mess

[Francesco Pietra <frapietra@alice.it>]

While my amd64 debian etch is in order, 32 bit debian etch has suffered much 
and is now in a state of semi-mess.

Kernel booted is
linux-image-2.6-15-1-k7:
but
#aptitude
shows also a collection of kernels, partly broken:
BA linux-image-2.6-486
BA linux-image-2.6-686
BA linux-image-2.6-686-smp
iA linux-image-2.6-k7
BA linux-image-2.6-k7-smp
i linux-image-2.6-15-1-k7

unusued refuse to uninstall:
debian:/home/francesco# apt-get --purge remove linux-image-2.6-k7
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
You might want to run `apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  linux-image-2.6-486: Depends: linux-image-2.6.15-1-486 (= 2.6.15-8) but it 
is not going to be installed
  linux-image-2.6-686: Depends: linux-image-2.6.15-1-686 (= 2.6.15-8) but it 
is not going to be installed
  linux-image-2.6-686-smp: Depends: linux-image-2.6.15-1-686-smp (= 2.6.15-8) 
but it is not going to be installed
  linux-image-2.6-k7-smp: Depends: linux-image-2.6.15-1-k7-smp (= 2.6.15-8) 
but it is not going to be installed
  nvidia-kernel-legacy-2.6-k7: Depends: linux-image-2.6-k7 but it is not going 
to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a 
solution).
debian:/home/francesco#

Also

#apt-get -f install (in an attempt to install so that it can be removed 
later):
debian:/home/francesco# apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  linux-image-2.6.15-1-486 linux-image-2.6.15-1-686 
linux-image-2.6.15-1-686-smp
  linux-image-2.6.15-1-k7-smp
Suggested packages:
  linux-doc-2.6.15 linux-source-2.6.15 lilo fdutils
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  linux-image-2.6.15-1-486 linux-image-2.6.15-1-686 
linux-image-2.6.15-1-686-smp
  linux-image-2.6.15-1-k7-smp
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
12 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B/63.0MB of archives.
After unpacking 182MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? 

Yes resulting in warning for each installation:
You are attempting to install a kernel image (version 2.6.15-1-486) However, 
the    │
 │ directory /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-486 still exists.  If this directory 
belongs to a   │
 │ previous linux-image-2.6.15-1-486 package, and if you have deselected some          
│
 │ modules, or installed standalone modules packages, this could be bad. 
However, if   │
 │ this directory exists because you are also installing some stand alone 
modules      │
 │ right now, and they got unpacked before I did, then this is pretty benign.          
│
 │ Unfortunately, I can not tell the difference.                                       
│
 │                                                                                     
│
 │ If /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-486 belongs to a old install of 
linux-image-2.6.15-1-486,  │
 │ then this is your last chance to abort the installation of this kernel 
image        │
 │ (nothing has been changed yet).                                                     
│
 │                                                                                     
│
 │ If this directory is because of stand alone modules being installed right 
now, or   │
 │ if it does belong to an older linux-image-2.6.15-1-486 package but you know 
what    │
 │ you are doing, and if you feel that this image should be installed despite 
this     │
 │ anomaly, Please answer n to the question.                                           
│
 │                                                                                     
│
 │ Otherwise, I suggest you move /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-486 out of the way, 
perhaps to  │
 │ /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-486.old or something, and then try re-installing this 
image.  │
 │                                                                                     
│
 │ Stop install since the kernel-image is already installed?

So that I stopped installing.

Something (probably libwine) was dependent of the 686 kernel and now wine 
exits with error 127 (a known event that I remedied in the past by removing 
libwine and reinstalling it: now any attempt at removing libwine results in 
the problems above of broken packages.

What means "A" that appears for some packages on aptitude?

Should a remedy be conceivable from this messing desription, thank you

francesco pietra