On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 08:41:02 -0500, rbolen@carolina.rr.com ("Rick
Bolen") wrote:

>I was on my way to doing just that when the next snag caught me.
>
>When I apt-get (debian) alsa-base, it wants to install the alsa-utils which
>contains most if not all the utils you mention. However, apt-get also wants
>to remove linux-sound-base.
>
>That's fine with me I guess, but then apt-get hangs on "Removing
>linux-sound-base...".
>
>Arrrgggggg! Any thoughts on how to tshoot an "apt-get --purge remove xxx"
>hang?
>
>Perhaps dpkg offers more ruthless shovel?
>
>Thanks for the ideas. I feel like I'm very close (... well, kinda),
>Rick

I see 2 choices ( and I always build from source, so my package
manager experience is limited)

1.  Look at the options for apt-get, and see if there is a 'force'
or 'no dependency checks' option. 
Rpm has this for the case you descibe, where it overrides
the package manager.

2. Best bet. Just get the tar ball source, and build them yourself.
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa/ftp/utils/

Your problem will be to find the version which matches your
old debian kernel level. The newest version will probably
not be compatible with the older debian kernel.
Of course you could always, get the latest kernel, which has
alsa built-in, then get the latest alsa-utils source package.

Maybe you should ask this on a debian saavy forum?



-- 
I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth.
http://zentara.net/japh.html