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Proposal for a Debian Unstable FAQ



Here's an idea for a Debian Unstable FAQ.  Let me know what you think.

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               ___ DEBIAN UNSTABLE FAQ #0 (10/18/97) ____

INTRODUCTION
------------
Because the Unstable ("hamm") part of Debian is a work in progress,
there will always be certain packages there which have incorrect
dependancies, or are broken, or which could hose your system.  This FAQ
attempts to give you the most up-to-date overview available of:

* Packages you should not upgrade to.  If you use dselect, use the "="
command to place these packages on hold until a fixed version becomes
available.  

* Broken dependencies, and how to get around them.

* Missing libraries (not uploaded yet or stuck in Incoming), and what to
do about them.

This document does not apply to people who use only packages from Stable
("bo", Debian 1.3).

Remember that use of Unstable is at your own risk; there may be other
problems not mentioned here.  Back up your system first.

You will need to upgrade to libc6 before using anything else in
Unstable.  See the libc5-to-libc6 Mini-HOWTO at (where?) for details.

If you need a file that is still in Incoming, look at:
ftp://llug.sep.bnl.gov/pub/debian/Incoming/ 
ftp://ftp.lh.umu.se/pub/linux/debian-Incoming/
A full list of Incoming mirrors is at (where?).


SEVERE WARNINGS
---------------
["Severe" means problems that may trash your system to the point that
you won't be able to boot, read documentation, and/or post a plea for
help on the mailing lists.]

** EXT2 PARTITIONS > 2GB: Don't make an ext2 partition greater than 2GB.
A bug in the kernel code will cause data corruption.

** SYSVINIT/FILE-RC: Do not upgrade to sysvinit_2.72-2 if file-rc is
installed.  Wait for the next sysvinit.  Otherwise your system may not
boot.  See debian-devel "Subject: Help! Boot script doesn't run" for
details.


OTHER WARNINGS
--------------
["Other" means broken dependencies or missing libraries which make it
difficult to install certain packages.  Especially if the change cannot
be easily undone by downgrading to the version in Stable.  Especially if
it disrupts an important service (PPP, mail/news, postscript printing,
X, xterm, etc.)  Minor problems (nonfunctioning games, little
irritations) are not necessarily mentioned.]

** ELF-X11R6: Many older packages refer to this obsolete library.  If
you have installed (what?), it's safe to install these with
--force-depends.

** DNS errors: Some people have reported problems with DNS after
installing (what?).  The symptom is that network commands will do a DNS
lookup even when given a literal IP number.  Changing the "networks:"
line in /etc/nsswitch.conf from "files dns" to "files" solved it for
some people but not for others.  To fix, install (program? version?),
currently in Incoming.  Documentation for /etc/nsswitch.conf is
(where?).  getnetbyaddr() in libc6 is broken, but getnetbyname() works.

** SAMBA/PAM: The "new" samba in hamm is libc5, because the libc6
version depends on a new libpam0 which isn't available yet.  Meanwhile,
libpam0 and libpam-util depend on each other (!), and so must be
installed during the same "dpkg -i" invocation.

** GIMP: Use the gimp in stable which depends on libpng1 in stable.  The
gimp in unstable depends on "libpng1" although it should depend on
libpng0g.  If you combine the gimp in unstable with libpng1 from
stable, you'll make dpkg happy but you might get segfaults.  Upgrade to
gimp unstable only if you really need to.

** XLIB6/XLIB6G: Upgrade the former (which is libc5-based) before
installing the latter (which is libc6-based and conflicts with older
versions of xlib6).  This also applies to other pairs of "non-g"/"g"
libraries.

** GS-ALADDIN/XFORMS0/other ghostscript stuff: I seem to remember some
broken dependencies or missing libraries with regards to ghostscript.
Are these all fixed now?


HOW YOU CAN HELP THIS FAQ
-------------------------
Please email me any additional warnings or corrections.  I especially
need input from Debian Developers and C programmers, because I am
neither.  Especially problems related to shared libraries or the
internals of Debian control files I am liable to report incorrectly.

Please also send feedback on how this FAQ could be improved.

-Mike Orr, mso@jimpick.com


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