Upgrade to Quanta Plus 3.5.9 broken: no mime types, no toolbars

Hi
I just started using Quanta Plus on debian linux and really like it.  My 
previous version was quite out of date,
so I decided to update it [to 3.5.9, using KDE 3.5.10]

sudo apt-get install quanta

Evidently, there were a lot of out-of-date dependencies on my system, 
because apt installed over 300 packages.
When it finally finished I ran

quanta index.html

A series of pop-up messages said:
Could not find mime type application/octet stream
No mime types installed
...
Could not load toolbars from archive
Check that filenames in archive begin with the archive name

It finally opened, but did not load my file.

What's wrong, & how can I diagnose/fix this problem?

thanks,
-Michael

-- 
Michael Friendly     Email: friendly AT yorku DOT ca 
Professor, Psychology Dept.
York University      Voice: 416 736-5115 x66249 Fax: 416 736-5814
4700 Keele Street    http://www.math.yorku.ca/SCS/friendly.html
Toronto, ONT  M3J 1P3 CANADA