apt-get install <package> fails

[mwagz]

I'm running Knoppix ver 4.0.
Entering the command:
apt-get install <package>
Output:
Reading Package Lists...
Building Dependency Tree...
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.

Since you only requested a single operation it is extremely likely that
the package is simply not installable and a bug report against
that package should be filed.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
<package> Depends: <package> but it is not going to be installed
E:Broken packages
How do i solve this???

[turbine]

I don't know how to solve it either so I'm interested in the answer. Frequently if I can download the appropriate deb file then I can install the package using dpkg -i. But not always.