hi again disregard my previous message....apt is indeed *excellent*. i put a local slink mirror in sources.list, did an 'apt-get install libc6-dev', and voila, it downloaded the necessary files. i am impressed :) leon -- Leon Breedt | System Administrator | Debian 2.0 | Linux 2.1.126 PGP key and homepage at http://ejb.www.icon.co.za Linux: Because I want to get there *today*