Bug#253172: xserver-xfree86: Cannot install (preinst fails)
# bts control commands
package xserver-xfree86
severity 253172 normal
merge 253172 249447
thanks
On Mon, 2004-06-07 at 18:03, Philipp wrote:
> Package: xserver-xfree86
> Version: 4.3.0.dfsg.1-4
> Severity: critical
> Justification: breaks the whole system
Hi,
> When trying to install xserver-xfree86, the install fails with the error
> message that the preinstallation script returned with error code 127.
> Trying to use 4.3.0.dfsg.1-1 instead results in the same problem; however
> with earlier versions (before .dfsg, but don't ask me the exact version)
> i never had this problem. Purging the package (and xserver-common) does
> not help.
This issue has already been reported five times (see bug #249447 and the
reports merged to it).
The exit status 127 is returned by the `discover' program, which
xserver-xfree86 calls to try and auto-detect your hardware.
Unfortunately, a recent upload of one of the libraries used by discover
(libcurl2, to be precise) incorrectly broke backward compatibility,
hence discover fails.
There's a patch in Debian's X SVN repository to workaround the issue
(http://lists.debian.org/debian-x/2004/06/msg00123.html) which will be
included in the next release. However, the easiest workaround is to
make sure that your curl / libcurl2 packages are not the version that
caused the issue (7.12.0-1); any other version should work fine.
> This is a critical issue because i nowadays use X clients quite
> regularly. :)
IMHO, this bug is not at all critical according to the definition given
on <http://www.debian.org/Bugs/Developer#severities>. `important' would
potentially be justifiable, but would still be too high imo as the
problem is not caused by this package and installing it from either
current testing (`sarge') or current unstable (`sid') will work fine.
Downgrading this report to `normal' in order to merge it with the other
reports.
Regards,
Adam
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