P.S. as a double caution to messing up my system while experimenting, I used both -s and avoided being root.
$ apt-get -o Dir::Etc::Preferences=preferences \ -s install libc6 E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (13 Permission denied) E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), are you root? well, If I weren't going to change the system then why can't i not be root? -- http://jidanni.org/ Taiwan(04)25854780
