Hi everyone - after running Etch for about 1 month or so after Etch went
stable (and having prior running the then-testing
branch (etch) for quite sometime, I decided to update my system to Lenny,
after fixing my bandwidth situation after the
move last month.


The initial upgrade went well (some 400 megabytes worth of updates) but for
about a week now I am plagued with issues
that keep me from doing a full dist-upgrade.

from aptitude run about a few minutes ago:

fox@m206-157:/tmp$ sudo aptitude upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
Reading task descriptions... Done
Building tag database... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
bind9-host cupsys cupsys-bsd cupsys-client dnsutils dosemu dselect
gnome-about gnome-keyring gnome-themes-extras gparted
gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf gtk2-engines-xfce
hal jadetex libaprutil1 libbonoboui2-0
libbonoboui2-common libc-client2002edebian libcupsimage2 libcupsys2
libcupsys2-dev libenchant1c2a libexo-0.3-0 libgcc1
libglu1-mesa libglu1-mesa-dev libgnome-desktop-2 libgnome-keyring0
libgnome-menu2 libgnomeui-0 libgnomeui-common libgnomevfs2-0
libgnomevfs2-bin libgnomevfs2-common libgnomevfs2-extra libgnutls-dev
libgnutls13 libgtk2.0-0 libgtk2.0-bin libgtk2.0-common
libgtk2.0-dev libhsqldb-java libkadm55 libkrb5-dev libkrb53 libnotify1
libpango1.0-0 libpango1.0-dev libpq-dev libpq4 librsvg2-2
librsvg2-bin librsvg2-common librsvg2-dev libsexy2 libsmbclient libstdc++6
libtag1c2a libtagc0 libthunar-vfs-1-2 libwmf0.2-7
libwnck-common libwnck-dev libwnck18 libxfcegui4-4 mousepad orage
policycoreutils postgresql postgresql-client postgresql-contrib
postgresql-doc python-glade2 python-gnome2 python-gtk2 python-gtk2-dev
spamassassin thunar tipa uw-imapd xfce4 xfce4-mcs-manager
xfce4-mcs-plugins xfce4-mixer xfce4-mixer-alsa xfce4-panel xfce4-session
xfce4-utils xfdesktop4 xfprint4 xfwm4 xfwm4-themes xorg
xsane xsane-common xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-evdev
xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-apm
xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-i128 xserver-xorg-video-newport
xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-rendition
xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-savage
xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
xserver-xorg-video-tseng
xserver-xorg-video-via xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
The following packages will be upgraded:
deber dialog dictionaries-common
3 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 115 not upgraded.
Need to get 1013kB of archives. After unpacking 303kB will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] y
Get:1 http://ftp.debian.org testing/main dictionaries-common 0.81.3 [255kB]
Get:2 http://ftp.debian.org testing/main deber 5.0.50 [517kB]
Get:3 http://ftp.debian.org testing/main dialog 1.1-20070604-1 [241kB]
Fetched 1013kB in 1s (591kB/s)
Reading package fields... Done
Reading package status... Done
Retrieving bug reports... 0% Fail

Error retrieving bug reports from the server with the following error
message:
W: unsupported proxy `false'
It could be because your network is down, or because of broken proxy
servers, or the BTS server itself is down. Check network configuration and
try again


(Ok, Here is a little glitch that actually has been going on for months,
don't know how to fix).


Retry downloading bug information?[Y/n]? n
Abort the installation[Y/n]? n
Retrieving bug reports... Done
Parsing Found/Fixed information... Done
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 192627 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace dictionaries-common 0.81.2 (using
..../dictionaries-common_0.81.3_all.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement dictionaries-common ...
Preparing to replace deber 5.0.49 (using .../deber_5.0.50_all.deb)
....
Unpacking replacement deber ...
Preparing to replace dialog 1.0-20060221-3 (using
..../dialog_1.1-20070604-1_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement dialog ...
Setting up libgphoto2-2 (2.3.1-5) ...
/usr/lib/libgphoto2/print-camera-list: symbol lookup error:
/usr/lib/libgphoto2/print-camera-list: undefined symbol:
gpi_folder_operation_map
dpkg: error processing libgphoto2-2 (--configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 127
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libgphoto2-2-dev:
libgphoto2-2-dev depends on libgphoto2-2 (= 2.3.1-5); however:
Package libgphoto2-2 is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing libgphoto2-2-dev (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libsane:
libsane depends on libgphoto2-2 (>= 2.3.1); however:
Package libgphoto2-2 is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing libsane (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of sane-utils:
sane-utils depends on libsane (>= 1.0.11-3); however:
Package libsane is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing sane-utils (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Setting up dictionaries-common (0.81.3) ...
Updating OpenOffice.org's dictionary list... done.

Setting up deber (5.0.50) ...
Setting up dialog (1.1-20070604-1) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
libgphoto2-2
libgphoto2-2-dev
libsane
sane-utils
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install. Trying to recover:
Setting up libgphoto2-2 (2.3.1-5) ...
/usr/lib/libgphoto2/print-camera-list: symbol lookup error:
/usr/lib/libgphoto2/print-camera-list: undefined symbol:
gpi_folder_operation_map
dpkg: error processing libgphoto2-2 (--configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 127
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libsane:
libsane depends on libgphoto2-2 (>= 2.3.1); however:
Package libgphoto2-2 is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing libsane (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libgphoto2-2-dev:
libgphoto2-2-dev depends on libgphoto2-2 (= 2.3.1-5); however:
Package libgphoto2-2 is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing libgphoto2-2-dev (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of sane-utils:
sane-utils depends on libsane (>= 1.0.11-3); however:
Package libsane is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing sane-utils (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
libgphoto2-2
libsane
libgphoto2-2-dev
sane-utils

(And here, some issues that have been going on for about a week as well,
pretty much on the back burner, more or less, since I don't' have the
hardware for scanning, but I use digital cameras - mostly digikam and direct
reads from the camera's memory card to bring the pictures in, and use gimp
for editing / printing). So it's not all that necessary, although if digikam
needs libgphoto as a back end, then updating these packages are desirable.



dfox@m206-157:/tmp$ sudo aptitude dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
Reading task descriptions... Done
Building tag database... Done
The following packages are BROKEN:
tetex-extra texlive-base texlive-base-bin texlive-latex-base
texlive-pdfetex
The following packages are unused and will be REMOVED:
liblzo-dev libservlet2.3-java libt1-5 mousepad postgresql-7.4
postgresql-client-7.4 postgresql-contrib-7.4 postgresql-doc-7.4
The following NEW packages will be automatically installed:
dvipdfmx gcc-4.2-base hal-info latex-beamer latex-xcolor libbind9-30
libdatrie0 libdbd-pg-perl libdbi-perl libdns32 libgnutlsxx13
libhunspell-1.1-0 libisc32 libisccc30 libisccfg30 libkeyutils1 liblwres30
liblzo2-dev libnet-daemon-perl libplrpc-perl libpq5
libservlet2.4-java libsys-hostname-long-perl libthai-data libthai0 lmodern
pgf postgresql-8.2 postgresql-client-8.2
postgresql-contrib-8.2 postgresql-doc-8.2 prosper python-gobject
python-gobject-dev sepolgen texlive-common texlive-doc-base
texlive-fonts-recommended texlive-latex-recommended xorg-docs
The following packages will be automatically REMOVED:
dosemu-freedos gtk2-engines-spherecrystal tetex-base tetex-bin tetex-doc
The following NEW packages will be installed:
dvipdfmx gcc-4.2-base hal-info latex-beamer latex-xcolor libbind9-30
libdatrie0 libdbd-pg-perl libdbi-perl libdns32 libgnutlsxx13
libhunspell-1.1-0 libisc32 libisccc30 libisccfg30 libkeyutils1 liblwres30
liblzo2-dev libnet-daemon-perl libplrpc-perl libpq5
libservlet2.4-java libsys-hostname-long-perl libthai-data libthai0 lmodern
pgf postgresql-8.2 postgresql-client-8.2
postgresql-contrib-8.2 postgresql-doc-8.2 prosper python-gobject
python-gobject-dev sepolgen texlive-common texlive-doc-base
texlive-fonts-recommended texlive-latex-recommended xorg-docs
The following packages will be REMOVED:
dosemu-freedos gtk2-engines-spherecrystal tetex-base tetex-bin tetex-doc
The following packages will be upgraded:
bind9-host cupsys cupsys-bsd cupsys-client dnsutils dosemu dselect
gnome-about gnome-keyring gnome-themes-extras gparted
gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf gtk2-engines-xfce
hal jadetex libaprutil1 libbonoboui2-0
libbonoboui2-common libc-client2002edebian libcupsimage2 libcupsys2
libcupsys2-dev libenchant1c2a libexo-0.3-0 libgcc1
libglu1-mesa libglu1-mesa-dev libgnome-desktop-2 libgnome-keyring0
libgnome-menu2 libgnomeui-0 libgnomeui-common libgnomevfs2-0
libgnomevfs2-bin libgnomevfs2-common libgnomevfs2-extra libgnutls-dev
libgnutls13 libgtk2.0-0 libgtk2.0-bin libgtk2.0-common
libgtk2.0-dev libhsqldb-java libkadm55 libkrb5-dev libkrb53 libnotify1
libpango1.0-0 libpango1.0-dev libpq-dev libpq4 librsvg2-2
librsvg2-bin librsvg2-common librsvg2-dev libsexy2 libsmbclient libstdc++6
libtag1c2a libtagc0 libthunar-vfs-1-2 libwmf0.2-7
libwnck-common libwnck-dev libwnck18 libxfcegui4-4 orage policycoreutils
postgresql postgresql-client postgresql-contrib
postgresql-doc python-glade2 python-gnome2 python-gtk2 python-gtk2-dev
spamassassin thunar tipa uw-imapd xfce4 xfce4-mcs-manager
xfce4-mcs-plugins xfce4-mixer xfce4-mixer-alsa xfce4-panel xfce4-session
xfce4-utils xfdesktop4 xfprint4 xfwm4 xfwm4-themes xorg
xsane xsane-common xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-evdev
xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-apm
xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-i128 xserver-xorg-video-newport
xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-rendition
xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-savage
xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
xserver-xorg-video-tseng
xserver-xorg-video-via xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
The following packages are RECOMMENDED but will NOT be installed:
fam gnome-mount libmail-spf-query-perl libsys-syslog-perl re2c smbclient
114 packages upgraded, 44 newly installed, 13 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 163MB of archives. After unpacking 69.7MB will be used.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
tetex-extra: Depends: tetex-base (>= 3.0-11) but it is not installable
Depends: tetex-bin (>= 2.99) but it is not installable
texlive-base: Conflicts: tetex-extra but 3.0.dfsg.3-5 is installed.
texlive-base-bin: Conflicts: tetex-extra but 3.0.dfsg.3-5 is installed.
texlive-latex-base: Conflicts: tetex-extra but 3.0.dfsg.3-5 is installed.
texlive-pdfetex: Conflicts: tetex-extra but 3.0.dfsg.3-5 is installed.
Resolving dependencies...
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

Remove the following packages:
kde
kdegraphics
kdvi
tetex-extra

Install the following packages:
gnome-mount [0.5-3 (testing, testing)]

Keep the following packages at their current version:
prosper [Not Installed]
spamassassin [3.1.7-2 (now)]

Leave the following dependencies unresolved:
texlive-latex-recommended recommends prosper (>= 1.00.4+cvs.2006.10.22-1)
Score is -944

Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?]

And here it just goes positively haywire. I've obviously deferred doing the
Accept thing because it could easily break my system.

So, is the upshot "just wait a while"? Any suggestions are appreciated.

On Fri, Jun 15, 2007 at 10:26:14PM -0700, David Fox wrote:
> Hi everyone - after running Etch for about 1 month or so after Etch went stable
> (and having prior running the then-testing
> branch (etch) for quite sometime, I decided to update my system to Lenny,after
> fixing my bandwidth situation after the
> move last month.
>
<lots of apt-get attempts>
> Score is -944
>
> Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?]
>
> And here it just goes positively haywire. I've obviously deferred doing the
> Accept thing because it could easily break my system.
>
> So, is the upshot "just wait a while"? Any suggestions are appreciated.
You are transitioning from 'stable' to an early version of 'testing'.
Proceed with caution. I see the tetex to texlive transition and you seem
to have gnome and xfce4 install. I like to either install a few packages
at a time or use the interactive mode of aptitiude to resolve the
'broken' packages with 'g' to upgrade and 'b' to search for broken
packages, then use '+' to fix the issue if possible.
Upgrades in Debian are one-way in all but a few rare cases.
--
| .''`. == Debian GNU/Linux == | my web site: |
| : :' : The Universal |mysite.verizon.net/kevin.mark/|
| `. `' Operating System | go to counter.li.org and |
| `- http://www.debian.org/ | be counted! #238656 |
| my keyserver: subkeys.pgp.net | my NPO: cfsg.org |
|join the new debian-community.org to Debian! |
|_______ Unless I ask to be CCd, assume I am subscribed _______|

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On Fri, Jun 15, 2007 at 10:26:14PM -0700, David Fox wrote:
>
> The initial upgrade went well (some 400 megabytes worth of updates) but for
> about a week now I am plagued with issues
> that keep me from doing a full dist-upgrade.
>
> from aptitude run about a few minutes ago:
>

[... massive list of upgrades ...]

> Retrieving bug reports... 0% Fail
>
> Error retrieving bug reports from the server with the following error
> message:
> W: unsupported proxy `false'
> It could be because your network is down, or because of broken proxy
> servers, or the BTS server itself is down. Check network configuration and
> try again
>

while this is annoying, its certainly the least of your problems. In
fact, I recommend you purge apt-listbugs until you fix the rest of
this. This is based on the assumption that you're mid-transition and
have to make the move, so bugs or not, your committed, so eliminate
one problem for now. We can solve the listbugs issue later.

>
> (Ok, Here is a little glitch that actually has been going on for months,
> don't know how to fix).
>

you have a broken package and its been going on for months? that's not
good and could have repercussions throughout the system. eventually
these errors could propogate through all kinds of stuff.


> Setting up libgphoto2-2 (2.3.1-5) ...
> /usr/lib/libgphoto2/print-camera-list: symbol lookup error:
> /usr/lib/libgphoto2/print-camera-list: undefined symbol:
> gpi_folder_operation_map
> dpkg: error processing libgphoto2-2 (--configure):
> subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 127
> dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libgphoto2-2-dev:
> libgphoto2-2-dev depends on libgphoto2-2 (= 2.3.1-5); however:
> Package libgphoto2-2 is not configured yet.
> dpkg: error processing libgphoto2-2-dev (--configure):
> dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
> dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libsane:
> libsane depends on libgphoto2-2 (>= 2.3.1); however:
> Package libgphoto2-2 is not configured yet.
> dpkg: error processing libsane (--configure):
> dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
> dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of sane-utils:
> sane-utils depends on libsane (>= 1.0.11-3); however:
> Package libsane is not configured yet.
> dpkg: error processing sane-utils (--configure):
> dependency problems - leaving unconfigured

so here you've got a chain of dependency problems because of
libgphoto2 not configuring.

what is

apt-cache policy libgphoto2

and why do you have libgphoto2-2-dev installed? are you building
stuff?

Again I recommend you remove libgphoto2 and the stuff that depends on
it. You can always reinstall it later. Then you can complete your
upgrade.

>
> (And here, some issues that have been going on for about a week as well,
> pretty much on the back burner, more or less, since I don't' have the
> hardware for scanning, but I use digital cameras - mostly digikam and direct
> reads from the camera's memory card to bring the pictures in, and use gimp
> for editing / printing). So it's not all that necessary, although if digikam
> needs libgphoto as a back end, then updating these packages are desirable.
>
>
>

[... long list of upgrades ...]

> The following packages have unmet dependencies:
> tetex-extra: Depends: tetex-base (>= 3.0-11) but it is not installable
> Depends: tetex-bin (>= 2.99) but it is not installable
> texlive-base: Conflicts: tetex-extra but 3.0.dfsg.3-5 is installed.
> texlive-base-bin: Conflicts: tetex-extra but 3.0.dfsg.3-5 is installed.
> texlive-latex-base: Conflicts: tetex-extra but 3.0.dfsg.3-5 is installed.
> texlive-pdfetex: Conflicts: tetex-extra but 3.0.dfsg.3-5 is installed.
> Resolving dependencies...
> The following actions will resolve these dependencies:
>
> Remove the following packages:
> kde
> kdegraphics

these two packages are just metapackages. They don't matter all that
much. Basically you're in a situation where some of the packages they
pull in have drifted from the requirements set forth in those
metapackages. That makes the metapackages not work anymore so they are
removed. I see no real problem with this, at least in the short
term. Again, you can reinstall them when its all done later and they
may bring in some packages or upgrades that interest you.


> kdvi
> tetex-extra

do you use tetex? specifically, do you use kdvi and tetex-extra? if
not, then let them go.


>
> Install the following packages:
> gnome-mount [0.5-3 (testing, testing)]
>
> Keep the following packages at their current version:
> prosper [Not Installed]
> spamassassin [3.1.7-2 (now)]
>
> Leave the following dependencies unresolved:
> texlive-latex-recommended recommends prosper (>= 1.00.4+cvs.2006.10.22-1)
> Score is -944
>
> Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?]
>
> And here it just goes positively haywire. I've obviously deferred doing the
> Accept thing because it could easily break my system.


this really doesn't look that bad to me.

I have some questions for you:

1. WHich desktop are you using? You've got gnome, kde and xfce
installed. If you use them all, great, but if not, you might remove
one or more to clean up this situation. The fewer packages you
have to upgrade, the smoother things go.

2. You say you were running etch before, when it was in testing, but
when was this? When did you start running etch? The reason I ask is
etch had been very stable and usable for quite a while before the move
to stable. Lenny, is another story altogether. Its early in its
release cycle and is *not* recommended for someone who doesn't know
how to handle these issues.

3. How do you normally upgrade your system? In testing and unstable,
you should routinely be running dist-upgrades. There is a lot of
package churn and if you stick with just upgrades, you'll get into
trouble. Dist-upgrades allow the system to track along with package
removals and replacements as well as upgrades all along.

Unless you have some greater experience than your email suggests, then
I recommend you either stick with stable, somehow, or perhaps move
right up to unstable. testing is subject to breakages that can last
for quite a while and if you aren't prepared to deal with that, then
you shouldn't be there. Unstable is not as scary as it sounds. It does
break, but it tends to fix up pretty quickly to.

ymmv.

A

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On 6/16/07, Andrew Sackville-West <andrew@farwestbilliards.com> wrote:
>
>
> while this is annoying, its certainly the least of your problems. In
> fact, I recommend you purge apt-listbugs until you fix the rest of


OK, I did that.

you have a broken package and its been going on for months? that's not
> good and could have repercussions throughout the system. eventually
> these errors could propogate through all kinds of stuff.


It's broken in the sense that it fails to retrieve the bug lists, but I
just have ignored
that for now. The "proxy" warning is something I have not yet found a fix
for. So I just
have been bypassing that step in my upgrade regimen.



>
> apt-cache policy libgphoto2


dfox@m206-157:~$ apt-cache policy libgphoto2-2
libgphoto2-2:
Installed: 2.3.1-5
Candidate: 2.3.1-5
Version table:
*** 2.3.1-5 0
500 http://ftp.debian.org testing/main Packages
500 ftp://ftp.it.debian.org testing/main Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

and why do you have libgphoto2-2-dev installed? are you building
> stuff?


I was at one point, needed it. Right now, probably not.



Again I recommend you remove libgphoto2 and the stuff that depends on
> it. You can always reinstall it later. Then you can complete your
> upgrade.



Well, If I try that, I get output that removing libgphoto2-2 wants to
remove digikam (which I
use) kamera, kde, and a slew of other things. I know kde is just a
metapackage and I can
install it later. Maybe that is what I'll do after I get a number of other
tasks done first and can
manage to get out of X, since removing KDE whilst using it is like pulling
out the rug from under
oneself .

> kdvi
> > tetex-extra
>
> do you use tetex? specifically, do you use kdvi and tetex-extra? if
> not, then let them go.


Actually, no I don't. But I can't remove kdvi because of the dependency on
kdegraphics (which I
use) and that further dependson KDE, so that wants to remove docbook-utils,
jadetex, kde &
kdegraphics.


I have some questions for you:
>
> 1. WHich desktop are you using? You've got gnome, kde and xfce
> installed. If you use them all, great, but if not, you might remove
> one or more to clean up this situation. The fewer packages you
> have to upgrade, the smoother things go.



I use KDE. I have gnome and sfce4 installed - i was experimenting with them,
and
there are a few things in there I like, but I mainly use KDE as my default
desktop
environment. I guess I have gnome in there because when I did a first
install of
etch/testing a long time ago, it automatically installed gnome.


2. You say you were running etch before, when it was in testing, but
> when was this? When did you start running etch? The reason I ask is
> etch had been very stable and usable for quite a while before the move


I had run it since roughly November 2005, after migrating to debian from
Mandrake and
through mepis. I installed the system initially with a jigdo snapshot. I've
been doing
upgrades periodically since then. Mostly it works just fine - although the
xserver-xfree86
to xserver-xorg transition didn't work positively well.

Once etch went stable I figured I'd sit and wait. I asked for advice from
some people on another
mailing list, and some people opted for stable and others (including some
comments in
debian-user) said to wait a bit. Well, I waited maybe 6 weeks I guess (etch
went stable in
the second week of April, and I moved in the second week of May, and finally
resolved my
bandwidth situation about two weeks later).


3. How do you normally upgrade your system? In testing and unstable,
> you should routinely be running dist-upgrades. There is a lot of


I had mostly done aptitude update && aptitude upgrade, mostly once a
week when I was running etch/testing. Once in a while doing a dist-upgrade
ed something.


> A
>
>

David Fox wrote:
> Andrew Sackville-West wrote:
> >Again I recommend you remove libgphoto2 and the stuff that depends
> >on it. You can always reinstall it later. Then you can complete
> >your upgrade.

Seems reasonable to me too. Once committed to testing just push
forward into it.

> Well, If I try that, I get output that removing libgphoto2-2 wants
> to remove digikam (which I use) kamera, kde, and a slew of other
> things. I know kde is just a metapackage and I can install it
> later. Maybe that is what I'll do after I get a number of other
> tasks done first and can manage to get out of X, since removing KDE
> whilst using it is like pulling out the rug from under oneself .

This will probably be true. Previously when using a kde.org version
of KDE on Woody I simply removed all of kde from the system in order
to upgrade from Woody to Sarge. Then once back in a known state on
released Sarge stable I installed all of the KDE components again.
But trying to upgrade through was perhaps possible but I never figured
out how.

> Actually, no I don't. But I can't remove kdvi because of the
> dependency on kdegraphics (which I use) and that further dependson
> KDE, so that wants to remove docbook-utils, jadetex, kde &
> kdegraphics.

I would not worry too much about whether you are using it or not. I
think I would second Andrews suggestion to simply remove anything that
causes trouble and to push forward. In theory all of this is
installable in the new testing track.

More interesting is how things have gotten into a strange mode.
Please check your /etc/apt/preferences. Is there something there that
might be causing trouble?

> >1. WHich desktop are you using? You've got gnome, kde and xfce
> >installed. If you use them all, great, but if not, you might remove
> >one or more to clean up this situation. The fewer packages you
> >have to upgrade, the smoother things go.

Good advice. Everything can be installed again later.

> 2. You say you were running etch before, when it was in testing, but
> >when was this? When did you start running etch? The reason I ask is
> >etch had been very stable and usable for quite a while before the move
>
> I had run it since roughly November 2005, after migrating to debian

Hmm... In my mind Etch was released just this year in 2007. Testing
in 2005 almost a year earlier would look almost nothing like the
released Etch.

I know that today people like to refer to testing as Lenny, and it is
called Lenny officially. But it has not stabilized and won't for a
long time. Calling it Lenny today is not meaningful. Released Lenny
will be a meaningful description. But today it is just today's
version of testing.

> 3. How do you normally upgrade your system? In testing and unstable,
> >you should routinely be running dist-upgrades. There is a lot of
>
> I had mostly done aptitude update && aptitude upgrade, mostly once a
> week when I was running etch/testing. Once in a while doing a dist-upgrade
> ed something.

When sitting on a stable release and taking security upgrades only
then using 'upgrade' makes sense. But when living on testing or
unstable really only 'dist-upgrade' is appropriate in my opinion.

When sitting in a stable environment and only desiring security
upgrades then 'upgrade' enforces that the installed package list will
not change. Running 'dist-upgrade' there should be okay too. But an
accidental addition to the sources.list could potentially cause a big
thrash and so 'upgrade' is a nice safety feature. But in
testing/unstable package dependencies change every day. There running
'upgrade' is not sufficient. When dependencies are changing often
running 'dist-upgrade' is really the only way to proceed.

Bob


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On Sat, Jun 16, 2007 at 10:24:14AM -0700, David Fox wrote:
> On 6/16/07, Andrew Sackville-West <andrew@farwestbilliards.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >while this is annoying, its certainly the least of your problems. In
> >fact, I recommend you purge apt-listbugs until you fix the rest of
>
>
> OK, I did that.
>
> you have a broken package and its been going on for months? that's not
> >good and could have repercussions throughout the system. eventually
> >these errors could propogate through all kinds of stuff.
>
>
> It's broken in the sense that it fails to retrieve the bug lists, but I
> just have ignored
> that for now. The "proxy" warning is something I have not yet found a fix
> for. So I just
> have been bypassing that step in my upgrade regimen.
>

I mean libgphoto2 is broken and not installing properly. that's what
those dpkg errors were.
>
>
> >
> >apt-cache policy libgphoto2
>
>
> dfox@m206-157:~$ apt-cache policy libgphoto2-2
> libgphoto2-2:
> Installed: 2.3.1-5
> Candidate: 2.3.1-5
> Version table:
> *** 2.3.1-5 0
> 500 http://ftp.debian.org testing/main Packages
> 500 ftp://ftp.it.debian.org testing/main Packages
> 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
>
> and why do you have libgphoto2-2-dev installed? are you building
> >stuff?
>
>
> I was at one point, needed it. Right now, probably not.
>
>
>
> Again I recommend you remove libgphoto2 and the stuff that depends on
> >it. You can always reinstall it later. Then you can complete your
> >upgrade.
>
>
>
> Well, If I try that, I get output that removing libgphoto2-2 wants to
> remove digikam (which I
> use) kamera, kde, and a slew of other things. I know kde is just a
> metapackage and I can
> install it later. Maybe that is what I'll do after I get a number of other
> tasks done first and can
> manage to get out of X, since removing KDE whilst using it is like pulling
> out the rug from under
> oneself .

manage to get out of X? try ctrl-alt-f1, log in as root. execute
/etc/init.d/kdm stop, then do

aptitude update && aptitude dist-upgrade

when its done, you'll have a consistent testing system. Then you can
reinstall anything you think you want and restart X with
/etc/init.d/kdm start.

At least that's how I'd do it.

>
> >kdvi
> >> tetex-extra
> >
> >do you use tetex? specifically, do you use kdvi and tetex-extra? if
> >not, then let them go.
>
>
> Actually, no I don't. But I can't remove kdvi because of the dependency on
> kdegraphics (which I
> use) and that further dependson KDE, so that wants to remove docbook-utils,
> jadetex, kde &
> kdegraphics.

but your system already wants to remove the meta-packages kde and
kdegraphics as part of removing kdvi and tetex-extra. Follow? If you
read the output (working from memory now as its all snipped... sorry)
it doesn't want to take *everything*, just the meta packages and a
couple others.

>
>
> I have some questions for you:
> >
> >1. WHich desktop are you using?

> I use KDE. I have gnome and sfce4 installed - i was experimenting with them,
> and

I'm all for that. Trust me. I've got many many wm's installed and play
with them all the time. But right now you're having upgrade issues and
as I said before, its much easier to upgrade if you ahve fewer
packages.

[...]

>
>
> 3. How do you normally upgrade your system? In testing and unstable,
> >you should routinely be running dist-upgrades. There is a lot of
>
>
> I had mostly done aptitude update && aptitude upgrade, mostly once a
> week when I was running etch/testing. Once in a while doing a dist-upgrade
> ed something.

definitely *not* the way to run testing or unstable. use dist-upgrade
and use it a lot. I run it almost every day in sid. Especially when
we've got all this churn going on. sometimes I'm upgrading 100
packages a day...

And for the record, I just upgraded my wife's machine. It was
installed as etch just before release. I've dist-upgraded it regularly
(not quite daily as there wasn't need) and just two days ago I did the
two step from etch through testing and into sid. I probably should
have done it in one step and saved myself some bandwidth, but that's
another issue. What is important here is that its very doable. I was
able to do it with no breakage whatsoever (though there are some sid
packages being heldback at the moment, but that's normal for sid). The
transition from etch to testing was something like 600 packages and
then another 300 (lots of overlap) up to sid. You can have this
experience to, provided you let the package manager do what it needs
to do...

A

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On 6/16/07, Andrew Sackville-West <andrew@farwestbilliards.com> wrote:
>
>
> aptitude update && aptitude dist-upgrade
>
> when its done, you'll have a consistent testing system. Then you can
> reinstall anything you think you want and restart X with
> /etc/init.d/kdm start.


I got to a convenient point and went ahead with that. No significant issues
with the
dist-upgrade - had to reinstall kde of course. But that was expected.

There were some issues going to tex-live because of dependencies on
tetex-bin and
kdvi. I don't use tex much anymore, so it doesn't bother me, but I don't
tnink I could remove kdvi because it's part of KDE.

Also the libgphoto problem is still there.

On Wed, Jun 20, 2007 at 10:21:17PM -0700, David Fox wrote:
[...]
>
> Also the libgphoto problem is still there.

please post up the libgphoto problem again...

A

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>
>
> please post up the libgphoto problem again...


It was a bit long to post but it's in there somewhere - i'm having issues
with jadetex and other
packages as well, but those are not all that big of a deal. I do most of my
camera work either with
digikam or by browsing the camera card in konqueror anyway.


http://www.pastebin.ca/596742