How to reset dselect to zero selections

[Egbert Bouwman <egbert@bork.demon.nl>]

I made a mesh of dselect -> apt-get -> dpkg:
   i use slink with dselect access-method apt, 
   in sources.list an ftp-source for unstable (potato) packages.
The new enlightenment needed a new libc6, and the new libc6
causes the renewal of practically half my distribution,
which i don't like to do over a telephone-line.
So i decided not to download. But now i can't get back a clean
dselect selection list: even if i think i have set everything on
hold (=), there are packages back on select (*). It seems i have
pushed on Enter at least once to often.

Also i have tried a --get-selections / --set-selections cycle,
changing the 'install' to 'hold' in between.

My two questions are:
- how do i bring back dselect to a healthy state
- where can i find a clear, not cryptic, discussion of 
  dselect, especially the interaction of the + - = keys,
  and the X Q D R and U keys (and the role of the Old Mark).
egbert   
-- 
Egbert Bouwman - Keizersgracht 197 II - 1016 DS  Amsterdam - 020 6257991
========================================================================