Re: Help, caught in apt/dselect treadmill; trying to install Tomcat

[Gregory Guthrie <gguthrie@mum.edu>]

At 10:27 PM 10/20/2000 -0700, kmself@ix.netcom.com wrote:

> begin  Gregory Guthrie (gguthrie@mum.edu) quotation (Fri, Oct 20, 2000 at 
> 08:46:23PM -0500):
> > I am running kernelversion 2.2, from CDrom install. I did the simple
> > configuration, and even then it had a list of about 16-18 install 
> problems,
> > unresolved dependencies. I ran install again, more resolved.
> >
> > I wanted to get tomcat, so grabbed it from:
> > http://master.debian.org/~sgybas/tomcat/, but:
> >
> > So it required some unstable packages, so I added an unstable ftp 
> source to
> > my apt/source.list, and it did indeed find the two required packages, but
> > also about 189 (90MB) of other stuff.
> >   -- (Any way to have just gotten the one desired thing from unstable?)
>
> The simplest solution is just copy down the desired .deb and install it
> via dpkg:
>
>     dpkg -i somefile.deb
>
> ...you'll get some funkyness in your package lists (basically, you've
> installed a package for which there isn't sufficient metadata), but
> generally there's no permanent harm done.

-- I find that these complications and hack's w.r.t. packages take up about 
90% of my time in using Debian.

> What you've done instead is to step onto the Woody distribution wagon.
> You're going to be upgrading on unstable from here on out.  You may not
> have wanted to do that.

-- Hmm, any way to get off the treadmill?

Would it make sense to have a series of named levels, v.s. just a generic 
"unstable" that is always unstable? What IF one just wants to go one level 
ahead, say to Woody, but not always be on the bleeding edge? Is there a 
named link to the *current* unstable, v.s. the generic always next-thing name?

Thanks,
Greg


--------------------------------------------------------
Gregory Guthrie
guthrie@mum.edu         (641)472-1125    Fax: -1103
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