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Re: debian upgrade mess



on Sun, Nov 19, 2000 at 04:57:14PM -0800, Chris Palmer (debian@zencow.com) wrote:
> kmself@ix.netcom.com wrote
> > on Sun, Nov 19, 2000 at 04:07:50PM -0800, Chris Palmer (debian@zencow.com) wrote:
> > > Wow, was I surprised when a number of packages were removed from my
> > > system at the end.  I had a fun time getting perl back on my system,
> > > and a really cool guy from work created a custom package for me so I
> > > could get Majordomo running again.
> > 
> > This is known to happen occasionally.  Usually, if you catch the action
> > before committing it, you can exit dselect without harm.
> 
> unfortunately, I didn't go that route at the time.  and I ended up
> doing some apt-get upgrade and maybe even dist-upgrade and maybe
> even dselect-upgrade.  I don't remember at this point.

Shouldna matter, if you're back on track now.

> > For a given package, it's often much better to use apt-get:
> >     $ apt-get install samba lynx
> 
> ok, I just tried and successfully got lynx back on my system.
> That's a major help.  Maybe I was trying this too early and
> the files just weren't ready on the ftp servers or the package
> lists were mangled?

More likely, your package lists were out of date.  Generally, the
procedure is:

    $ apt-get --update && apt-get install foo bar baz

...for a given package or set of packages.

or

    $ apt-get --update && apt-get dist-upgrade

...for your entire distribution.

> > General suggestion:  avoid dselect, use apt-get.  You might also
> > find capt (console apt) a useful tool.  I generally use it to search
> > for packages, but leave the installation for the command line.
> 
> ok, so I've heard now from a couple folks that I should avoid
> dselect.  It's pretty much been the only way that I'd ever done
> any package maintenance on my system (I guess I'm behind the
> times).  It's also the only way I've know about availability of
> packages, and it was cool that I could just flag them.

dselect's crufty.

If you're looking for a particular package, try also apt-cache:

    $ apt-cache search <pattern>

...it's part of apt, may not be available in Potato (I'm running Woody).

> Should I now abandon the settings in dselect and no longer run
> it?  I had attempted to flag things that I wanted to add to my
> system in there (and I have no idea what they were now).

Generally, yes.  dpkg, apt-get, capt, and apt-cache replace most of this
functionality.

> Is there a way to get it synchronized with the apt-get settings,
> so I can use it for "shopping" or should I look into "capt" for
> that purpose?

Just do an 'update' in dselect if you do want to use it.


-- 
Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com>     http://www.netcom.com/~kmself
 Evangelist, Zelerate, Inc.                      http://www.zelerate.org
  What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?      There is no K5 cabal
   http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/        http://www.kuro5hin.org

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