On Sun, May 20, 2001 at 10:44:33PM -0400, Russell Hires wrote: > > Being that it's unstable/testing, I am having problems (I'm just reporting, > not complaining :-), mainly with using apt-get. I did a minimal install > starting with potato and then upgraded to woody by changing my sources.list > references from potato to woody. Upgraded no problem. I have three packages > that stubbornly refuse to install, but I either don't know what they do > (balsa, for one), or they haven't caused a serious loss of functionality; so > I'm okay with that. Sometimes dpkg segfaults, especially if I'm installing > more than a few packages, so I end up having to re-run dpkg separately from > apt-get. the broken packages are a problem with the buildd lagging typically, that can be caused by many things, bad Build-depends, broken code, or just some obscure wedge the buildd gets into... otoh the package depenencies could be bogus too. the dpkg segfaults are known on some recent versions of dpkg, they should be fixed in the one in unstable (should trickle into testing soon...) > I had fun attempting to get Netscape installed. First, I wasn't quite sure > what packages to d/l from non-free -- I tried all the ones that said > netscape-4.77(something like that), but that didn't work. I tried the > communicator ones and those worked better, but then I had to d/l something > that didn't look netscape-ish in order for it all to work. I had originally > tried using apt-get install netscape (or communicator) and it didn't work, > even though I am set up to use non-free software. Anyway, I finally figured > it all out, and am happily running Netscape Communicator -- except for when > I'm root (security reasons, it said). short answer: dump netscape, install mozilla long answer: there is no netscape 4.77 for powerpc, only 4.70. there is NOTHING debian or anyone else can do about this, only netscape/aol can fix that since netscape is 100% proprietary. the reason you see the communicator and netscape-base 477 packages is because they are archetecture independent, they don't contain the actual binary. they DO depend on the actual binary which is held in the communicator-smotif-477 package, which of course does not exist for powerpc since there is no 4.77 binary for powerpc. given that netscape will not fix this, and versions older then 4.77 have many security holes you should simply not install netscape. use mozilla instead, 0.9 is quite usable (more so if you use galeon or skipstone instead of mozilla directly). 0.9 packages can be found by adding: deb http://penguinppc.org/~eb/mozilla ./ to your apt sources.list. galeon is not packaged by compiles from source and installs in /usr/local very cleanly (well on i386 i have not tryed powerpc, don't envision problems there however). > Another thing that broke was tasksel. I still get the screen for it, but it > can't d/l anything for woody (I guess?). I want to install gnome, but that's > a nightmare and a half trying to figure out all of the stuff that is > required, which explains tasksel. Ah well...for the moment I'm running > Enlightenment, and it is slow!! It's quite a contrast to running the shell. > I go to play Mah-jong (great way to waste away a Sunday!) and two minutes > later it pops up, ready to play. I know it's two minutes because that's how > long the game was going before I could see it on the screen. short answer: debian's current task- package system is a hideous broken kludge. long answer: task- packages *depend* on everything that is a member of the task, thus if even one of those packages is not available the entire task is broken. fortunatly it looks like this gross mess is going away in woody very soon. task- packages will be no more and instead a feild in the package's control file will be used instead. (full details are still being worked out). > One last thing. I tried to compile pine, but it failed. I'll send output if > anyone wants it. all your mail are belong to mutt ;-) apt-get install mutt try it you will like it. -- Ethan Benson http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/
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