I figured installing a desktop environment using tasksel and installing orca with all dependencies should work with debian. Wrong. When I rebooted the system, I find that the desktop environment won't come up because /etc/X11/xorg.conf isn't fully and correctly built. The debian way to solve this problem is to do dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg and answer the questions. Unfortunately dpkg-reconfigure runs a utility called dexconf and that utility will not rewrite the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file under any circumstances I've been able to figure out. I sent a copy of a typescript output 14K long to a friend and also debian-user mailing list and nobody so far has a clue why what's happening is happening. Another contact I have may be willing to check this one out and put in some good values for me but if that fails it's time to enter some bugs. Short of that, I may be able to install ubuntu on this computer and get it talking then copy the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file ubuntu creates and perhaps use it in the debian system.
