Ok, two choices:
1) Open up /var/lib/dpkg/status, and find the package entries for libc6 and dpkg, then give the full entry (all fields for that package) for each one. 2) Try getting the slink _and_ potato dpkg .deb's, then use dpkg-deb to unpack them so you can try to get a working dpkg. If you can with handle the downtime, I'de prefer to see "1", but if you need to get the system back up quickly, and you are confortable woring with a raw tar of the binaries, then go with "2". Thanks, Ben Package: libc6 Status: install ok install Priority: required Section: base Installed Size: 3900 Maintainer: Debian GNU Library Maintainer Source: glibc Version: 2.1.2-5 Replaces: libc5-dev(<<2.0.110-1), timezone, timezones, libd2, locales(<<2.1.1-1) Pre-Depends: ldso(>=1.9.11-2.1) recommend: gconv-modules Suggests: nscd,glibc-doc, locales Conflicts: libc5(<<5.4.33-7), libpthread0(<<0.7-10), libstdc++2.8(=2.90.29-1), libstdc++2.9(<<2.91.59-2), timezone, timezones, libwcsmb, libc6-doc, libtricks, apt (<<0.3.0), libglib1.2 (<<1.21-2) confiles: /etc/default/devpts fc857c5ac5fb84d80720ed4d1c624f6e /etc/init.d/devpts.sh ef4f5dd418753ba44a649cb22202d225 Package: dpkg Essential: yes Status: install ok installed Priority: required Section: base Installed Size: 834 Maintainer: Klee Dienes and Ian Jackson Version: 1.4.0.35 Pre-Depends: libc6, libncurses4, libstdc++ 2.9 Suggests: debian-keyring