Missing GLIBC2.2 on potato install

[Dougie Nisbet <dougie@tbird2.homelan>]

I've installed potato a few times on this particular PC, and for various 
reasons, I wanted to do a clean re-install. I repartitioned and off we went. 
Everything went smoothly and I soon had a working system. 

I wanted to access reiser filesystems (version 2) created by another linux 
distro, so I added the Adrian Bunk lines to my /etc/apt/sources.list, and 
downloaded the kernel packages and 2.4.14 sources. I recompiled the kernel 
with reiser support, rebooted, and all was well. 

So far so good. I've done this process a few times with no problems.

Then I decided to try postfix for a change, and did an apt-get install 
postfix, and allowed it to do its stuff. I read the postfix config file, 
hacked it with a bit of trial and error, and managed to get things working. I 
was pleasantly surprised.

I made a few other hacks around the system, all of which I've done on 
previous occasions.  I restored my woody partition which I'd zapped because 
of the repartiotioning, modified my lilo, and rebooted to check that I could 
still get into woody. Yes. Fine.

Rebooted to get back to potato - and now big problems.

Most things I try say that the GLIBC 2.2 package library or whatever is not 
installed. I try various permitations of apt-cache search and apt-get install 
and reinstall and fix to try get things working again, but most things, such 
as perl, need glibc2.2. I don't know where things went wrong, but presumably 
I messed up somewhere, and don't know where I did it.

Question 1: Is the system salvagable? I suspect not. Is it possible to 
install the GLIBC_2.2 (I can't recall the exact error) - or is it needed by 
everything, including the install routines?

Question 2: Assuming I'm looking at a clean rebuild, is there anything I can 
salvage from the current install that will save me another long download. I'm 
thinking mostly of the 2.2.14 Bunk kernel and docs. They took a long time to 
download, and if I can copy them out of the way until I've reinstalled, then 
copy them back, that would save me a lot of time. I can see them in 
/var/cache/apt/archives - is it just a question of backing that directory up 
then restoring, or is there more involved?

Thanks,

Dougie