the upgrade totally screw up my system

[prisma]

I was at work, had a calm morning so I decided to click the upgrade notification item on my Mate desktop. Little I knew about the troubles I would run into.

When the packages were being installed, the upgrade application froze. I had to restart the computer and now my system is a mess.

A lot of software was removed and things like themes and iconsets are missing. But the worst is that someapplications are missing and I cant re-install them. I can't install anything because everything results in broken dependencies error messages.

any tip on how to start diagnose/solve the problems?

[kc1di]

I was at work, had a calm morning so I decided to click the upgrade notification item on my Mate desktop. Little I knew about the troubles I would run into.

When the packages were being installed, the upgrade application froze. I had to restart the computer and now my system is a mess.

A lot of software was removed and things like themes and iconsets are missing. But the worst is that someapplications are missing and I cant re-install them. I can't install anything because everything results in broken dependencies error messages.

any tip on how to start diagnose/solve the problems?

go to a terminal if possible and try these commands (one at a time):

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sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt-get autoclean


Then these:

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sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/* -vf
sudo apt-get update

see if you can install packages again.

[prisma]

still getting broken dependencies


for example

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pedro@pedro-hplaptop:~$ sudo apt-get install pidgin
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 pidgin : Depends: libfontconfig1 (>= 2.9.0) but 2.8.0-2.1ubuntu3 is to be installed
E: Broken packages
pedro@pedro-hplaptop:~$
pedro@pedro-hplaptop:~$
pedro@pedro-hplaptop:~$
pedro@pedro-hplaptop:~$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian wheezy main
deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ debian main upstream import
deb http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest testing main contrib non-free
deb http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest/security testing/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest/multimedia testing main non-free
deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free

#google chrome
deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ stable non-free main
pedro@pedro-hplaptop:~$


I included a dump of my sources.list, looks normal as you can see


This has happen to me quite a few times, I usually fail to solve the problem other way than reinstalling the os and replacing my home dir. I love the debian comunity, but this this is a bit off putting. It feels like an upgrade is a gamble that most likely will result in troubles.

Anyway... can anyone enlighten me... this shouldn't be unsolvable, my system was working smoothly just a few hours ago, all I did was trying to upgrade.

[craigevil]

Please post the output of:

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inxi -Sr

[zerozero]

actually it doesn't look normal at all

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deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian wheezy main

is not part of the default repos, you putted it there, (you should know why) and now it's conflicting with the default (debian.linuxmint/latest) repos.
disable that repo, update and dist-upgrade, luckily you won't have any broken pkg in the way.

[prisma]

You are right. I remember now. I added that repo because I needed to install mysql workbench.

I removed it now and was able to install a couple of things, but there are many broken dependencies anyway. Looks like I really screw up my system by leaving a debian repository there.
However, this is a bit confusing, LMDE is compatible with debian, that is stated in the FAQ. What exactly does 'compatible' mean in that context?

[zerozero]

it is compatible with debian testing but since the introduction of the UP http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1781 lmde has a delay to testing and it causes issues like the one(s) you are seeing.

[prisma]

it is compatible with debian testing but since the introduction of the UP http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1781 lmde has a delay to testing and it causes issues like the one(s) you are seeing.

Far be it from me to making demands on the efforts off the good people that put together free software such as linux distribution, but I think the compatibility claim is simply false. Maybe in the past it was true, not anymore.
I was careful enough to choose a repo of the same debian distribution LMDE is based on, the one that is supposedly compatible with LMDE, yet it still cause problems to the extent of rendering my system almost unusable. Why is it stated in the front page with neon lights that I can use debian repositories if I clearly can't?


Quote from http://www.linuxmint.com/download_lmde.php/

2. Is LMDE fully compatible with Debian?
Yes, 100%. LMDE is compatible with repositories designed for Debian Testing.

[zerozero]

prisma,
- the claim is not false, lmde is 100% compatible with debian testing, surely it's not compatible with ubuntu or fedora or arch;
- the UP introduced a buffer between lmde (latest/incoming) and debian testing that can cause issues if not handle properly;