dist upgrade nightmare!

I tried taking a friend's machine from lenny to squeeze and it turned into a disaster. As a consequence of the attempt his entire package update and repair systems are broken. apt-get -f install can't fix anything and dpkg --configure -a can't fix anything anymore and as a consequence of those two acts, it's impossible to update his system. I can't even downgrade back to lenny! What I would like to know is if emergency procedures exist that can clear the mess out that these operations created and get the system back to some known state. I wouldn't mind this so much if the upgrade had simply failed but a system breaking like this where even though useable with the squeeze kernel on it is there nothing can be installed or uninstalled with apt-get and aptitude apparently got turned into a zombi placed in not fully installed or uninstalled or deferred status. If I had done this to my own computer that would be one thing, but this is a computer of a friend and I don't appreciate these tools for having ended up leaving this kind of damage.



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