Summary of problems with current distribution

[Bob McElrath <mcelrath@isp.nwu.edu>]

As mentioned in a previous mail, I recently finished a clean install of
Debian/Alpha from the ftp.debian.org site (main *only*, not non-free or
contrib trees).  Here's a summary of the problems I've encountered:

1) /etc/manpath.config is not installed by default, breaking man.
2) the program 'the' (which I think is an editor) crashes with unaligned
traps, memory violations at ffffffff,  and finally dies with signal 11.
3) The following packages were left "unconfigured" because of installation
problems:
	emacs20, emacs20-el, python-base, python-examples
	zircon		("zircon depends on libc6"
			"libc6 does not appear to be available") !!!!!
	jadetex, xswallow (needs "mozilla", which is unavailable)
	ldso (same libc6 message), jade, libc6-doc (same libc6 message), 
4) omniorb crashes and burns on startup:
	Sep 22 12:01:00 draal kernel: omniNames: memory violation at
	pc=12000e7f4 rp=12000e7b8 (bad address = 00000000) 
5) fdisk gives lots of unaligned traps (but appears to work)
6) when mounting msdos partitions:
	Sep 22 12:02:05 draal kernel: Unable to load NLS charset
	cp437(nls_cp437) 
7) SCSI controller in kernel is generating unaligned traps...(BusLogic)
8) unaligned traps from XF86_SVGA with Matrox Millenium II card (lots)
9) WindowMaker:
	Sep 22 14:18:30 draal kernel: WindowMaker: memory violation at
	pc=15556373eb8 rp=120048ebc (bad address = 00000018) 
10) The package that owns /lib/libcfont.so*, libconsole.so*, libctutils.so*
	creates symbolic links in /usr/lib to these files which are dead:
	lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           20 Sep 22 06:19 libcfont.so -> /lib/libcfont.so.?.*
	obviously, that file on the right doesn't actually exist...
	this breaks many packages that need these...
11) the default menus for the various window managers are...sparse, to say
	the least...
12) There are packages freetype1 and freetype2.  Many things depend on
	freetype1.  Are they the same thing with different versions?  If so,
	it is not possible to install freetype2 and not freetype1 since it
	breaks many dependencies.

partial list...more to come.  ;)

-- Bob

  ./'^`\._./'~`\._./'~`\._./'~`\._./'#`\._./'~`\._./'~`\._./'~`\._./'^`\.
 / Rube Goldberg? Bah! Amateur! I give you..Windows 98! Linux everywhere \ 
| Linux, because everyone's work is mission critical.   ANYTHING inside.  |
|_Bob McElrath (mcelrath@wisconsin.cern.ch) Univ. of Wisconsin at Madison_|
  \.___________________________________________________________________./