Subject: Re: adding a hard drive
From: Greg Madden (pabi@gci.net)
Date: Wed Nov 19 2003 - 18:35:04 AKST
On Wed, 2003-11-19 at 16:07, James Zuelow wrote:
>
>
>
> 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.)
\
Good point, also anything that is run or done during the install can be
done later. The command is not always intuitive, you do need to follow
along during the install to catch some of them.
>
> 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
'apt-get remove xxx' works for Debian packages, if that is what you
meant. I use 'dpkg -P(purge) xxx' to remove & get rid of configuration
files.
-- Greg Madden Precision Air Balance, Inc. Phone: 907-276-0461 email: pabi@gci.net--------- To unsubscribe, send email to <aklug-request@aklug.org> with 'unsubscribe' in the message body.
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