I am getting this message when using apt-get or aptitude;
This is using Sid with experimental repo enabled and apt 0.8.16-exp2
lzma, ssh and xz are linked but not to http in this directory.

I would really like it if some one with a clue about any of this would point me in the right direction.

Why on earth would you use apt from experimental...?

To solve this you're probably going to have to manually download apt 8.15.x from unstable, remove your current apt using dpkg and then install the unstable one in the same way.

2 members found this post helpful.

Well, I installed the thing as it is part of the Gnome3 packages. I have, or had before installing apt, a very nice working install of Gnome Shell.

It is somewhat rough around the edges but is running well enough that, except for this screw up, it would work fine as a production OS.

The main problems I am having are all "picnic" related. The guy on the chair is having his first experience with the experimental repo. Man is he ever hard of learning. Enthusiastic, stubborn and none too bright, if you ask me. I will ding him up side the head next time I see him in the mirror.

I will give that a whack. Thanks a lot.

Edit;
The victim installation is NOT a production OS. I may be slow but am not that stupid.

Before you downgrade you may want to try 0.8.16~exp3, although from looking at the change log it makes on mention of your problem.

I installed gnome3 on my Sid installation less than a week ago, for testing purposes only, and it did not upgrade apt - which gnome 3 package pulled in apt?

It was listed by aptitude. Apt-listbugs did not have any thing to say about it so I did it.

Ignorance is bliss. For a very short time.

Still working on it. Don't have much time to get over there. Will be doing some today and may have time to get it straight. May just start over if that doesn't get it.

Could have more problems, have gotten more experience fooling with this so that may be the thing to do. I do like trying to fix things first though as reinstalling is just to MS for me to like.

Besides fixing my screw ups is very educational and helpful in the long run.

I kind of like gnome3. I think I will be going to Xfce probably but I think my wife will prefer GS as a desktop. With the "friperies" extensions it seems quite usable. I am, however, a grumpy geezer with a pretty set way of working that seems to fit with xfce better.

I have a Wheezy install that I am using for DE experimentation. Gnome, open box, lxde and xfce on it. Had e17 but didn't like it at all (probably lack of taste) so removed it. Xfce is about configured to my liking, have to see if I can get it the rest of the way there. Lxde could get there too, someday, need to work with it more.

aptitude would definitely not have been a dependency of any part of gnome 3 - I seriously doubt aptitude is a dependency of anything in fact (please feel free to correct me if you can show it listed as one on packages.debian.org) as it in itself is a front end for apt - so I'm not sure how it got installed from experimental unless you did something rather "daring" such as:

You won't learn much from that apart from what a broken system is like.

Not seeing reports in apt-listbugs is normal, nor is that a reliable means of assessing the bugginess or stability or packages from the experimental repo - for apt-listbugs to be of use, someone needs to report the bugs - if they report a critical bug 20 minutes after you installed...? Experimental packages are by their nature very volatile so any bugs in one particular version may not even be found until it enters unstable or even testing.

I am not sure how this came about. I keep, for a short time, a copy of the result of commands for reference and do not see any that should have (like the full-upgrade) caused this.

It happened, I will be keeping my copies longer, I will be doing more backups also.

Back up and running. It was not looking as good as it was but it was up. Must have screwed other things at the same time.

Ran in another install. It looks better than before.

Never really fooled with dpkg commands beyond --conrigure and reconfigure. Real handy. Need to mess with that more when things are working right instead of broken.

So much to learn, so little time.

Thanks a bunch for the help.