problem installing postgresql new packages.

[adavis@netpci.com]

I haven't done anything with the old postgresql, but I started the (poorly
typeset) tutorial in the Linux Journal.  Now I figure I might as well
install the new version.  

libpgsql won't install.  I get an error that the preinstall script exits
with an error of, let's see:

maan:~# dpkg -i libpgsql*
Selecting previously deselected package libpgsql.
(Reading database ... 42934 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libpgsql (from libpgsql_6.3-2.deb) ...

dpkg: error processing libpgsql_6.3-2.deb (--install):
 subprocess pre-installation script returned error exit status 1
 Errors were encountered while processing:
  libpgsql_6.3-2.deb


This was AFTER I removed the old libpgsql and libpgjava that depended upon
it.  I was told the first time through (attempting to install basically all
the new packages) by dpkg that my old data file had been moved, and old
executables too, I think.

I have a comment about this.  

Why do these complicated debian packages go around removing and moving
things, and unpacking, before finding out whether the install will work?
Now I don't even know if the system will be workable until this bug is
solved.  Happens all the time.

In fairness, debian has served well for two and a half t0 three years,
without very many serious problems, and I feel confident that when I install
a package the details will be taken care of.  

This is less and less the case, for example with the emacs packages.  Of
course for emacs and LaTeX packages, I install much of them on my own, so
when it doeesn't work, I have noone to blame but me (as developers are more
than ready, even eager, to call to my attention).  Still, emacs now
uninstalls everything related to (or pretends to) it each time I upgrade a
package.  

Oh, well.

Alan Davis

-- 
"Our loyalties are to the species and the       Alan E. Davis            
planet.  We speak for Earth. Our                adavis@netpci.com
obligation to survive is owed not just to       Marianas High School      
ourselves but also to that Cosmos, ancient      AAA196, Box 10001         
and vast, from which we spring."                Saipan, MP  96950         
                                                Northern Mariana Islands  
       ---Carl Sagan                            GMT+10                    


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