})
-				if (defined $keys{$section}{'forceunpack'} and (not defined $unpack));
+				if (defined $keys{$section}{'forceunpack'} and (lc($keys{$section}{'forceunpack'}) eq "true"));
 			$unpack = lc($keys{$section}{'unpack'})
-				if (defined $keys{$section}{'unpack'} and (not defined $unpack));
+				if (defined $keys{$section}{'unpack'} and (lc($keys{$section}{'unpack'} eq "true")));
 			$configsh = lc($keys{$section}{'configscript'})
 				if (defined $keys{$section}{'configscript'} and (not defined $configsh));
 			$tgzname = lc($keys{$section}{'tarballname'})