debian apt trouble

[RefractedAhav]

Any debian experts out there? I broke apt on wheezy while trying to compile blender 2.5. I need help either fixing it, or finding a way to install an iso to thumbdrive with out unetbootin as I can longer use apt to download anything.

[Kaligraphic]

What do you mean, you broke it? What exactly did you do, and what is apt doing now?

Were you trying to get apt to see the version of blender that you compiled from source, or did you even get that far?

[Valkaiser]

Debian's disk images can be written directly to a thumbdrive using the dd command.
The syntax looks like this: "dd if=debian.iso of=/dev/cdrom".
Where /dev/cdrom is the device node for your cd burner.
It can also be /dev/cd, /dev/dvd, or /dev/sr0.

Read the man page before you try it.

[Mithrandir]

Debian's disk images can be written directly to a thumbdrive using the dd command.
The syntax looks like this: "dd if=debian.iso of=/dev/cdrom".
Where /dev/cdrom is the device node for your cd burner.
It can also be /dev/cd, /dev/dvd, or /dev/sr0.

Read the man page before you try it.

... "if" is the input file and "of" is the output file. But yes - be sure to at least scan the man page first. XD

[Valkaiser]

The syntax looks like this: "dd if=debian.iso of=/dev/cdrom".

Oops, I don't know why I was talking about the cd drive.
Writing to a thumb drive should be more like "dd if=debian.iso of=/dev/sdb" if /dev/sdb is the location of your thumb drive.

[RefractedAhav]

sorry I haven't responded. If I remember correctly one of my attempts to solve the problem ended up breaking several packages which I could not get to reinstall correctly. I have since switched, with much hesitation, to fedora 15 and found that my bamboo and blender both work "out of the box".

thank you for your help, and I will keep this advice in mind for latter. However now I have a different problem, and that is a lack of portability. My laptop emits a strange almost ozone like odor when ever the battery is installed and the comp is turned on. It used to not work at all, so I've just had to keep my laptop plugged in. Does any one have any suggestions of an affordable laptop that is good for graphics?