Unable to update/upgrade 6.7.1 after HD install

[Gondarc]

Thanks for the greetings ... I am a returning UK Knoppix user, but I could not remember my former login name or password, or even email at the time (it has changed a few times since that registration ... mainly as a response to junk mail). My reason for going elsewhere was Knoppix suddenly adopting 1280x1024 as the default setting for my 1024x768 Fujitsu Siemens monitor, and resolutely ignoring all my attempts to reset this in configuration, with the result that I could not get anything displayed ... the monitor is now 10 years old, still going, undimmed and without a dropped pixel, as a second monitor on my son's temperamental W7 machine.

Meanwhile, my liking for KDE headed for Kubuntu, which unfortunately has recently proved to be ... unhelpful ... in dealing with microphones (and the occasional webcam) on a succession of machines, whilst trying to get VOIP organised for a relative with offspring in Australia. Knoppix was an option explored among several and proved to be the only one with any degree of success (not always, but I'm working on that), and also visibly has a faster WM. It also uses alsamixer 1.0.23, which fixes many of the sound problems I have been having, apart from one. The sound card in this 2007 Advent QC430 is a Conexant CX20549 (Venice), which is already out of production, and even alsamixer 1.0.23 fails to configure it properly ... sound levels are way over the top compared to other cards, resulting in distortion even at the conservative default levels in Knoppix ... turns out to be finally fixed with alsamixer 1.0.24, which I found in a dev package on Kubuntu.

My Knoppix problems stem from trying to configure UK localisation. Iceweasel is not OK, but that is because the available UK package is too old and incompatible with IW V8.0, so I have to use US, although the attendant forced upgrade to V8.0 is OK ... Icedove loads with UK localisation, although not the British English dictionary which has to be loaded separately ... the main problem is Libre Office. Attempting to install the BritEng localisation and Help packages triggers an LO update to 3.4.4 which also wants the main LO package (with DB and filters and stuff). The main LO package will not load because of broken Python packages ... and for some reason Synaptic also wants to remove the GIMP, (bluetooth and a bunch of other stuff) which I need, in order to install LO 3.4.4. So I thought I would try a bulk upgrade first to get the kinks out and then see if the LO localisation works ... but as first reported in this thread, a bulk upgrade barfs on Perl. I tried running apt-get directly, but although that seemed to work, it held back about 40 (out of 24 packges and left Synaptic with a permanent barf on the perl problem for any other install. Trying the LO localisation install via apt-get also hits the Python problem, which relates to two missing dependencies, that apt-get refuses to install.

Any suggestions?

[utu]

My reason for going elsewhere was Knoppix suddenly adopting 1280x1024 as the default setting for my 1024x768 Fujitsu Siemens monitor, and resolutely ignoring all my attempts to reset this in configuration, with the result that I could not get anything displayed ... the monitor is now 10 years old, still going, undimmed and without a dropped pixel, as a second monitor on my son's temperamental W7 machine.
...
Any suggestions?

I would first try lxrandr (the gui);
If that doesn't give you a 1280 choice, then use xrandr in a terminal to see what
your choices are; hint, just xrandr <enter> gives you the name of the display and
all the choices it knows.
Sometimes lxrandr doesn't know all the choices.

And, good luck.