I was actually able to get x.org running but it broke some stuff too (sound, KDM). Now I just want to get my system back to how it was -- but I can't!

Apt won't let me install xfree86-common without uninstalling all of kde and gnome and a bunch of other stuff. Somehow I accidentally "infected" my system with a handful of packages from Ubuntu -- including the 'apt' package itself!

MY QUESTION:
How can I get back to all of the latest packages from Debian SID with NONE of the Ubuntu packages?

try to --purge the xorg fucking debs from fuck`n ubuntu :> dont know other way

You may also want to note that packages "gnome" and "kde" are meta-packages and if you uninstall those, all the files will not necessarily be uninstalled. Let's say you uninstall krace. apt-get will say both krace and kde-games is being uninstalled, but really, just krace is and your other kde-games are still there. The reason why kde-games meta-package is uninstalled is that it is no longer a complete meta-package. If you install kde-games, both kde-games and krace will be installed. But in reality, you are only installing the krace package and kde-games META-package.

Depending on how you did all that screwy stuff, you may have installed ubuntu kde/gnome files which have more kde/gnome packages under the kde/gnome meta-packages than the debian case.

Point is, you've created a big web to untangle. I don't think it will hurt to uninstall and reinstall a lot of things if the situation above isn't the case-- if you have broadband.

Have fun, good luck!

This might help, too: Debian Reference - Upgrading a distribution to stable, testing, or unstable

HTH

I really hope that you sort out the mess you are in, but your example is typical of
people who think that Ubuntu or Mepis are Debian or that you can use packages
from one with the other(s). I also experienced that in Mepis : a total mess after
using APT-GET for Debian packages.

It served me right , though ..

Yeah, I know -- totally serves me right. I knew I was taking a gamble when I mixed repositories.

Anyway, I've solved my problem with the old "if you can't beat, 'em join 'em" solution. I just installed the latest Kubuntu Hoary RC, kept my old /home directory intact -- and everything's peachy! I'm happily running KDE 3.4 and xorg under an *almost* Debian system. For anyone else out there who's getting a little tired of waiting and waiting (and waiting!) for Debian to release packages from this century, I highly recommend giving Kubuntu or Ubuntu a close look. Very impressed so far!

LOL.............I did something similar with a hard drive installation of Knoppix..............I later tried to go totally Debian, but after removing the Knoppix repositories from /etc/apt/sources.list and tried to update it, it started to break packages and couldn't update it.........

And I didn't want to install Ubuntu, cause I'm a KDE freak and Ubuntu is a Gnome-specific distro.........

Not anymore!
http://shots.osdir.com/slideshows/sl....4+screenshots

<OFF TOPIC>
Cool..........However, I noticed on the Kubuntu FAQs page it is _not_ a fork of Ubuntu..........Does that mean Gnome is installed as well, or can KDE be installed without having to install Gnome?......

And how much of a difference is there between [K]Ubuntu and a "pure" Debian installation?........I mean, Debian likes to break up packages into smaller pieces than what was originally released by the author's original sources in order to use the most stable pieces of code.........For example, instead of the usual kde packages built using the "standard" sources as released by KDE, Debian will break up the sources to use the best/most stable code it can, thus creating non-standard KDE packages.........And Ubuntu has it's own package repositories, different from Debian, so does it follow the same practice or does it release packages closer to what the original author intended..........Hope I'm making myself understood here..........
</OFF TOPIC>

Basically AFAIK, Ubuntu is Ubuntu whether you use Gnome (default) or KDE (easily added). Kubuntu is exactly the same distro except that KDE ships as the default DE and Gnome can be easily added.
I'm not really sure about how similarly the Ubuntu team breaks-up the packages. But I can tell you that overall, Kubuntu feels like Debian after my much geekier friend comes over and tweaks and fine-tunes every teensy aspect of my system to be the best it can be. From kernel tuning to bootstrapping to KDM configuration. Everything just feels tight as a drum -- and it didn't take me a week of monkeying around to do it either. In fact it only took about 20 minutes to install, and another 20 minutes or so for me to customize my panel and so forth.

One important difference is that Kubuntu *does* use its own repositories (as you mentioned) and is not compatible with Debian's. But basically, everything seems to be there. I even installed all the wacky left-field packages I needed for Japanese text entry -- no problem. Debian config tools are all there. Basically the same but much more refined, less DIY -- which isn't necessarily a good thing for everyone, but it is for me.

Why not take the LiveCD for spin?

LOL...........I might just install it to the hard drive...............I have a partition with Knoppix installed and then decided to give Sarge a try (and stopped using the Knoppix installation as a result), and I'm using Sarge to learn about Debian.........Guess I'll just replace the Knoppix installation with Kubuntu and give it a test run.....

One other slightly weird difference with (k)ubuntu is that by default, there is no root login and they want you to sudo everything. Personally, I hate that. But it's very easily remedied:

Then enter you regular user password, and you'll be prompted for the new root password. That's it.

Is this pecularity for the install cd or the live cd?..........I also prefer to 'su' rather than 'sudo' on my home pc......

Both. LiveCD and Install CD both require you to issue the above command before you can "su" to root. You only have to do it once of course -- so it's really not a big deal -- unless you didn't know that! Otherwise you'd be like -- How the hell do I become root?! Now ya know

Thanx.................I'm currently dl'ing both live and install isos via the BitTornado client.......Should have it installed tomorrow, as it's starting to get late here.........