Some coaching on apt-get and downgrading Package gtk+-2.0
To get to the point quicker, skip over the "Background:" down to "My
question / problem:"
Background:
I'm not really a C or C++ programmer, but I've been working on a program
(well, an addition to an existing program--a lexer for Scintilla for
the Foswiki/ TWiki markup language) and "limping along" well enough but
very slowly.
Yesterday, my build started failing with messages like this:
"Package gtk+-2.0 was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `gtk+-2.0.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'gtk+-2.0' found
make: Nothing to be done for `all'."
It took me a while to realize what must have happened, and then I think
I confirmed it. Earlier that day, I had installed a new version of
Adobe/Shockwave flash by using:
"aptitude install flashplugin-nonfree"
(Aside: It took me a while to get that to work, I finally had to find
the new libflashplayer.so (in a /root directory) and copy it
to /usr/lib/adobe-flashplugin/libflashplayer.so, and then restart
iceweasel. (I'm not sure why it got installed to /root--probably some
mistake I made--maybe having Iceweasel running while I tried the
aptitude install, or maybe it was at some other point I made a
mistake.)
Anyway, I then remembered that during the aptitude install of
flashplugin-nonfree, it deleted and replaced a lot of packages, among
them:
"Preparing to replace libgtk2.0-0 2.12.12-1~lenny1
(using .../libgtk2.0-0_2.18.6-1~bpo50+1_i386.deb) ..."
I think that is the root of my problem, and, iirc, the version of
Scintilla that I'm currently developing in cannot use gtk2.0-0_2.18.
There is work going on to change that, but I'd like to finish my
development work on the older version of Scintilla before contending
with an upgrade.
My question / problem:
So, I think what I have to do
is "downgrade" /libgtk2.0-0_2.18.6-1~bpo50+1_i386.deb back to
libgtk2.0-0 2.12.12-1~lenny.
I'll be reading man pages and googling, but I'd like to do that with a
minimum of learning (i.e., with a minimum of mistakes), so I'm seeking
advice.
I guess there is a slight chance that all I have to do is, as one of the
make messages says:
"Perhaps you should add the directory containing `gtk+-2.0.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable"
I.e., find the PKG_CONFIG_PATH and point it to the directory containing
the new /libgtk2.0-0_2.18.6-1~bpo50+1_i386.deb instead of the old
libgtk2.0-0 2.12.12-1~lenny (but, I would have thought they'd both be
on the same path). Let me look into that a little bit before sending
this email...
Ok, I'm back. I hoped/thought that aptitude (or apt-get) had something
a "what provides" command which would tell me what package I need to
install for `gtk+-2.0.pc', but maybe I'm remembering that from my
Mandriva days.
I tried "aptitude install gtk+-2.0.pc" but that tells me:
"Couldn't find any package whose name or description
matched "gtk+-2.0.pc""
So, I'll send this and keep digging.
Randy Kramer
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