Need help with a broken Jessie/Xfce4 desktop box

[Paul E Condon <pecondon@mesanetworks.net>]

I was trying to get sound working again. It last worked many wks ago,
but I hardly ever use it. So I don't know when it became broken (again).
Current problem is that aptitude feels that it needs to install a
libuuid-perl in order to install
linux-base (which somehow became uninstalled, or needs to be upgraded,
	   I can't tell which)
but libuuid-perl needs a different kernel than I am currently running
and aptitude advises not replacing the running kernel. And doesn't
suggest any alternative.
I think I am running kernel 3.16.0-4-686-pae
That is the number string on both initrd.img and vmlinuz.

How can I break this deadlock? 

Until very recently, I have been following all the upgrades to Jessie
on a daily basis, may not have in the last few days.

The system rebooted in its current condition, with the deaklock still
there. (How can a linux system boot without a working version of
linux-base?)

Thanks,
-- 
Paul E Condon           
pecondon@mesanetworks.net