apt-get issues in debian etch and gentoo question

[Nick Gawronski]

Hi, I am currently running debian etch and am reading the posts on 
gentoo dropping speakup.  Gentoo really sounds like a good version as 
it is almost compiled entirely from source.  Is there any way like in 
debian to install gentoo and use a speakup modified 2.6.21.6 kernel 
with a dectalk express as that is what I have?  The issue I am having 
with debian etch is that when I run apt-get install build-essential to 
install the programs like gcc and other building programs a lot of 
package names come up as rec amended and suggested packages.  What I 
want apt-get to do is install all of these packages with out telling me 
about them.  Of course I want to install the documentation or if I do 
apt-get libc6-dev it tells me libc6-dev depends on libc6 but it is not 
going to be installed.  Really I don't think that is good package 
management and should be looked into.  What can I put in a file in the 
apt.conf.d directory to tell apt to still prompt me but select the 
suggested and rec amended packages when I want to install a package and 
install dependencies for me?

-- 
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