Re: Aptitude is broken
On Sat, 08 Aug 2015 10:43:49 -0400
Frank McCormick <debianlist@videotron.ca> wrote:
> I am running Debian Sid and for the past 4 or 5 days I have had to
> switch from using aptitude to upgrade to using apt-get.
>
> This is what I get:
>
> root@frank-debian:/home/frank# aptitude
> aptitude: symbol lookup error: aptitude: undefined symbol:
> _ZN7cwidget7widgets5pager8set_textERKSsPKc
> root@frank-debian:/home/frank#
>
> There are a bunch of packages being held:
>
> The following packages have been kept back:
> appstream-index aptitude aptitude-common exiv2
> gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer1.0-plugins-good libappstream2
> libexiv2-dev libpcre16-3 libpcre3 libpcre3-dev
> libpcre32-3 libsigc++-2.0-dev libtagc0 thunar-media-tags-plugin
> vlc vlc-nox vlc-plugin-notify
> vlc-plugin-samba
>
> I imagine this will eventually be resolved but my question is
> this: is there any danger in switching back and forth from
> aptitude to apt-get in updating my install.
>
>
>
Not in general, just do an update first before the upgrade. I believe
they use the same database and cache, they just keep different
meta-data. My aptitude on Sid is still OK, by the way, both 32 bit and
64 bit versions, and indeed both aptitude and apt are on my currently
non-upgradeable list. I now have more than 150 packages in that state,
and the upgrade versions of two major packages are terminally buggy on
amd64. Presumably all will be well one day...
You could try purging and reinstalling that particular version of
aptitude if you're bored, or if apt also breaks. I normally use
aptitude, but am currently using Synaptic to pick out the few
upgradeable packages each day.
I have a couple of Sid installations which only get upgraded every
few months, for which I use apt-get, as it seems to handle that
magnitude of task more comfortably than aptitude. I've seen aptitude
choke to death on six or eight months' worth of Sid upgrades, and when
it doesn't it's painfully slow.
--
Joe
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