Help with Installation...

[Gutierrez Family]

Hello to all,  I apologize in advance for the length of this message...   Today I began the installation of Debian 2.2.  It started out well, the config menus were very user friendly, etc.  It didn't end well, however...  Problems began after selecting the packages to install:   I chose the "Simple" option to install packages.  I picked many, but not all.  The first sign of problems was during the "Setting up..." phase.  For one of the packages, I got a message like "dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of .....".  I just made a note of it.  This message came up several times, by the way.   The second error message that I encountered said: "E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) Some errors occurred while unpacking.  I'm going to configure the packgages that were installed.  This may result in duplicater errors or errors caused by missing dependencies.  This is OK, only the errors above this message are important.  Please fix them and run [I]nstall again. Press enter to continue"   This didn't mean anything to me, except that it was bad and that I didn't have a clue how to fix anything either.  After this second message, the "Setting up ..." phase continued...  until I came to the third and final message:   A blue screen titled "Debian Configuration" reported the following: "One or more packages failed to install.  This is probably due to bugs in the packages.  (Sorry; Debian's not perfect).  Simply trying to install those packages again may work around the problem, or at least move the installation process along a little further.  If you decide not to try again, bear in mind that some packages on your system will be in a broken state until you manually resolve the problem. Packages failed to install.  Retry?"   I chose YES, of course.  Installation continued for a few more seconds, then the "Debian GNU/Linux 2.2" login prompt came up (without rebooting the machine).  I logged in as root...  and once in, all I could do is stare at the prompt.  Apparently, the automated installation program had stopped.   QUESTIONS: Is my system only partially installed?  Is it fully functional, or was there more do be done by the installation program?   Out of curiosity, I tried "startx", but I got a "Fatal server error: cannot open mouse".  Funny, since I chose PS/2 mouse during the installation (and during Linux bootup, it "detected PS/2 port".  There is no "mouse" entry in /dev/ either.  I tried a simple command too, "more XF86Config", it said that the file did not exist, when in reality I was staring at it from the /etc directory.  I'm lost, please help !!!   Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.   Sincerely, Daly Gutierrez