Re: OT - Debian Testing questions

[Conrad Newton <conrad.newton@broadpark.no>]

>From Trond Mæhlum on Monday, 2006-02-20 at 23:18:30 +0100:
> 
> >Now for the details (untested):
> >-------------------------------------------------------
> >for f in $(dpkg -l | grep 6.9.0 | awk '{print $2}'); do
> >    echo "$f=6.8.2.dfsg.1-11" >> to-be-downgraded
> >done
> >
> >apt-get install $(cat to-be-downgraded)
> >-------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >Now keep the downgraded packages on hold with a command such as:
> >
> >aptitude hold $(dpkg -l | grep 6.8.2 | awk '{print $2}')
> >
> >Now any apt-get upgrades should leave these packages alone.
> >They will only be upgraded if you explicitly apt-get install them.
> 
> Thank you Conrad. This seemed to work. I am now running xorg 6.8.2 
> again. However, I can't seem to figure out the aptitude hold thing... I 
> did as you instructed, but an apt-get upgrade will try to upgrade 
> xserver-xorg, although an aptiude upgrade holds them back. Does this 
> only work with aptitude? I rather used to apt-get, so an accident with 
> this is not unlikely...

Ouch, I see (bug #137771).

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=137771

It would be good if aptitude and apt-get could agree on things!

> Also, the aptitude hold command removed about 450MB of packages. 
> Not trouble to apt them back in, but it looked strange...

I wouldn't touch that one!

> Any thoughts on this?

Yes, back to apt-get and dpkg.  Sorry for mixing things.

The command we need is dpkg --set-selections, that takes
its information from standard input in the format

package     <packagestate>

In our case, we want packagestate=hold.
So, with the failure of aptitude-based hold, we try again:

--------------------------------------
for f in $(dpkg -l | grep 6.8.2 | awk '{print $2}'); do
    echo "$f      hold" >> packages-to-hold
done

dpkg --set-selections < packages-to-hold
--------------------------------------

Now it should work!  You tell me ...

> I reply "off list", since this off-topic to begin with. 
> But you came through like a lifesaver for meg :)

I think it could be relevant to lots of people, so I will
put it back on list.  Part of our job is to help educate
other systems administrators, and this is a complicated
and interesting real-life problem.  I think there must
be lots of us who have radeon cards ...

Conrad