system hosed?

[hardware_bum]

This weekend I did:
apt-get -t unstable install kaffeine kaffeine-mozilla
on my hdd knoppix install.

Kaffeine tried to install but (for some unknown reason) failed. Now my system boots but I have very limited functionality. The KDE menu has only a few entries. Can't start Konqueror or KMail. In fact, I can't even start a console window from inside KDE.

So I guess some files were overwritten and trashed. What to do? I'm thinking I must re-install Knoppix.

Too bad ProBono's post about klik came too late for me....
Any advice?

[mzilikazi]

Did you try apt-get -f install to see if any packages were not completely installed?

[hardware_bum]

No.

I can't open a console, so how to do this?

[mzilikazi]

Use a virtual terminal. How? CTRL+ALT+F1 (F2, F3 etc.)
HTH

[hardware_bum]

OK, this works and I can get a term.

Did apt-get -f install and lots of stuff came back. Mostly messages about packages not installed and to be removed. Got the option to proceed and entered 'Y'.

Then got a time out message from
ftp2.de.debian.org (195.71.9.196)

So, a problem with my sources.list file? Now I remember I had the same message when trying to apt-get kaffeine on the weekend that started this problem.

Funny, apt-get worked before.

[hardware_bum]

More progress.

In another recent forum I found advice to change all references in /etc/apt/sources.list from

ftp2.de.debian.org
to
ftp.de.debian.org

That seemed to get things going but still having problem.

After doing 'apt-get update' and 'apt-get -f install' I still get some messages about not finding packages.

Is this still a problem with /etc/apt/sources.list??

[mzilikazi]

You should use apt-spy. It can benchmark debian server for you. I use these parameters:

apt-spy -d unstable -a North-America -o mirrors.txt

man apt-spy is a good place to start. DO NOT use -o /etc/apt/sources.list or it will overwrite your current sources.list file! You can do:
mv mirrors.txt /etc/apt/sources.list
then add any other sources you may have
OR
Simply add the new Debian mirrors (from mirrors.txt) to your existing /etc/apt/sources.list. Whatever works for you.

Pay no attention to those who are whining about apt being broken as they are unenlightened. ;)