Being relatively new to linux and especially tex I don't know what it wants
me to do?
Since all you want is install-info, you don't need to do anything with
the tex stuff. Ignore it.
Now I need to somehow switch install-info programs between the Corel
(debian) dpkg package and the one it's expecting ie GNU texinfo's
install-info. How do I do that? do I uninstall dpkg?
You can choose which one you get by altering your PATH setting.
I find it sad that Debian is still distributing their install-info
program named install-info.
K