Quoth Joey Hess,
It's impossible to tell what you're running into since you didn't bother
to post the actual apt message or any useful diagnostic information, but
you might try removing base-config.
Sorry, didn't include the (quite long) output previously on the off chance
that it was something simple/obvious. The full apt-get output is included
below.
[rei:~]% sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Calculating Upgrade... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
a2ps acct adduser alien arts auctex balsa bonobo bsdmainutils bubblemon
bug-buddy cdrdao chbg codecommander crypt++el data-dumper debconf debhelper
debview dh-make dia djtools eeyes emacs20 emacsen-common emusic
enlightenment enscript equivs esound esound-clients esound-common ethereal
extace freeamp gaim-gnome gcd gcombust gdk-imlib-dev gdm gedit ghex
ghostview gimp1.1 gimp1.1-nonfree gimp1.1-perl glade-gnome gmc gnome-applets
gnome-apt gnome-bin gnome-card-games gnome-control-center gnome-core
gnome-games gnome-gataxx gnome-glines gnome-gnibbles gnome-gnobots2
gnome-gnometris gnome-gnomine gnome-gnotravex gnome-gtali gnome-gturing
gnome-guile gnome-gv gnome-help gnome-iagno gnome-iconedit gnome-mahjongg
gnome-media gnome-network gnome-panel gnome-panel-data gnome-pilot gnome-pim
gnome-pim-conduits gnome-same-gnome gnome-session gnome-stones
gnome-terminal gnome-utils gnome-xbill gnomehack gnomeicu gnosamba gnotepad+
gnucash gnumeric gnuserv gpasman gphoto gqmpeg gqview grdb grip gs-aladdin
gs-pdfencrypt gtk-engines-gtkstep gtk-engines-metal gtk-engines-notif
gtk-engines-pixmap gtk-engines-redmond95 gtkfind gtm gtop guitar gv gxanim
gxedit helix-sweetpill hyperlatex iceconf icewm-gnome imlib-dev imlib-progs
kaiman kmid kmidi kmix kscd latex2html libapache-asp-perl libapache-dbi-perl
libapache-dbilogger-perl libapache-mod-perl libcapplet-dev libcapplet0
libdbi-perl libdigest-md5-perl libesd0 libesd0-dev libgconf11
libgdk-pixbuf-dev libgdk-pixbuf-gnome2 libgdk-pixbuf2 libgimp1.1
libgimp1.1-dev libglade-gnome0 libglade0 libgnome-dev libgnome-pilot-dev
libgnome-pilot0 libgnome-vfs0 libgnome32 libgnomeprint12 libgnomeprint6
libgnomesupport0 libgnomeui32 libgnorba-dev libgnorba27 libgnorbagtk0
libgtk-imlib-perl libgtk-perl libgtk1.2 libgtk1.2-dev libgtkhtml4
libgtkhtml5 libgtkmm libgtkxmhtml1 libguilegtk0 libmedusa0 libnautilus0
libobgnome0 libobgtk1 libpaperg libpgperl libsdl1.0 libsdl1.1-dev libsmpeg0
libstorable-perl libterm-readkey-perl libwine libwine-dev libwmf0 libzvt2
lilo linpopup lynx magicfilter mailcrypt memprof mozilla mozilla-browser
mpage mpg123-esd mswordview mtr mysql-client mysql-server nautilus netpbm
pan pdl perl-5.004 perl-5.004-base perl-5.004-suid perl-5.005 perl-tk
perlmagick pkg-order premail psgml pstoedit pstotext psutils
python-gdk-imlib python-gnome python-gtk realplayer rep-gtk rep-gtk-gnome
sawfish sawfish-gnome sawfish-themes screem smpeg-gtv sound-monitor
task-helix-core task-kdemultimedia task-tex telnetd timidity uae vim-gtk vlc
vlc-gnome vlc-sdl webmagick wmakerconf wmmail wordinspect wxftp-gtk xalf
xchat-gnome xemacs20-bin xemacs20-support xemacs21 xemacs21-bin
xemacs21-mule xemacs21-support xfntil2 xlogmaster xmms xmms-dev xscreensaver
xserver-xfree86 xwhois
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libperl5.6 perl perl-5.6 perl-modules
The following packages have been kept back
fetchmail kernel-image-2.2.17
The following packages will be upgraded
acroread bsdutils catdoc cron debian-policy diff docbook-stylesheets eperl
fftw2 file groff hdparm ibritish ispell libhdf4g libio-stringy-perl
libmime-base64-perl libmime-perl libmldbm-perl libstringlist0
libtimedate-perl libxml-dev libxml1 mlock mount mutt net-tools oidentd pdksh
perl-5.005-base perl-base shellutils ssystem stat sudo tcsh tcsh-i18n unhtml
untex util-linux w3m wavtools wenglish xdaliclock xnetload
45 packages upgraded, 4 newly installed, 248 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
2 packages not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 19.0MB of archives. After unpacking 528MB will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]