Re: aptitude freezes after install

[microwaverich <richgrif@one.net>]

Daniel Burrows wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 17, 2009 at 01:51:13PM -0500, microwaverich <richgrif@one.net> was heard to say:
> > I upgraded from Etch to Lenny yesterday.  Now aptitude isn't behaving  
> > properly.
> >
> >
> > When I enter a single command at the command line, like:
> >
> > aptitude install xawtv
> >
> > it works fine.
> >
> > If I just enter 'aptitude' to start the full-screen (ncurses?) version,  
> > when it completes an install it stops responding to the keyboard.  I can  
> > abort using CTRL-C, but nothing else seems to work.
> >
> > Advice?
>
>   No, but I'm curious what your hardware / software configuration is.
> I've been trying to figure out this bug for over a year now, and I
> can't figure out why just a few systems show it.
>
>   If you're up to running some historical versions to see where the
> bug was introduced, we could try pulling old packages from
> snapshot.debian.net.  For starters, maybe these:
>
>   Version 0.4.5.3-1:
> http://snapshot.debian.net/archive/2007/06/18/debian/pool/main/a/aptitude/
>
>   Version 0.4.7-1:
> http://snapshot.debian.net/archive/2007/10/31/debian/pool/main/a/aptitude/
>
>   Version 0.4.10-1:
> http://snapshot.debian.net/archive/2007/12/17/debian/pool/main/a/aptitude/
>
>   Version 0.4.11-2:
> http://snapshot.debian.net/archive/2008/03/17/debian/pool/main/a/aptitude/
>
>   Some of these will also need libcwidget1, which you can find here:
>
>   libcwidget1:
> http://snapshot.debian.net/archive/2008/04/13/debian/pool/main/c/cwidget/
>
>     Thanks,
>   Daniel
Daniel:

I don't know if I'm "up to" it, but I'd love to give it a go.

Here's some possibly relevant info about my system.  Let me know if you 
need more.

Processor:	1.8 GHz AMD Athlon XP 2200+
Total Memory:	1 GB

The problem occurs with both kernels 2.6.18-6-K7 and 2.6..26-1-686.

As I stated originally, it did not happen with Etch (using 2.6.18.6-K7), 
but it does happen with Lenny using that same kernel.

I had done the upgrade by:

1.  following the recommended "Preparing for the next release" steps 
(remove obsolete packages, get rid of /etc/network/options, etc.)
2.  changed /etc/apt/sources.list settings from 'etch' to 'lenny' (I use 
ftp.us.debian.org)
3.  run:
aptitude update
aptitude install apt
aptitude install dpkg
aptitude install aptitude
aptitude dist-upgrade

They all seemed to work fine except:

X didn't work, and I found I had to run:
aptitude install xserver-xorg-video-nv

When I found that aptitude froze after an install in ncurses mode, I ran:

aptitude autoclean
aptitude reinstall apt
aptitude reinstall dpkg
aptitude reinstall aptitude

but that didn't help.

If I understand you correctly, I should try installing the above 
aptitudes (in reverse order?) and then installing some other package 
(any package?).

.... Rich