Bug#308066: dependency problems gone - but maybe a different issue?
ok, it seems that I overestimated the stability and relyability of the
debian package management system somehow. I always thought that
package list updates would overrule ancient dependencies, but
obviously there are certain problems that could not be fixed
automatically. I still don't have any idea how I "catched" those
Ubuntu dependencies, or when. After deinstalling gdm and a whole bunch
of other packages I was able to reinstall them without dependency
problems.
I would feel much better if I knew the reason for the problems. This
computer is used very intensely for all sorts of development work, so
from time to time I depend on installing more exotic software packages
from outer sources. Now my theory is that somewhere out there there
also were some non-standard X packages that happened to have a version
number higher than what I had installed (for example, xbase-client
version 6.4.2 instead of 4.3.0-xxx) and slipped in with some other
update I intended to make, and which I did not recognize because I
could not see from which source this package would come.
Thinking about it, this might be a fairly high security risk, because I
could offer my own debian package source location for my own project
and sneak e.g. gnupg version 3.0.3 into my package list. Well, I don't
know enough about the packaging system, but maybe this would be worth
investigating further.
--
peter koellner <peter@asgalon.net>
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