Bug#674700: Attempt to update Gnome on Debian kills system

[Linda R]

Package: gnome
Version: 2.30
Severity: critical

I'm not sure which part of Gnome the problem is in, because it is a very
general problem.

I wrote a request for enhancement bug for Gnome about the lack of good
documentation for setting up dual monitors, and I offered to help fix it. 
Someone replied that this was because I was using an older version of Gnome
(2.30), but the new one (3) was better.  I found that the current stable
version of Debian (Squeeze) uses Gnome 2.30.  I asked why this wouldn't be
fixed in 2.30 since I guess if this is the version of Gnome included in the
stable version of Debian, it would help a lot of users to have this info.  He said he knew that more people used Gnome 3 because of his knowledge of
statistics and experience. I should still update Gnome by finding instructions on a site specific to my distribution.  Okay.

So I went here

http://wiki.debian.org/Gnome#task

and followed the instructions

apt-get install aptitude tasksel
tasksel install gnome-desktop --new-install

attempting to upgrade to Gnome 3.

After this, I rebooted and found that it was still Gnome 2.30.  Also,
everything was going very slowly, the terminal window took a long time to open, there were errors like CPU overheated, throttled, Mixerapplet error, inode errors, etc.  I rebooted numerous times with progressively worse results, to the point that I wondered if it was a problem with the hardware, like the CPU or fan.  I wrote back to this person asking about this problem, but he said he knew nothing about Debian.

Anyways, it looks like I may have to wipe out my entire system, losing
applications and personal files, and try to reinstall it -- not just Gnome, but all of Debian Linux.  The last thing I am trying was someone else's advice to do an "aptitude update && aptitude dist-upgrade" to see if any newer packages solve the problem.