Mint Debian XFCE - avoid unwanted situations

exaeresis · Post by **exaeresis** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 8:37 am

I have download it twice, and both times I had the same issues. In order to avoid them what you can do is the following. Here are the problems and a possible workaround. It may not be the only one, clearly, likewise it may not even be the best solution.

debian-multimedia unofficial repository

The problem: debian-multimedia repository
- It is added to sources.list by default. It seems to be the culprit of video/sound problems. As you can notice, after installing the mint debian (in this case I had issues with both: xfce and LMDE with gnome) everything seems to work. After you update/upgrade your system, your sound disappears and playing a video on youtube or with any media player results in a speedy video. Actually, I played a 4 minutes youtube video in something like 6 seconds. Without sound, without seeing anything. It just runs quickly with no reason.

How to avoid it?
- What you can do is remove it from sources.list before upgrading your system. So
  Code: Select all
```
sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
```
  remove or put a # before
  deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org testing main non-free
  then
  Code: Select all
```
sudo aptitude update
```
  Code: Select all
```
sudo aptitude upgrade
```

Why?
- As advised by videolan, it seems that this unofficial package repository creates incompatibilities with some libraries so that vlc would be unusable. Actually, as far I have seen it creates problems not just with vlc. What I can tell you is that if you do this you will not have the said problems (sound/video).

What if I already updated?
- In this case they suggest to remove that line from sources.list and after the
  Code: Select all
```
sudo aptitude update
```
  run
  Code: Select all
```
sudo aptitude remove libavutil*
```
  and then
  Code: Select all
```
sudo aptitude install vlc
```
  which would be in this case downloaded from the official repository. However it did not work for me, I could not solve the problem. However you may be lucky. In any case I suggest too to stay with official repositories as far as you can.

Resolving dependencies endless loop.

The problem: Resolving dependencies endless loop.
- I initially though it was somehow related to a damaged image, however when I have download it for the second time, it was clear it could not (checked the md5). It may happen as it may not.
How does it occur?
- As far as I have been able to check, it happens when you give as command:
  Code: Select all
```
sudo aptitude upgrade
```
  or
  Code: Select all
```
sudo aptitude safe-upgrade
```

How do you know it is a problem?
- I do not, actually, "loop" is probably a wrong term since it may happen that it simply may require a lot of time. So this workaround is useful simply if you do not want to "discover" how long it takes. What I saw is that after 30 minutes of "resolving dependencies" and after reaching something about 3 millions, I started wondering if it was normal. Moreover by considering that the actual upgrade was not that huge. I think that as much as it can be messed up, it was taking too long. Furthermore, after reaching the 3 millions the computer started being so damn slow it became unusable (probably related to going out of memory).

How to avoid this situation?
- Use
  Code: Select all
```
sudo aptitude full-upgrade
```
  instead.

What does using the workaround involve?
- Safe-upgrade will not upgrade a package until its dependencies have been updated to the needed version or if upgrading requires removing dependencies other packages need. Full-upgrade is less ambitious, it will upgrade packages even if it means removing dependencies other packages need. So, if we summarize, safe-upgrade has the benefit of creating less likely unwanted situations but it will not upgrade certain packages. Full-upgrade will try somehow to upgrade them all, which means it will be able to upgrade packages that safe-upgrade is not. This does not mean necessarily that it will break your system.