can't execv?

[w trillich <will@pinncomp.net>]

now that i'm halfway through completely butchering my debian linux,
several (some, not all) programs won't run, period, saying
	Could not execv /your/luck/has/expired/today
i presume it's referring to newly-installed programs hither and yon.
it certainly happens for most of the (new) binary postgres files.

1) what does that mean? that's a symptom of... what? do i just need
another simple piece for the puzzle (simple, as in postgresql...)?

2) how can i fix it?

3) any chance i can restart linux, or am i stuck with a memory-resident,
orphaned set of software? i.e. is the rest of the system still competent,
or am i totally screwed?


# cat /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian frozen main contrib non-free

# uname -a
Linux server 2.0.36 #2 Sun Feb 21 15:55:27 EST 1999 i586 unknown


[i tried apt-get upgrade, which wouldn't willingly proceed all the way
through... if i could find a way to move beyond 'willing' into 'forced'
it'd make my day.]

i also have dozens and dozens of dangling symlinks in the /usr/man
directory tree now.