Bug#145916: apt-get build-dep: broken packages

[Ross Boylan <RossBoylan@stanfordalumni.org>]

Package: apt
Version: 0.5.4
Severity: normal

wheat:/usr/local/rootlog# apt-get -u build-dep gnucash
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
E: Some broken packages were found while trying to process build-dependencies.
You might want to run `apt-get -f install' to correct these.

apt-get -f install doesn't help.  I've got this error with several
other packages too.

I think this is the same kind of problem as bug #137560, and it points to a couple
of issues: first, for apt, the error message isn't very helpful or informative.
It would be better to say what is broken.  Ideally, it would indicate what
package should have a bug filed against it.  Or perhaps it could
suggest the Debug::pkgProblemResolver=yes option I used below for diagnosis.

This might also indicate some packaging problems with woody, though I
think I've traced the problem to an old ximian package I have (see
below). I don't know how to fix it, though.

I'm basically on woody, but have some packages installed from sid
source. Quite awhile ago I was getting stuff direct from ximian, and a
few pieces remain.

I did try one trick from #137560, and here's the report:
wheat:/usr/local/rootlog# apt-get -o Debug::pkgProblemResolver=yes build-dep gnucash
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Starting
Starting 2
Investigating libunicode-dev
Package libunicode-dev has broken dep on libunicode0
  Considering libunicode0 1 as a solution to libunicode-dev 1
  Holding Back libunicode-dev rather than change libunicode0
Investigating libgal-dev
Package libgal-dev has broken dep on libunicode-dev
  Considering libunicode-dev 1 as a solution to libgal-dev 3
  Holding Back libgal-dev rather than change libunicode-dev
Investigating libgtkhtml-dev
Package libgtkhtml-dev has broken dep on libgal-dev
  Considering libgal-dev 3 as a solution to libgtkhtml-dev 9999
    Reinst Failed early because of libunicode0
    Reinst Failed because of libunicode-dev
Investigating libguppi-dev
Package libguppi-dev has broken dep on libgal-dev
  Considering libgal-dev 3 as a solution to libguppi-dev 9999
Done
E: Some broken packages were found while trying to process build-dependencies.
You might want to run `apt-get -f install' to correct these.

Hmm, I still have an old ximian package:
ii  libunicode0    0.4.0-helix3   The GNOME Unicode library.

So I think the problem is the current Debian version of libunicode0
(0.4.0-2) compares as earlier than 0.4.0-helix3, and libunicode-dev
requires exactly the Debian version.  This in turn generates the other
problems. 

Can anyone tell me how to get the debian version in?  I tried:
   wheat:/usr/local/rootlog# apt-get install libunicode0
   Reading Package Lists... Done
   Building Dependency Tree... Done
   Sorry, libunicode0 is already the newest version.

and

   wheat:/usr/local/rootlog# apt-get --reinstall install libunicode0
   Reading Package Lists... Done
   Building Dependency Tree... Done
   Sorry, re-installation of libunicode0 is not possible, it cannot be
   downloaded.

I'm guessing the latter is caused by apt looking for the ximian
package while ximian is not in my sources.list anymore.


-- System Information
Debian Release: 3.0
Architecture: i386
Kernel: Linux wheat 2.4.18 #1 Sat May 4 10:07:13 PDT 2002 i686
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C

Versions of packages apt depends on:
ii  libc6                         2.2.5-4    GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libstdc++2.10-glibc2.2        1:2.95.4-7 The GNU stdc++ library



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