apt-get problem workaround... is this a bug?
Well, I finally fixed, or rather worked around, the problem I've been
having with apt-get upgrade and dist-upgrade failing with all sorts of
obscure, bizarre errors for over two weeks now.
Maybe my setup was broken, or maybe something in the latest APT, etc. is
broken... can someone with a deeper understanding of APT tell me which?
I'll be happy to file a bug if it's not my own fault.
Since the new apt 0.5.x came out, I've had my system set up to allow me
to update stable, testing, _and_ unstable, and pick what I wanted with
the -t option or :unstable suffix. I stick with "testing" almost
exclusively and _very_ rarely make use of this (but it's great when I
really need it), and I don't think I have much if any unstable stuff on
my system.
Here is how I did it; first, I put everything in /etc/apt/sources.list:
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main non-free contrib
deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US testing/non-US main contrib non-free
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main non-free contrib
deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/non-US main contrib non-free
Then, I added this to /etc/apt/apt.conf to say that I wanted to keep
"testing" by default:
APT {
// Options for apt-get
Default-Release "testing";
}
Finally, I added this to /etc/apt/preferences to keep it from normally
considering unstable packages:
Package: *
Pin: release unstable
Pin-Priority: -1
Up until the last 2/3 weeks that's worked flawlessly. I've been very
happy. But then apt-get started reporting all kinds of weird errors
with dependencies, and they would change every time I ran apt-get
update. Also, many of the files it complained about aren't even
installable when I try to use "apt-get install" on them directly; it
says the latest version is already installed!
On a whim I just commented out the unstable lines in sources.list and
re-ran "apt-get upgrade" (no update first), and it worked! It offered
to install all kinds of new packages without giving any errors or
anything.
I know this type of thing is supposed to be supported. So, obviously
either I've set it up wrong and it just happened to work before, or a
bug has been introduced or uncovered in apt/dpkg.
Anyone have any thoughts on this subject? Should I repost to
debian-devel?
Some facts: here is what I get when I have the unstable stuff in
sources.list:
# apt-get -s upgrade
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following packages have been kept back
cygnus-stylesheets expect5.24 gsfonts gsfonts-x11 libxml-generator-perl
274 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 5 not upgraded.
Sorry, but the following packages have unmet dependencies:
aspell: Depends: libstdc++2.10 but 1:2.95.2-14 is to be installed
docbook-stylesheets: Depends: sgml-data but 1.5.2 is to be installed
Depends: perl but 5.6.1-5 is to be installed
gtksu: Depends: libgtk1.2 (>= 1.2.0) but 1.2.10-1 is to be installed
python-rng: Depends: python-numeric but 17.1.2-5 is to be installed
task-c++-dev: Depends: task-devel-common but 0.7 is to be installed
task-c-dev: Depends: task-devel-common but 0.7 is to be installed
ymessenger: Depends: libgtk1.2 (>= 1.2.0) but 1.2.10-1 is to be installed
E: Internal Error, InstallPackages was called with broken packages!
# apt-get -s install aspell gtksu python-rng ymessenger docbook-stylesheets
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Sorry, aspell is already the newest version.
Sorry, gtksu is already the newest version.
Sorry, python-rng is already the newest version.
Sorry, ymessenger is already the newest version.
Sorry, docbook-stylesheets is already the newest version.
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 279 not upgraded.
Now, I remove the unstable lines from sources.list and it agrees to
update all my packages with no worries at all:
# apt-get -s upgrade
Reading Package Lists...
Building Dependency Tree...
The following packages have been kept back
cygnus-stylesheets expect5.24 gsfonts gsfonts-x11 libxml-generator-perl
274 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 5 not upgraded.
Inst libc6-dev (2.2.4-1 Debian:testing) []
Inst locales (2.2.4-1 Debian:testing) []
Inst libc6 (2.2.4-1 Debian:testing)
Conf libc6 (2.2.4-1 Debian:testing)
Inst mawk (1.3.3-8 Debian:testing)
Inst base-files (2.2.11 Debian:testing)
Conf base-files (2.2.11 Debian:testing)
...
Conf telnet-ssl (0.17.13+0.1-2 Debian:testing)
Conf telnetd-ssl (0.17.13+0.1-2 Debian:testing)
Conf tk8.0 (8.0.5-9 Debian:testing)
Conf xmh (4.1.0-5 Debian:testing)
Something's weird here...
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul D. Smith <pausmith@nortelnetworks.com> HASMAT--HA Software Mthds & Tools
"Please remain calm...I may be mad, but I am a professional." --Mad Scientist
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These are my opinions---Nortel Networks takes no responsibility for them.
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