Re: aptitude problem WAS: Re: NMU and hijacking of gnome-apt

[Erik Steffl <steffl@bigfoot.com>]

Daniel Burrows wrote:
> 
> On Sun, Nov 25, 2001 at 06:11:05PM -0800, Erik Steffl <steffl@bigfoot.com> was heard to say:
> >   whoops, I forgot it could have been fixed already. so aptitude runs
> > now, but still doesn't seem usable, the list of packages is almost
> > empty, the upgrade does not work work
> 
>   This is what bug-reporting tools are for.  (referring to the
> interface failing to show packages.  The other problem most likely has
> to do with dependency handling)

  I thought that since nobody else is complaining and I see this
behaviour for quite some time that there is some problem on my machine,
I asked few times before (on debian-user), never got any responses so I
slightly abused this discussion.

>   I certainly wouldn't release a version that was this broken [1], so if
> you see something like this you should assume that either (a) you're
> doing something wacky, or (b) I don't know about it!  (or (c) it's in
> the BTS already, but this isn't)
> 
>   You wouldn't happen to have set a limit on your display and then
> forgotten it, would you?

  no, but it was set to 10.  not sure to what it applies. I changed it
to empty string (that's what README says means unlimited)

  before: it did show few packages in packages view, no packages in g
window.

  now: it shows the same number of packages in packges view, lot of
packages in g view (to be instelled, upgraded, held etc.). so the
situation is somewhat better.

  it lists a lot (20+) of packages to be installed (status is pi), I did
not ask to install anything. It lists packages to upgrade but those are
not the same as the one apt-get lists. etc..

  example:

  package cupsys is listed in section [+] Packages to be removed, when I
hit enter I see the info about package with no broken dependencies, only
two packages in Suggests section are red and say (UNSATISFIED). why does
it wnat to remove this package?

  the list of packages listed as being held is different in apt-get and
aptitude.

 There are few other examples of strange problems like these.

  is this material for bug report? what information do you need from me
to get some idea what's going on?

> > lqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqk
> >     x                             Apt
> > errors                              x
> >     xE: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
> > #x
> >     xE: Unable to correct dependencies, some packages cannot be
> > installedax
> >     x                               [ Ok
> > ]                                x
> >
> > mqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqj
> 
>   This indicates that some packages which you have forced to be held
> would be broken by the install, no matter what it does.  I think that's
> an error message from libapt, so I can't do much about the wording.

  yes, I did. however apt-get simply lists them as being held back and
works with the rest of packages, aptitude doesn't even list the same
packages.

>   When you can see all the packages, search for "~b" to find broken
> ones.  Right now there's a bug that causes held+broken packages to not
> be flagged with red; it's fixed in CVS.

  so far I cannot see all the packages.

  overall I am quite confused... not sure what can be the problem...

  thanks for response,

	erik