My Knoppix version of Debain Sarge was running beautiful, but I wasn't satisfied. On my previous distro I had streaming audio installed so I could listen to my favorite radio stations while I used my box. So, I used apt-get to install the app.

Realizing that the streaming audio app could overwrite my audio codecs for mplayer, I popped a DVD into the DVDROM and sure enough, I had no sound. The msg was "unknown codec 0x2001". I googled for what that meant and where I could get a replacement. Trying several codecs, including ac3 and dts, brought no joy. One source suggested to reinstall the sounddriver. I decided to try reinstalling libarts first, because mplayer was using aRts.

"apt-get install libarts" resulted in a msg which said that the current lib would be replaced by a more recent one and that 'dependencies would be deleted". No problem, I thought, and typed 'y' and pressed enter. The screen immediately began displaying what deleting dependencies meant: every KDE app on my computer!! I watched helplessly as apt-get uninstalled my ENTIRE kde application. I resisted the temptation to break the process, realizing that the apt-get database would be destroyed and I'd have to do a total reinstall of knoppix 3.7. I watched as one app after another disappered into the infinite bit bucket in the sky. Icons on the desktop visible behind the root shell terminal started disappearing. A msg appeared saying the kdm was gone. A few minutes later everything related to KDE not in memory was gone.

With nothing to lose, since I was facing a total reinstall anyway, I entered "apt-get install kde" in the root shell and pressed enter. I answered yes when asked if I wanted to install 345MB of applications. I watched in fancination as program after program came down the from the web and was installed. About 10-15 minutes later (I have a 3MB connection) apt-get was done. I executed apt-get autoclean and closed the root shell, then logged out of my current KDE desktop. Kdm wasn't running so I entered startx and was presented with the very latestest version of KDE that Sarge has to offer. Apt-get put more KDE apps on my box than Knoppix did. A couple non-standard KDE apps had to be reinstalled and apt-get made short work of them.

It's now 2:00AM and I am staring at the screen in unbelief over what I had just witnessed. What a powerful tool. Almost too powerful to be put into the hands of a Debian rookie like me!

But, does my mplayer have sound? Sadly, it does not. Neither does xine. Tonight I plan to totally delete mplayer and all codecs and configs related to it, and reinstall them. Maybe xine too. Am I mad? Hardly. Computers are my work and my hobby. I had more fun than a barrel of monkeys and learned a lot, too!