I've been using the same process to upgrade & install Gnome on a Debian Woody install for ages, but I'm starting to have problems.
My normal process is: Install Woody from CD with C / C++ development & libncurses-dev Build new (2.6.6) kernel and install it Add stable APT sources to sources.list apt-get update apt-get upgrade Add unstable / testing APT sources to sources.list create /etc/apt/preferences containing: Package: * Pin: release a=testing Pin-Priority: 600 Package: * Pin: release a=testing Pin-Priority: 50 To upgrade, run: dselect update dselect select (just accept default & quit straight out) dselect install At this stage in the past, the system would be upgraded to testing/unstable, but it seems now that stuff like dhcp3-client is being removed. After dselect install ran, I re-installed dhcp3-client before I rebooted. I would then normally run: apt-get install gnome and that would install all of Gnome from testing/unstable. However, when I run the install apt-get barfs and complains about a bunch of stuff that wont be installed, such as gnome-office etc etc etc. To resolve this, I tried: apt-get dist-upgrade That upgraded a bunch of stuff. But when I go back to running apt-get install gnome, it complains only about gnome-office not being installed etc. I kluged it by running apt-get install gnome-office then apt-get install gnome, and that ran ok. I then installed gdm, xserver-xfree86, some fonts, gdm etc. However, the system wont run gdm or I get a weird broken Gnome... Is there something I'm now doing wrong, or any docs I should read. I've Googled about but can only find old instructions such as in Debian Reference etc. Heyelp!! Cheers, Ben