well I just want to drop in this followup, since things turned out successfully and wanted to complete this thread.

I reinstalled Knoppix, and I feel I have sorted out the package management problems. The silver bullet to apt-get appears to be the "apt-get upgrade -f" I have tried umteen ways to fix a bad/broken install but this is the one that seems to always work

Whenever I had incomplete installs and issues with apt-get installs I just run "apt-get upgrade -f" over and over until things are fixed and installs have all gone in fine (3 times was the most I have had to use it)

Also, I liked the idea of medialinux and so I did a "dpkg -l" before I blew it away and I went through it and installing all the multimedia apps.

So I have finally settled into the land of Debian (by the way, my real test came when I reviewed the software list for SuSE 9.0 and realized I had most of it and more. There was no urge to cough up $125.00 CAN to get it) I have a great system that is up-to-date and just humming like a charm -- and it's free

Thanks to the people of Debian
you have made my day
I am very greatful for this kick ass monster system...