KDE 3.3.2 fails re-install

[Steve Garcia <sgarcia@bak.rr.com>]

I'm not sure when it broke, but my KDE 3.3.2 seems to have developed
some problems.  The control panel started coming up empty, and when I
logged out and logged back in, all the apps were missing too.  When I
created a new user, that user had the same problems, so this seems
system wide and not corrupted user configs.

So I used aptitude to remove kde entirely.  I then tried to re-install
(several times) and it fails each time, with unpacking errors in two
packages.

kdebase-data fails while unpacking /usr/share/wallpapers/fulmine.jpg --
it claims that the file is also in package kdewallpapers

kicker fails while unpacking
/usr/share/icons/crystalsvg/128x128/apps/kmenu.png -- it claims that the
file is also in package kdelibs-data

kdebase can't be configured because of problems with kdebase-data and
kicker.
kde-core can't be configured because of problems with kdebase.
kcontrol can't be configured because of problems with kdebase-data
konquerer can't be confgiured becuase of problems with kcontrol

The problem is not that the two files it's trying to overwrite already
exist.  If I delete them (kmenu.png and fulmine.jpg), and then
re-install, I get the same errors, even though those files are not
actually physically present.  As near as I can figure out, the problem
is that they exist in two packages, and that's what upsets aptitude.
For what it's worth, apt-get does the same thing.

I've running a moderately fresh installation of Sarge -- I lost a system
disk last month and installed everything then.  KDE worked fine at that
time.

It doesn't *seem* like a problem with my setup, but it could be.  Anyone
have any ideas?

Thanks
Steve