Bug#310801: Failed: mips(el) (cobalt): no aptitude package in woody for mips(el)
Package: upgrade-reports
[NOTE: This duplicates some information in report #310005; I'm
still filing as a separate bug because I think the specific issue
(aptitude missing in woody for mips(el)) is sigificant enough to warrant
separate attention. Feel free to close this bug if/when issue raised
in this/#310005 are addressed somehow -- even if it's just duplicating the
recommended approach from #310005 into the mips(el) Sarge release notes.]
Archive date: Wed May 25 19:00:01 UTC 2005
Upgrade date: 2005/05/26 16:00:00 +1200
uname -a: Linux cobalt-linux 2.4.26 #2 Tue Apr 27 13:29:20 NZST 2004 mips unknown
Method: Attempted to upgrade with aptitude following instructions here
http://www.debian.org/releases/sarge/mipsel/release-notes/ch-upgrading.en.html
Unfortunately I didn't get very far with my attempt to upgrade my
Cobalt box (running Debian Linux, Woody, installed following Paul
Martin's instructions from a few years ago).
One of the first instructions (after "make a backup") is:
-=- cut here -=-
First the aptitude package needs to be installed. This is done with:
apt-get install aptitude
Provided that you have a working APT configuration this will install the woody version of aptitude.
-=- cut here -=-
Unfortunately this isn't possible on a mips(el) architecture.
-=- cut here -=-
ewen@cobalt-linux:~$ sudo apt-get install aptitude
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
E: Couldn't find package aptitude
ewen@cobalt-linux:~$
-=- cut here -=-
There is no aptitude package for mips prior to the 0.2.15.9-2 (from Sarge).
Eg, from ftp.debian.org:
-=- cut here -=-
ftp> cd debian/pool/main
250 Directory successfully changed.
ftp> cd a/aptitude
250 Directory successfully changed.
ftp> ls *mips*
200 PORT command successful. Consider using PASV.
150 Here comes the directory listing.
-rw-rw-r-- 1 1176 1176 1932216 Apr 09 18:47 aptitude_0.2.15.9-2_mips.deb
-rw-rw-r-- 1 1176 1176 1922778 Apr 07 18:32 aptitude_0.2.15.9-2_mipsel.deb
226 Directory send OK.
-=- cut here -=-
Version in Woody on, eg, i386 is
-=- cut here -=-
ewen@basilica:~ $ apt-cache show aptitude | grep Version
Version: 0.2.11.1-4
-=- cut here -=-
At a guess that is due to bug #84935 ("g++ fails to compile aptitude on
the mips architecture"), which is marked as Normal/Resolved, as of
a month ago.
Apparently not resolved in time to get a version into Woody, even with
the most recent Debian Woody minor-release (which IIRC did include an
aptitude update in order to make Woody->Sarge updates easier; but not
for mips(el) it seems).
I see there is one last Debian Woody mini-release planned:
http://people.debian.org/~joey/3.0r6/
but it doesn't include aptitude at this stage.
It seems to me that either:
(a) aptitude should be built for Woody on all Sarge architectures, and
included in 3.0r6; or
(b) on those architectures where aptitude isn't available (ie, mips(el))
the release notes should provide alternative instructions on
upgrading (eg, using apt-get cautiously, or perhaps doing enough
of the upgrade to pull in aptitude from Sarge then using aptitude).
I'm sure that I can figure out some way to upgrade this system to Sarge
even if neither of those are done (I've backported enough packages myself
for one thing; and done Debian upgrades since Bo without using aptitude),
but in the interests of accurate documention it seems something worth
addressing.
Ewen
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