The png fiasco, libqt2, and GNOME
Hi,
I was just perusing this list archive (I don't subscribe, so CC
me if you want me to see any followup) and noticed a message
from John Gay quoting me. I had said:
By the way, "imlib1" is in the same boat as libqt2: I recompiled
imlib using libpng3 and loads of GNOME binaries started failing to
load icons. So this issue affects all of GNOME as well as KDE.
>From this John concluded, "therefore, this is not Ivan's fault, as
some debian maintainers seem to be saying."
This latter comment belies misunderstanding of the issue and of the
discussion on debian-devel. I don't think it is helpful to assign
blame. I don't think anyone can question that Ivan generally
did a great job with the KDE packages.
You can read my take on the situation in this message:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2002/debian-devel-200201/msg00243.html
In that thread, three or four approaches have been mooted as a possible
solution to the upgrade problem, but little discussion has emerged as
yet.
The reason I'm writing here is that I would like to see the problem
packages (libqt2 and related kde apps) stay out of TESTING until
this issue is resolved.
I gather that the way forward chosen for QT2/KDE is to recompile
everything against libpng3. Chris Cheney and Daniel Stone:
please confirm or correct this!
That is fine, although one should note Anthony Towns' remarks in
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2002/debian-devel-200201/msg00254.html
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2002/debian-devel-200201/msg00263.html
However, if the rebuilt libqt2 gets into testing before the rebuilt
KDE apps, then the latter will suddenly break for everyone using the
"testing" distribution. It seems prudent to hold up the migration to
testing until all the packages are ready to go.
Therefore, I'd like to reopen Bug #126808 on libqt2 and set its
severity to "critical". I believe that would keep the new libqt2
(and everything that depends on it) out of testing. When all the
packages are ready, we would wait ten days (so that all the packages
become candidates for "testing"), then close the bug.
Comments?
[Remember to CC me, please.]
Regards,
-Steve
--
by Rocket to the Moon,
by Airplane to the Rocket,
by Taxi to the Airport,
by Frontdoor to the Taxi,
by throwing back the blanket and laying down the legs ...
- They Might Be Giants
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