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Bug#131318: general: apt-get and dselect use seperate package databases :-(



Package: general
Version: N/A; reported 2002-01-28
Severity: wishlist



-- System Information
Debian Release: 3.0
Architecture: powerpc
Kernel: Linux poo-2 2.4.16-newpmac #1 Mon Jan 7 20:51:25 EST 2002 ppc
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C

hi everybody. i really like debian - its great - but let me get on to the criticism.

i finally have debian installed on my ibook2 ... perhaps the single greatest triumph for mankind this century! hehe ...

my problems were very simple, but very profound - profound enough to stump me for several days, and im no linux newbie (lol ... and now im not a debian one either ;-).

first problem: when i was installing potato, i "added an additional apt source", which caused dependency problems (b/c i added a woody source). in hind sight, i can see how mixing dependency trees could be a problem. please inform future users that is not a good way to go.

second problem: so, i installed the potato system totally by itself, and after several attempts to install a keymap (and screwing myself over), i finally used the "dont touch my keymap" option. please add some info files or something to help users decide their keymap.

third problem: i was familiar with apt-get from various friends and slashdot postings (etc), but dselect was a little overwhelming when i first saw it - so i opted to use a combination of both. the fact that they use _different_ package databases (availability/currently installed/etc) is very non-intuitive. i remember thinking to myself, "dselect uses apt-get and dpkg to do its dirty work. surely they use the same package database." this caused me no end of dependency problems, as can be seen with bug 130510. the way i figured it out was by _fully_ reading the manpages for dselect and apt-get. i know that this, of course, the solution to the problem - the user should read all of the docs. however, sometimes the user needs bold-faced "dont be a (l)user" warnings. of course, once i figured out this issue, i was about 1 hour from having a wonderful, working debian installation.

fourth problem: in my continued attempts to get debian up, i downloaded one of the 'unofficial' woody cd's. one of the options was to add the apt source 'security.debian.org...'. these packages caused me dependency problems. maybe its b/c the apt entry is a 'stable' instead of a 'testing'. at any rate, i dont know what the problem is ... just a heads up.

thank you so much for this wonderful distro! :-)

-brady

NOTE: the return address for this report is brady@poo-2.dhs.org. however, poo-2.dhs.org is an outdated dns entry (currently). for now, please send replies to mccary at neo.tamu.edu.




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