With Debian Squeeze came version 1.2.0.5-2 of phpldapadmin. Since that release (or maybe an earlier 1.2*) it wants you to "Select a template to edit the entry". Which is annoying. I was unable to find much on a quick google query so i went with a - i guess - rather dirty solution.

for file in /etc/phpldapadmin/templates/modification/*.xml; do mv $file $file.unused; done

Now phpldapadmin is using the 'default' template for every edit. Easy as it was before version 1.2.

Update:

According to a message from a reader and this you can just set:

$config->custom->appearance['custom_templates_only'] = true; in your config.php. This will disable all the default templates. But be aware that this will disable the templates for editing entries and those for 'createing new entries'.