> .
> 
>    Oh, and what was it you  were doing to get this improper suggestion
> from your package manager?
> 
>    Hugo.
> 
I think I now know what caused all this in the first place.  While
messing with real player I lost my sound.  as part of that I thought it
would be good to install alsa.  that process required the loading of a
kernel on which alsa depended.  I'm pretty sure that is the case because
I have lost sound support again following an update to a bunch of
packages as a result of my efforts earlier today!  Running aptitude to
have a go at installing alsa brought about (almost) the download and
install of a new kernel image.
Now I'm stuck on how to get sound back
rwxrwxrwx  1 root       root           4 Jul 15  2006 dsp -> dsp0
crw-rw----  1 root       audio    14,   3 Jul 15  2006 dsp0
all the devs seem to be present and correct.
Mike