OT: dpkg dependancy problems

[Luke Davis]

Hello folks:

I needed to install jdk 1.3 from sun from source, because nothing over 1.1
exists as a deb, anywhere I looked (within Debian).

To do that, I had to do a force-depends remove with dpkg, to get rid of
the old jdk.

Now, any time I attempt to use apt or dpkg, I get told that dpkg can't
access the archive; or a warning from apt, that I need to run apt-get -f
install.  I know what packages are broken, and all but one can be removed.
However, if I remove the last one, I'll have to install (from source) a
new, non-apt, copy.

Is there any other way to get apt to "forget" this situation, without
having to remove the tomcat package, and install a non-tracked version?

Thanks

Luke