Subject: Re: adding a hard drive
From: James Zuelow (e5z8652@zuelow.net)
Date: Wed Nov 19 2003 - 16:07:05 AKST
On Wed, 19 Nov 2003, James Dory wrote:
>
> Just for fun, I went and copied the complete quote so you can draw your
> own conclusions - as I obviously don't have any experience with this.
> here it is:
>
> solution to my dependancy needs. It wasn't long before I found myself
> needing things outside of the apt repository -- even in the dependancy
> lists of packages inside it! It was probably some sort of temporary
> error or delay, but I wasn't going to wait around. I went to the project
> pages, and upgraded manually.
>
Usually you only see dependency problems with apt if you are runnining
testing or unstable (which do break from time to time), or if you try to
install a package that has many many dependencies as an alternative to
running dselect. (For example, 'apt-get install xgalaga' in an attempt to
force apt to install X for you.) Apt will start to have problems with
dependency trees that are too many layers deep - it kind of assumes that
someone has installed X before they install xgalaga. There is another tool
to use for huge jobs like installing X and KDE and games at the same time
- tasksel, which every Debian user gets the chance to run when they first
install. (Unfortunately many first time users don't realize that they can
run it again any time they like after the install.)
If you really want to use apt for stuff like that, just apt-get install X
and pay attention to the error. It may say "I can't install X because Y
can't be installed." Try apt-get install Y - it may install because the
dependency tree is shorter, or you may have to try installing Z. Once
you get a good install, you just reverse the steps until you're back
at apt-get install X again. Or, use dselect or tasksel to do the same
thing with less typing.
The "score:5 insightful" quote doesn't mention which version of Debian the
author was tracking, or which package(s) he was having trouble with. So
I'd have a hard time ruling out someone who was running unstable but
didn't want to take the time to learn the ins and outs of the tools at
hand. That's bad juju for unstable. (The name "unstable" should be a
clue, but people like to ignore it and complain when it breaks.)
FWIW I install software from source all the time on Debian stable and
testing boxes and never have trouble with apt. I just can't do an `apt-get
uninstall xxx` if I want to ditch it. apt is very well mannered and plays
nice with other software.
Cheers,
James
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2a23 : Wed Nov 19 2003 - 16:16:15 AKST