[plug] Debian Newbie

[Matthew Schubert]

Well,
I finally got a debian box up and running (Progeny Debian 1.0). I have a 
number of questions to ask that have stumped me.

1. I want to install PHP 4.0.3, but it has some strange dependancies. It 
says it needs:
apache-common (>= 1.3.9) but also says:
apache-common (<< 1.3.9.1)

I'm stumped. I have apache-common 1.3.20-1

2. I have the mozilla (0.9.1) browser installed. I want to use flash and 
java in it. I have downloaded and installed Java Runtime Environment for 
Linux and Shockwave Flash Player for Netscape 6 (There isn't one for 
mozilla). when i type about:plugins in the url bar, only the default 
plugin is listed (plugin.so).

3. I like to have any mounted cds, other partitions under /mnt. I have 
edited my /etc/fstab to the correct paths and i can mount all of my 
disks uner these folders. apt-cdrom will not realise that my cdrom is 
mounted under /mnt/cdrom and continues to try and mount /cdrom. Because 
of this, i put a symlink from /cdrom to /mnt/cdrom, but every time i 
reboot my computer, Linux puts three folders in the root directory, 
(cdrom, cdrom1, cdrom2). I have two cdroms, but i would like to get rid 
of these folders permanently without the coming back, and somehow fix 
apt-cdrom to use /mnt/cdrom and/org /mnt/cdrom2. I know I can force 
apt-cdrom to use a specific mount point from the commandline, but i 
would rather not have to.

4. I always seem to be getting myself into fixes with dselect, and end 
up having it prompt me to select 100s of  packages and downloading 
heaps. Is there anyway to reset dselect to the list of current packages 
installed on the system. It would be a bit easier than manually going 
through and editing /usr/lib/dpkg/status ....and if i just rename 
status-old to status, will it go back to my old status (before i mucked up).


Cheers,

Matthew Schubert