Etch - Broken update failed in buffer_write

[Dave Cannell <dcannell@freeshell.org>]

With Synaptic, while trying to update linux-image-2.6.18-6-686, I receive 
the error below

E: /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-image-2.6.18-6-686_2.6.18.dfsg.1-22etch2_i386.deb: 
failed in buffer_write(fd) (10, ret=-1)

The package shows as broken in Synaptic.

/var shows 1.81 GiB (1.25 GiB Free) so the partition being full shouldn't 
be the problem.

I'm a relative newbie to Linux although no stranger to a command line 
interface so I'm not afraid of it, just don't know what to do next.

Another issue I have is on login, a minor issue but a PITA...

I seldom an able to login on the first attempt, mostly not even on the 
second.  It looks like the video fills in the wallpaper but not the 
toolbars on the bottom then there is evidence of video corruption on the 
screen (on this computer the wallpaper is the flower with the green 
background).  The background color in the center of the screen looks like 
it gets corrupted and the login stops and goes back to requesting a 
username.  On a different computer, with a different walpaper, I have 
exactly the same result.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks, Dave Cannell
--
   dcannell@freeshell.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System
    http://freeshell.org
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