On Sat, 17 Dec 2016 15:46:00 -0500
Hendrik Boom <hendrik@???> wrote:

> I tried using aptitude in interactive more to do a routine update and
> upgrade. It complains that there are broken packages and when I ask
> to examine the situation it starts trying to resolve stuff and counts
> opwn, closed, etc. conflicts.

That sounds (reads) like a temporary confusion due to mixed sources in
your sources.list and probably some apt-pinning, in combination with
'aptitude update' having failed to get some index files.

I'd re-run 'aptitude update' and check its output before attempting to
upgrade or install any packages. As soon as all index files can be
downloaded, the problem should disappear.

> It continues to go on doing this seemingly

You might have missed the info that there are no more possible
solutions and thus being presented the very last one

> forever.

libre Grüße,

Florian