broken packages please help

[zackboll]

broken packages problem
running debian etch

my broken packages are gaim 1:1.5.0+1.5.1cvs20051015-6
and gnupg version 1.4.5-1

I can select to remove the gaim package fine
but when I select to remove gnupg, it makes me take out alot of things like apt-get, synaptic and gives me a warning that my system may be unusable afterwards so I didnt want to do that.

I also ran apt-get install -f

I get this

debianzack:/home/zboll# apt-get install -f
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Correcting dependencies... failed.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
E: Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breaks, this may be caused by held packages.
E: Unable to correct dependencies
debianzack:/home/zboll#

Any help would be appreciated.

I think it broke when I ran update manager but I am not sure, I noticed it a second ago when I tried to run update manager again


thanks,
Zack

[zackboll]

would compiling another kernel possibly help?

Im using kernel version 2.6.19-rc2 right now (I made the change because 2.6.17 and above included the broadcom wireless drivers natively.

Nothing was broke when I upgrade. I am not sure how it is possible to fix something that is broke, I dont beleive it allows me to install anything untill it gets fixed.

im linux noob so thankyou for taking the time to look at my problems,
thanks,
Zack

[zackboll]

Is it possible that someone hacked into my computer and is screwing things up? I dont know that much about linux, could I have gotten a virus?

I now get segmentation faults whenever I try to open synaptic package manage, update manager, or run apt-get for the terminal

debianzack:/home/zboll# apt-get install -f
Segmentation faultsts... 0%
debianzack:/home/zboll#

Any help would be appreciated, is their a cd I can down to recover, utility I can run, whatever?

thanks for the help,
Zack

[smolloy]

I have never had a debian system so I don't know anything about apt-get, but I find the line "Resolve generated breaks, this may be caused by held packages." in the error output quite suspicious.

When it says "held packages", that may mean that there are packages that are on some blacklist on your machine, and so cannot be installed (or upgraded to the necessary level). If these are dependencies for something else, then the upgrade will not work.

This is all just a guess, since I know nothing about Debian, but it might help to investigate the meaning of "held packages".

[zackboll]

thanks for the response, I might just do a reinstall, I posted thread in debian help forums. My behavior is worst than when I originally posted, synaptic-package manager appears to segfault when I try to enter it

I just really didnt want to do the reinstall because it took me a long time to get the system the way I like it. My wireless card bc43xx no longer appears to work after I did a reboot too, their may be too much wrong to fix, I would have to do it by manually installing .deb files, right?

thanks,
Zack

[Vergil83]

reinstall is most likely the easiest solution. However, since it took a while to get it set up how you like, you may wish to backup all your config files (for your wireless card, themes, bookmarks, etc...)

However, it may be possible to rescue this one. Do you know when it started to happen (did you install something for unstable, sarge?).

[zackboll]

Im actually using debian etch. It started when I ran update manager and did a significant update. It updated openoffice-org to 2.0

[zackboll]

there no recovery option that can be run when installing, right? Just reformat

[zackboll]

boy do I wish I backed up my system when I had it running stable. What program in linux would you guys recommend for creating backup image of my hard drive so I could reformat to that in case of crashing again. I dont have a dvd burner in my linux box, but I would like to be able to break it up into 4.7gb discs and transfer it over the network to a windows machine to burn.

I am pretty sure an update-manager caused it to break. Will probally be fixed but I have no way to fix mine because I can no longer use synaptic package manager or apt-get

thanks,
Zack

[zackboll]

I decided to just do a reinstall.

Does anyone know what directories I should backup so all my configurations and installed packages can be installed again?

the debian manual states the follow directories

/etc
/home
/var/backups
/var/lib/dpkg/
/root


So can anyone help me with the restoration process, do I just reinstall debian, and copy those directories back into place? Should running apt-get dist-upgrade get back all the previous packages I had installed?

thanks for the help,
Zack