Keyboard on console; and base files

[Alan Eugene Davis <adavis@netpci.com>]

On my machine the keyboard  on the console is seriously deranged, so
that typing an a gets a "q" on the screen, and so on.  X11 is fine.  

In trying to upgrade, I am running into the base files message about
/etc/inputrc, but I have deleted the messages and cannot get onto the
archive since the mirrors haven't been updated.  What do I have to do?
I deleted /etc/inputrc---no dice, dpkg just still believes it is
there.  I removed the libreadlineg2 package, but when I ran apt-get
upgrade again, it installed it first, leaving the same error.

I also have to disable xdm.  Can I do this temporarily somehow, with a
config file?

Thanks again for help, many times...

Alan 

-- 
adavis@netpci.com

"An inviscid theory of flow renders the screw useless, but the need
for one non-existent."        ---Lord Raleigh (John William Strutt),
                                 or else his son)nn.