On Monday 17 September 2012 20:11:32 David Hare wrote: > On 17/09/12 16:10, Lisi wrote: > > I started again. I installed a fairly basic Squeeze system, I then > > installed LXDE (without a hitch), then desktop-base-trinity, also without > > a hitch. I used only the official repository. > > Are you sure you did <aptitude update> first? Post your sources.list, > let's have a look at that, and anything that's in sources.list.d. Yes, quite sure. I successfully installed desktop-base-trinity! Sources.list is not yet complete. I am adding only as necessary until I am under less uncomfortable conditions. And until I am reasonably sure that I am not about to reinstall. So it is as nature and Debian intended, with the sole addition of the one Trinity line. _________________________________________ # # deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.5 _Squeeze_ - Official amd64 NETINST Binary-1 20120512-20:40]/ squeeze main #deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.5 _Squeeze_ - Official amd64 NETINST Binary-1 20120512-20:40]/ squeeze main deb http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/debian/ squeeze main deb-src http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/debian/ squeeze main deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main deb-src http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main # squeeze-updates, previously known as 'volatile' deb http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/debian/ squeeze-updates main deb-src http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/debian/ squeeze-updates main # Trinity repositories deb http://ppa.quickbuild.pearsoncomputing.net/trinity/trinity-v3.5.13/debian squeeze main _____________________________________________________________ sources.list.d is empty. I have done as little the same way as I could. Apart from update and upgrade, nothing was the same. And I broke what I was doing into smaller and smaller pieces in order to try and get the output a reasonable length. Whatever I did, I got the same result. I entirely agree that PEBKAC comes into this, but have no idea what I need to put right. I have done this successfully, with no problems at all, quite a few times, so I too am puzzled. But I am running out of variables to change, and 3.5.12 would be a great deal better than nothing. Unless I can trace what is going wrong, I shall try 3.5.12 and your Live CD. I'll try what you suggest for that. But I also have a friend who uses nothing but USB-key "CDs", he hasn't even got an optical drive, and he is coming over, so I'll pick his brains if I haven't solved it by then. Thank you for your generous help. Lisi