Re: dSELECT

[Rick Jones <rickya@siservices.net>]

On Fri, 16 May 1997, E.L. Meijer (Eric) wrote:
<snip>
> Dselect does show all the dependencies.  The problem is that dselect
> isn't installing packages in the right order automatically.  A successor
> to dselect is in the works that will do better in this respect: the
> deity project.

So.  The answer would be to recycle the install step a couple of time and
dselect will get the job done.

<snip>
> My manual approach is the following.  I start by picking an important
> package I need, try to install that manually using
> dpkg --install <file name of package>
> This fails.  In the error message I can see on what other packages this
> package predepends.  Then I try to install these packages again using
> dpkg --install ...  Usually I have some luck that certain packages
> install.  Sometimes conflicting packages have to be removed using dpkg
> --purge.  If I succeed to install the particular package I picked, I go
> back to dselect, select the other packages, and see if it will work this
> time.  If you have all the files you need, usually one or two cycles
> will do most of the trick.  Packages you will want to install are in
> stable/binary and stable/binary-all.  The files called `Packages.gz'
> contain the information which file names correspond to what package.
> Note that some packages are provided by others.  This information is
> also in the Packages.gz files.
<snip>
> and would be very welcome indeed.  Procedures like I described above are
> probably a bit too much for unix newbies, and we shouldn't scare
> beginners away from Debian IMO.

I agree.  So what was the reason for posting this?  This guy said he IS a
new comer, why did you post this?  I suspect he's more clued in than most
new comers.  But what about a clueless new comer?  He wouldn't have any
idea what you just told him to do.  All that needed to be said was to
recycle through the install step.  

Sorry to bit*h about this, but it's almost every day that a new comer asks
about dselect and dependancies.  There are always dpkg answers that aren't
needed to answer the question.  The goal is to make the transition to
linux and Debian in particular as easy as possible for new comers.
Confusing them with strings of dpkg commands when dselect fails to do
something defeats the purpose.  A new comer doesn't even know what dpkg
is.


--Rick

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