You can tell dpkg to configure what it can by typing dpkg --configre --pending You can check dependancies on packages, before you install them, with dpkg -I. Then, if you install a package and its dependancies with one command (i.e. dpkg -i package1.deb package2.deb ... ) then dpkg will unpack them all and then configure what it can; you may need to iterate dpkg --pending --configure a few times to get evrything done. Carl