Re: dpkg/apt-get madness
>
> I tried "apt-get dist-upgrade" in order to upgrade to slink.
> Yes, I know slink is "unstable" so I might get some trouble.
>
> Packages were downloaded and processing started, then the trouble began:
> I noticed that "startx" disappeared!
I seemed to remember that the X11 maintainer specifically mailed to this
list that the slink X packages were severely broken and only to be used
by brave peoply meaning to help with the debugging process.
> Ok, this is probably temporary, I thought. The new xserver package was
> not yet configured. Then apt-get ended with an error. I tried re-running
> "apt-get dist-upgrade" and "dpkg --configure -a" several times, and the
> problem seemed to be with the emacs20 package. It could not be
> configured, any attempt ends in "memory errors" or "subprocess returned an
> error"
I also had lots of trouble with the emacs20 package on hamm. Some
people suggested to remove the `tm' package. This worked on certain
systems, but on other systems there was no `tm' present at all. I got
this sorted out after installing emacs19, after which I could remove and
reinstall emacs20. I suppose the emacsen system needs to get rid of its
sharp edges.
> I wanted X back, so I decided to get rid of emacs instead. I don't use it
> much anyway. "dpkg -r <emacs-packages>" removed everything except from
> emacs20:
> "The package is in a very bad inconsistent state - reinstall it before
> removing"
I believe that dpkg needs a --force-purge switch, to remove severely
broken packages. Why doesn't it have one?
HTH,
Eric
--
E.L. Meijer (tgakem@chem.tue.nl) | tel. office +31 40 2472189
Eindhoven Univ. of Technology | tel. lab. +31 40 2475032
Lab. for Catalysis and Inorg. Chem. (TAK) | tel. fax +31 40 2455054
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