Re: xlib updating problem

[Faheem Mitha <faheem@email.unc.edu>]

(CCing to debian-user in case someone has comments/corrections.)

On Sun, 24 Feb 2002, Charles Blair wrote:

>   Thanks for your help.  I have version 2.2 (potato, I think).
> I am trying to upgrade to Tk8.3, which needs a newer xlibs.
> I downloaded an xlibs(numbers).deb package.  Is it sufficient
> to type
>
>  apt-get xlibs

You never download .deb packages for installation. That is in the
Redhat/rpm spirit, and is an inferior way of doing things. Debian is
better. You always do "apt-get package_name". This will fetch the package
off the net for you, resolve dependencies, and you can easily resume
downloading if the connection fails.

You have two options.

1) Type

apt-get tk8.3

This will insist on upgrading a large part of your system. In that case
you might as well upgrade to Woody.

2) Compile the tcl8.3/tk8.3 debs by hand. This will be a little more work,
but not much, and is actually a reasonable approach in this case, since
tcl/tk don't have many dependencies. This is your best option if you
really want to stay with potato. This is only reasonable if you think you
will not be needing to upgrade much stuff, otherwise it makes more sense
to upgrade to woody.  First, do the following (quote marks omitted).

"apt-get install devscripts fakeroot"

As root do
"adduser your_username staff"
and for good measure
"adduser your_username src"

You'll need to log out and back in again to allow these changes to have an
effect.  Then go to /usr/local/src and add a directory for tcl8.3.

"mkdir tcl8.3"

Then change to this directory and go

"apt-get source tcl8.3"

This will download and create a directory for you, called tcl8.3-... (some
numbers at the end denoting version)

Switch to this directory and do

"debuild binary"

If all goes well, this should create a binary deb package for you one
level up. Then you can install it by doing

dpkg -i tcl8.3...deb

Then you will need to do a similar thing with tk8.3. Ignore the xlibs
dependency here. I think that the X libraries you have are probably
enough. If it exits with an error let me know and I will try to help.
Unfortunately, I'm not running any potato boxes now, so I won't be able to
follow along.

> I'm sorry I really don't know much about the packaging system.

If you are running Debian you should learn, since it is a pretty
important, but easy to use, and powerful, part of the system.

                                         Sincerely, Faheem Mitha.