> What are you thinking dselect does for you that apt-get doesn't? well, this is just an anecdote (the singular of data...), but -
Yesterday apt-get maliciously lunched my install(okay, okay, I was trying to upgrade firestarter even though apt-get told me to file a bug report because it thought the install was impossible... more on that coming up soon). The X server died horribly, screaming, as a result of things it needed having been scurrilously removed by "apt-get" (which did sort of warn me that it was had probably clobbered my X-server install) (but only after having already done it, of curse). I only had terminal login. After a 4-hour late-night knock-down drag-out with apt-get, dpkg, and dselect, trying to figure out a way back to from where I came, I was finally able to rescue the install with dselect. Telling it to reconfigure everything it didn't like and then reinstall everything it did like, brought my install back to life. (I was *really* convinced I was looking at a complete reload...) apt-get and dpkg kept generating interlocking package interdependencies that they *just* *could* *not* resolve... There is probably some obscure combination of command syntax and control file entries for either apt-get or dpkg or both that would accomplish the same thing, but no amount of man-page-reading and website-trolling (via Gatesware, since my Debian install was dead) conveyed the appropriate incantations... "dselect", on the other hand, despite its blatant inoperability as regards configuring specific behaviors, *was* able to diagnose the corrupted dependencies and rescue the installation, even when operated by a complete idiot. (Pages and pages of dismal output logs from apt-get and dpkg available on demand, if anyone's interested) (which I wouldn't be, if I were you) (No, I DON'T know what I'm doing, I only do what the voices in my head tell me) (Last night, just before I finally rescued the install, they were telling me to clean my guns) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]