Simon Tod wrote:
2. I get the message WARNING: The following essential packages will be removed This should NOT be done unless you know exactly what you are doing! coreutils I'm certainly not comfortable with letting this happen... why should it want to do this and can I let it... otherwise how do I remedy this?
coreutils == fileutils/shellutils/textutils in woody. As long as non-dummy versions of all three of those are being downgraded to then you are fine. Though there is a reason many people say that downgrading isn't supported...