an LMDE newbie's experience installing from DVD

[TomRoche]

summary: For the benefit of future newbies, and for LMDE maintainers trying to ease the newbie experience, here's my recent experience, with pointers to Things You Should Know (that I wish I had).

details:

After upgrading my 64-bit laptop to Natty and my GF's desktop to Katya, I was ready to try a rolling release on my laptop. So I imaged the Natty and downloaded and burned the latest LMDE DVD, which @ that point was 201012. However I later discovered that there were newer ISOs not on the release page which apparently are helpful, so my first Note for Newbies is,

• Before just installing whatever is on the download page, get on this forum and ask if there's anything newer.

Similarly, my first Message for Maintainers is,

• Consider making test ISOs available by links from the download page.

I booted the DVD and started the install. One thing that was disconcerting: it wanted a lowercase hostname (which later caused problems with duplicity). Other than that, it went well, since I had longago partitioned /home separately from the rest of the system. This allowed the installer to just

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System settings
...
  Install bootloader in /dev/sda
Filesystem operations
  Format /dev/sda1 (477) as ext4
  Format /dev/sda2 (19074) as ext4
  Mount /dev/sda1 as /boot
  Mount /dev/sda2 as /
  Mount /dev/sda3 as swap
  Mount /dev/sda5 as /home

in about 1 hour. So next Note for Newbies is

• For ease of install (et al), partition your disk appropriately. Minimally, /home and / should be on separate partitions.

After restart, LMDE came up networking and apparently my $HOME was OK, but ... no emacs! So first I had to install that. Unfortunately

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$ sudo aptitude install emacs

did not go at all well! giving errors I had never seen before, like

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Err http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ testing/main emacs23-common all 23.2+1-5.1
  404  Not Found [IP: 130.89.149.226 80]
Err http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ testing/main emacs23-bin-common amd64 23.2+1-5.1
  404  Not Found [IP: 130.89.149.226 80]
Err http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ testing/main emacs23 amd64 23.2+1-5.1
  404  Not Found [IP: 130.89.149.226 80]
Err http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ testing/main emacs all 23.2+1-5.1
  404  Not Found [IP: 130.89.149.226 80]

Being credulous, I thought this meant Debian was down :-) and proceeded to another task (install some vendor-specific drivers for my hardware), which succeeded. I then wanted to install the latest LMDE Update Pack. But that didn't work, because I couldn't install the LMDE Update Manager, because I couldn't find package=mintupdate-debian, for the same reason I couldn't find package=emacs: APT was totally hosed.

Being determined to solve this problem myself, I read and googled and fiddled, and basically wasted a day before posting to the LMDE forum, whereupon I got very prompt help from zerozero (in whose general direction I bow): turns out, before one can install LMDE Update Manager, one must create /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/80mintupdate-debian and then update the package cache (e.g.,

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$ sudo aptitude update

). So my next Note for Newbies is

• If you encounter a problem, try solving it yourself, but if it takes too long, punt to the fine folks @ the LMDE forum.

I then installed LMDE Update Manager and the latest update pack. Unfortunately at that point, I had 69 broken packages (another thing I'd never seen while on ubuntu). I guessed it was up to me to fix this (having lead much about how running LMDE requires one to be more adept with APT), so, again, I read and googled and fiddled, and wasted more time (not another learning experience!) before again posting to the LMDE forum, whereupon I again got very prompt help from zerozero (whose name I plan to give my firstborn son or daughter :-) Turns out this was a known problem, for which the fix was (using `apt-get`, which is more suitable for major system upgrades)

• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
• ... which dies ugly in `samba`, like

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  Preparing to replace samba 2:3.5.6~dfsg-1 (using .../samba_2%3a3.5.8~dfsg-5_amd64.deb) ...
  Stopping Samba daemons: nmbd smbd.
  Unpacking replacement samba ...
  Can't locate File/Temp.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1 /usr/local/share/perl/5.10.1 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.10 /usr/share/perl/5.10 /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at /usr/share/perl5/DebianNet.pm line 18.
  BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/perl5/DebianNet.pm line 18.
  Compilation failed in require at /usr/sbin/update-inetd line 23.
  dpkg: warning: subprocess old post-removal script returned error exit status 2
  dpkg - trying script from the new package instead ...
  Can't locate File/Temp.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1 /usr/local/share/perl/5.10.1 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.10 /usr/share/perl/5.10 /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at /usr/share/perl5/DebianNet.pm line 18.
  BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/perl5/DebianNet.pm line 18.
  Compilation failed in require at /usr/sbin/update-inetd line 23.
  dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/samba_2%3a3.5.8~dfsg-5_amd64.deb (--unpack):
   subprocess new post-removal script returned error exit status 2
  configured to not write apport reports
                                        Can't locate File/Temp.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1 /usr/local/share/perl/5.10.1 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.10 /usr/share/perl/5.10 /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at /usr/share/perl5/DebianNet.pm line 18.
  BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/perl5/DebianNet.pm line 18.
  Compilation failed in require at /usr/sbin/update-inetd line 23.
  dpkg: error while cleaning up:
   subprocess new post-removal script returned error exit status 2
  Preparing to replace samba-common 2:3.5.6~dfsg-1 (using .../samba-common_2%3a3.5.8~dfsg-5_all.deb) ...
  Unpacking replacement samba-common ...
  Preparing to replace libacl1 2.2.49-4 (using .../libacl1_2.2.51-3_amd64.deb) ...
  Unpacking replacement libacl1 ...
  Processing triggers for man-db ...
  Errors were encountered while processing:
   /var/cache/apt/archives/samba_2%3a3.5.8~dfsg-5_amd64.deb
  E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

• to fix that: `sudo apt-get -f install`
• ... which dies ugly in `initramfs-tools`, like

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  update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-amd64
  cp: cannot stat `/lib/libacl*': No such file or directory
  E: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/live failed with return 1.
  update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-amd64
  dpkg: error processing initramfs-tools (--configure):
   subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
  configured to not write apport reports
                                        Processing triggers for menu ...
  Errors were encountered while processing:
   initramfs-tools
  E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

• and then, once more: `sudo apt-get dist-upgrade`

Unfortunately that died in pretty much the same way, just more scary:

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cp: cannot stat `/lib/libacl*': No such file or directory
E: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/live failed with return 1.
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-amd64 with 1.
dpkg: error processing initramfs-tools (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
configured to not write apport reports
                                      Errors were encountered while processing:
 linux-image-2.6.39-2-amd64
 linux-image-2.6-amd64
 initramfs-tools
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

After trying several more things, and failing several more ways, I knew the libacl problem needed solving. I found package=libacl1, but couldn't install it--it was allegedly already installed! This post that suggested I could remove it, but that failed for me, as did everything else I tried (including brute-force `dpkg`). Eventually, I took the hint:

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cp: cannot stat `/lib/libacl*': No such file or directory

and decided, "OK, I'll give you a @#$%^&! /lib/libacl*, you @$%^&!" Which was easy enough, though still scary. Unfortunately I couldn't find a libacl* to link to (nothing binary, anyway). Eventually I realized that I could get libacl1.so from package=libacl1-dev:

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me@it:~$ sudo apt-get -f install libacl1-dev
...
> The following extra packages will be installed:
>   libattr1-dev
> The following NEW packages will be installed:
>   libacl1-dev libattr1-dev
> 0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
> 3 not fully installed or removed.
...
> cp: cannot stat `/lib/libacl*': No such file or directory
> E: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/live failed with return 1.
> update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-amd64 with 1.
> dpkg: error processing initramfs-tools (--configure):
>  subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
> configured to not write apport reports
>                                       Errors were encountered while processing:
>  linux-image-2.6.39-2-amd64
>  linux-image-2.6-amd64
>  initramfs-tools
> E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
me@it:~$ sudo find /usr -name 'libacl*'
> /usr/lib/libacl.a
> /usr/lib/libacl.so
> /usr/include/acl/libacl.h
> /usr/share/doc/libacl1
> /usr/share/doc/libacl1-dev
me@it:~$ ls -al /lib | wc -l
> 102
me@it:~$ ls -al /lib | head
> lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root      21 Aug 14 21:57 cpp -> /etc/alternatives/cpp
> drwxr-xr-x  2 root root    4096 Nov 23  2010 discover
> drwxr-xr-x 26 root root   12288 Aug 16 17:22 firmware
> drwxr-xr-x  3 root root    4096 Aug 16 16:17 init
> -rwxr-xr-x  1 root root   70280 Jul  7 19:11 klibc-CKEGzq4p8zxB3hJ8pZZJ754zXN4.so
> lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root      27 Aug 14 21:46 ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 -> x86_64-linux-gnu/ld-2.13.so
> lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root      20 Feb  7  2011 libatasmart.so.4 -> libatasmart.so.4.0.3
me@it:/lib$ sudo ln -s ../usr/lib/libacl.so ./
me@it:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade -f dist-upgrade
...
> The following packages have been kept back:
>   gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg
> 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
> 3 not fully installed or removed.
> After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
> Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
> Setting up initramfs-tools (0.99) ...
> update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
> Setting up linux-image-2.6.39-2-amd64 (2.6.39-3) ...
> Running depmod.
> vmlinuz(/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-2-amd64
> ) points to /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-2-amd64
>  (/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-2-amd64) -- doing nothing at /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-image-2.6.39-2-amd64.postinst line 346, <STDIN> line 7.
> The link /initrd.img is a dangling linkto /boot/initrd.img-2.6.39-2-amd64
> Examining /etc/kernel/postinst.d.
> run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/dkms 2.6.39-2-amd64 /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-2-amd64
> dkms: running auto installation service for kernel 2.6.39-2-amd64:
>       ndiswrapper (1.56+r2729)...done.
> run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools 2.6.39-2-amd64 /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-2-amd64
> update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.39-2-amd64
> cp: cannot stat `/lib/libattr*': No such file or directory
me@it:~$ sudo find /usr -name 'libattr*'
> /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libattr.a
> /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libattr.so
> /usr/include/attr/libattr.h
> /usr/share/doc/libattr1-dev
> /usr/share/doc/libattr1
me@it:~$ pushd /lib
me@it:/lib$ sudo ln -s ../usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libattr.so ./
me@it:/lib$ popd
me@it:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade -f dist-upgrade
...
> The following packages have been kept back:
>   gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg
> 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
> 3 not fully installed or removed.
> After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
> Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
> Setting up initramfs-tools (0.99) ...
> update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
> Setting up linux-image-2.6.39-2-amd64 (2.6.39-3) ...
> Running depmod.
> vmlinuz(/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-2-amd64
> ) points to /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-2-amd64
>  (/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-2-amd64) -- doing nothing at /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-image-2.6.39-2-amd64.postinst line 346, <STDIN> line 7.
> The link /initrd.img is a dangling linkto /boot/initrd.img-2.6.39-2-amd64
> Examining /etc/kernel/postinst.d.
> run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/dkms 2.6.39-2-amd64 /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-2-amd64
> dkms: running auto installation service for kernel 2.6.39-2-amd64:
>       ndiswrapper (1.56+r2729)...done.
> run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools 2.6.39-2-amd64 /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-2-amd64
> update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.39-2-amd64
> ldconfig: /lib/libuuid.so.1 is not a symbolic link
>
> run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/pm-utils 2.6.39-2-amd64 /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-2-amd64
> run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-update-grub 2.6.39-2-amd64 /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-2-amd64
> Generating grub.cfg ...
> Found background image: linuxmint.png
> Found Debian background: linuxmint.png
> Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-2-amd64
> Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.39-2-amd64
> Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-amd64
> Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-amd64
> done
> Setting up linux-image-2.6-amd64 (2.6.39+35.1) ...
> Processing triggers for initramfs-tools ...
> update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.39-2-amd64
> ldconfig: /lib/libuuid.so.1 is not a symbolic link

At which point I tried to restart with

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$ sudo shutdown -r now

but couldn't! The screen went black and hung for several minutes. That was really scary, but I regained sphincter control, did Alt-SysRq-[REISUB] (which restarted the box), then did a clean power-down (with

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$ sudo shutdown -Ph now

) and powered back up. Later I learned (from you know who) that the fix was to remove package=kexec-tools.

At this point you should have a fairly functional system (I do, though I still have a few broken packages) with a fairly up-to-date kernel. So my final Notes for Newbies are

• If you hang in restart, "Reboot Even If System Utterly Broken", and then

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  $ sudo aptitude remove kexec-tools

• zerozero is a god who walks the earth !-)

[zerozero]

what can i say you did the dirty work all by yourself
so, kudos to you for getting it up and running
and please, don't do that to your children

p.s.
now on a serious note, try

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aptitude show live-initramfs

is it installed? do you think you need it? try

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sudo aptitude remove live-initramfs

amd now update and upgrade and see if you still get errors or broken pkgs.

[TomRoche]

try

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aptitude show live-initramfs

is it installed? do you think you need it? try

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sudo aptitude remove live-initramfs

amd now update and upgrade and see if you still get errors or broken pkgs.

No errors (but I didn't have them before), but still broken packages:

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me@it:~$ aptitude show live-initramfs
> Package: live-initramfs
> New: yes
> State: installed
...
me@it:~$ sudo aptitude remove live-initramfs
> The following packages will be REMOVED:
>   live-initramfs
> 0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
...
me@it:~$ sudo aptitude update ; sudo aptitude -s full-upgrade
...
> No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.
...
me@it:~$ sudo aptitude search ?broken
> iB  acl            - Access control list utilities
> iB  coreutils      - GNU core utilities
> iB  cups           - Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - server
> iB  libacl1-dev    - Access control list static libraries and headers
> iB  libarchive1    - Single library to read/write tar, cpio, pax, zip, iso9660, etc.
> iB  libgnomevfs2-0 - GNOME Virtual File System (runtime libraries)
> iB  libisofs6      - library to create ISO9660 images
> iB  ntfs-3g        - read-write NTFS driver for FUSE
> iB  rsync          - fast remote file copy program (like rcp)
> iB  samba          - SMB/CIFS file, print, and login server for Unix

How to debug what's breaking them? Those all seem ACL-related, which reminds me of the problems I had with libacl1 (e.g., from first post in the thread):

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[$] sudo apt-get -f install
[...]
cp: cannot stat `/lib/libacl*': No such file or directory
E: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/live failed with return 1.
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-amd64
dpkg: error processing initramfs-tools (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
configured to not write apport reports
                                      Processing triggers for menu ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 initramfs-tools
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Hmm ...

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me@it:~$ aptitude show libacl1
Package: libacl1
State: installed
Automatically installed: no
Version: 2.2.51-3
Priority: required
Section: libs
Maintainer: Anibal Monsalve Salazar <anibal@debian.org>
Uncompressed Size: 98.3 k
Depends: libattr1 (>= 2.4.46-2), libc6 (>= 2.2.5)
PreDepends: multiarch-support
Conflicts: acl (< 2.0.0), libacl1-kerberos4kth
Description: Access control list shared library
 This package contains the libacl.so dynamic library containing the POSIX 1003.1e draft standard 17 functions for manipulating access control lists.
Homepage: http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/acl/

But

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me@it:~$ sudo aptitude install acl
No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.
me@it:~$ aptitude show acl
Package: acl
New: yes
State: installed
Automatically installed: no
Version: 2.2.51-3
Priority: optional
Section: utils
Maintainer: Anibal Monsalve Salazar <anibal@debian.org>
Uncompressed Size: 303 k
Depends: libacl1 (>= 2.2.51-3), libattr1 (>= 2.4.46-2), libc6 (>= 2.2.5)

It does seem odd that

• libacl1 says it conflicts with "acl (< 2.0.0)"
• acl reports version=2.2.51-3

yet that doesn't tell me what to do about it. My APT ignorance is showing again :-( Any suggestions?

[TomRoche]

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me@it:~$ sudo aptitude search ?broken
> iB  acl            - Access control list utilities
> iB  coreutils      - GNU core utilities
> iB  cups           - Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - server
> iB  libacl1-dev    - Access control list static libraries and headers
> iB  libarchive1    - Single library to read/write tar, cpio, pax, zip, iso9660, etc.
> iB  libgnomevfs2-0 - GNOME Virtual File System (runtime libraries)
> iB  libisofs6      - library to create ISO9660 images
> iB  ntfs-3g        - read-write NTFS driver for FUSE
> iB  rsync          - fast remote file copy program (like rcp)
> iB  samba          - SMB/CIFS file, print, and login server for Unix

Some more data:

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for PACKAGE in $(aptitude -F "%p" search ?broken) ; do
  for CMD in \
    "apt-cache policy ${PACKAGE}" \
    "aptitude why ${PACKAGE}" \
  ; do
    echo -e "${CMD}"
    eval "${CMD}"
  done
  echo
done

> apt-cache policy acl
> acl:
>   Installed: 2.2.51-3
>   Candidate: 2.2.51-3
>   Version table:
>  *** 2.2.51-3 0
>         500 http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest/ testing/main amd64 Packages
>         100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
> aptitude why acl
> i   libsane Depends acl (>= 2.2.49-4)

> apt-cache policy coreutils
> coreutils:
>   Installed: 8.5-1
>   Candidate: 8.5-1
>   Version table:
>  *** 8.5-1 0
>         500 http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest/ testing/main amd64 Packages
>         100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
> aptitude why coreutils
> i   xinit Depends coreutils (>= 7.4-1)

> apt-cache policy cups
> cups:
>   Installed: 1.4.6-9
>   Candidate: 1.4.6-9
>   Version table:
>  *** 1.4.6-9 0
>         500 http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest/ testing/main amd64 Packages
>         100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
> aptitude why cups
> i   cups-driver-gutenprint Depends cups (>= 1.3.0)

> apt-cache policy libacl1-dev
> libacl1-dev:
>   Installed: 2.2.51-3
>   Candidate: 2.2.51-3
>   Version table:
>  *** 2.2.51-3 0
>         500 http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest/ testing/main amd64 Packages
>         100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
> aptitude why libacl1-dev
> Unable to find a reason to install libacl1-dev.

> apt-cache policy libarchive1
> libarchive1:
>   Installed: 2.8.4-1
>   Candidate: 2.8.4-1
>   Version table:
>  *** 2.8.4-1 0
>         500 http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest/ testing/main amd64 Packages
>         100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
> aptitude why libarchive1
> i   libtotem-plparser17 Depends libarchive1 (>= 2.0.25)

> apt-cache policy libgnomevfs2-0
> libgnomevfs2-0:
>   Installed: 1:2.24.4-1
>   Candidate: 1:2.24.4-1
>   Version table:
>  *** 1:2.24.4-1 0
>         500 http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest/ testing/main amd64 Packages
>         100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
> aptitude why libgnomevfs2-0
> i   lock-keys-applet Depends libgnomevfs2-0 (>= 1:2.17.90)

> apt-cache policy libisofs6
> libisofs6:
>   Installed: 1.1.2-1
>   Candidate: 1.1.2-1
>   Version table:
>  *** 1.1.2-1 0
>         500 http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest/ testing/main amd64 Packages
>         100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
> aptitude why libisofs6
> i   libbrasero-media0 Depends libisofs6 (>= 0.6.14)

> apt-cache policy ntfs-3g
> ntfs-3g:
>   Installed: 1:2011.1.15AR.4+2011.4.12-2
>   Candidate: 1:2011.1.15AR.4+2011.4.12-2
>   Version table:
>  *** 1:2011.1.15AR.4+2011.4.12-2 0
>         500 http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest/ testing/main amd64 Packages
>         100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
> aptitude why ntfs-3g
> i   udisks Recommends ntfs-3g

> apt-cache policy rsync
> rsync:
>   Installed: 3.0.8-1
>   Candidate: 3.0.8-1
>   Version table:
>  *** 3.0.8-1 0
>         500 http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest/ testing/main amd64 Packages
>         100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
> aptitude why rsync
> i   live-tools Suggests rsync

> apt-cache policy samba
> samba:
>   Installed: 2:3.5.8~dfsg-5
>   Candidate: 2:3.5.8~dfsg-5
>   Version table:
>  *** 2:3.5.8~dfsg-5 0
>         500 http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest/ testing/main amd64 Packages
>         100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
> aptitude why samba
> i   nautilus-share Suggests samba (>= 3.0.27a)

These all seem like things I'd want--definitely samba (gotta cope with M$), rsync (my backup scripts use), libgnomevfs2-0 (I want lock-keys-applet, or something with same function), cups (gotta print), coreutils (who wouldn't want that?). libacl1-dev I only want because of the install problem (see above).

Code: Select all

for PACKAGE in $(aptitude -F "%p" search ?broken) ; do
  for CMD in \
    "sudo aptitude install -f ${PACKAGE}" \
  ; do
    echo -e "${CMD}"
    eval "${CMD}"
  done
  echo
done

just repeats

Code: Select all

> No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.

So I'm confused. Why does `aptitude` think these packages are broken? If it's wrong (i.e., the packages are not broken), how do I correct its misperception? If it's correct, how do I fix the packages, if `aptitude` won't force install?

[Fred]

Greetings & Salutations Tom,

You have shown a lot of perseverance and I commend you for your efforts.

I do have a tip for you that may save you some grief in the future. Don't mix "apt-get" and "aptitude" in Debian. "apt-get" is a lower level tool than "aptitude." Even though "aptitude" uses a subset of "apt-get" it keeps its own database and tries harder to solve issues than "apt-get."

For Debian stable and most of the time for Debian testing this is a good thing. But sometimes "aptitude" guesses wrong and you have to revert to "apt-get." This can lead to the "apt-get" and "aptitude" databases getting out of sync. Then neither tool knows exactly what is installed and what isn't.

Pick one tool and stick with it. I play with sid a lot and tend to be old school so I use "apt-get." If you use "aptitude" and it fails you then just wait a while and the problem should go away when all the right packages migrate into testing.

Enjoy!

Fred

[zerozero]

Hi TomRoche,
as Fred said, and i believe i already said that somewhere on your threads as well, is not really a good idea to mix apt and aptitude (and Fred gave you a better explanation why)
back in the mist of time i tried to approach this subject (apt vs aptitude) http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... itude#wrap with lousy skills (mine )

now, as for your system, as soon as you nuked live-initramfs, i believe the problem is solved, and you can see that because aptitude reports a sane update;
that live-initramfs thingy is a leftover from the live install

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aptitude show live-initramfs
Package: live-initramfs                  
New: yes
State: not installed
Version: 1.236.2-1
Priority: optional
Section: misc
Maintainer: Debian Live Project <debian-live@lists.debian.org>
Uncompressed Size: 512 k
Depends: busybox, file, initramfs-tools, sudo, udev, user-setup
Recommends: cryptsetup, eject, rsync, uuid-runtime, wget
Suggests: loop-aes-utils, curlftpfs, genext2fs (>= 1.4.1), httpfs2,
          squashfs-tools, mtd-tools, unionfs-fuse
Description: Debian Live initramfs hook
 live-initramfs is a hook for the initramfs-tools, used to generate a initramfs
 capable to boot live systems, such as those created by live-helper. This
 includes the Debian Live isos, netboot tarballs, and usb stick images. 
 
 At boot time it will look for a (read-only) media containing a "/live"
 directory where a root filesystems (often a compressed filesystem image like
 squashfs) is stored. If found, it will create a writable environment, using
 aufs or unionfs, for Debian like systems to boot from. 
 
 You probably do not want to install this package onto a non-live system,
 although it will do no harm. 
 
 live-initramfs is a fork of casper <http://packages.ubuntu.com/casper/>.
Homepage: http://live.debian.net/devel/live-initramfs/

so has no business in an installed system, imho

the reported broken pkgs aptitude shows:
1- i think (and you will tell me better) they are mostly pkgs you installed though apt (and we go back to what Fred said

This can lead to the "apt-get" and "aptitude" databases getting out of sync. Then neither tool knows exactly what is installed and what isn't

2- my system is working pretty well for months (and i use apt) but this moment aptitude shows this

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sudo aptitude search ?broken
[sudo] password for amadeu: 
iB  firefox-l10n-en-gb              - British language packs for Firefox        
pB  firefox-l10n-en-us              - American language packs for Firefox       
iB  gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly      - GStreamer plugins from the "ugly" set     
pB  live-installer                  - Live Installer                            
pB  mint-meta-debian                - All the packages installed by default in t
iB  ntfs-3g                         - read/write NTFS driver for FUSE   

so not to worry about, i think

[TomRoche]

moving to new thread

The apt-get/aptitude topic seems specific enough for its own thread, so I've moved that here. Meanwhile,

a tip for you that may save you some grief in the future. Don't mix "apt-get" and "aptitude" in Debian.

I hear you, and I've been reading that. That being said, the strategy detailed midway through this post worked for me through several ubuntu cycles (including server back to ~2006).

my system is working pretty well for months (and i use apt) but this moment aptitude shows this

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sudo aptitude search ?broken
[sudo] password for amadeu:
iB  firefox-l10n-en-gb              - British language packs for Firefox
pB  firefox-l10n-en-us              - American language packs for Firefox
iB  gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly      - GStreamer plugins from the "ugly" set
pB  live-installer                  - Live Installer
pB  mint-meta-debian                - All the packages installed by default in t
iB  ntfs-3g                         - read/write NTFS driver for FUSE   

so not to worry about, i think

I agree in the sense that my box and yours are functional. But this seems like it should be fixable, and I have some ideas about that in this post: see Q1-Q3 at end.

In any case, thanks for your assistance, Fred and zerozero!

[dexxyy]

Well done for sticking at it, but, seriously, why not cut out the middle-man and go with Debian? Just curious.

[TomRoche]

why not cut out the middle-man and go with Debian?

Media. I got into Mint after setting up a few Ubuntu boxes and getting tired of the "last mile," the hoops through which one needed to jump post-install to, e.g., play a commercial DVD. I was well-pleased at how well the Mintors relieved me of those tasks in Ubuntu-land, and am hoping LMDE will similarly augment the Debian/rolling-release experience, so that I need not do periodic reinstalls, either. LMDE is not quite fully baked ease-of-use-wise, but it's getting there. I could just wait til it's done, but sometimes one must do one's part, if only a "walk-on part in [a very small] war."

[4Foot]

What a great thread! Thank you Tom Roche for spelling out your travails installing LMDE. I used to think I was a fairly smart fellow, that is until I tried to install the latest release of LMDE which I have to admit had me tearing at my receding hairline and abusing my keyboard. After re-installing four times yesterday, (that installer is just great!) I found that the install worked, it was only when I wanted to do anything else, like add a hard drive to my desktop, or move a file from one place to another, that everything seemed to go pear shaped.

I tried all of my limited Linux Kung Fu and failed miserably to come up with a workable desktop. So, back to Mint 11 for this cowboy and I will wait for 12 to show in a month or so.

But I did want to thank contributors to these discussions like Mr. Roche, and his new best friend zero zero, for expanding our knowledge and capabilities. Early in the software business era we used to have a saying: "You can always tell who the pioneers are, they are the ones with arrows in their backs". I should add that without pioneers, we would all still be living on another continent so thanks for your work guys & gals, even though I don't feel nearly as smart as I did two days ago, I am confident that I have gained some valuable knowledge from your sharing your experiences.

I think many 'lurkers' to these discussions like myself are very grateful to you and hope that the arrows don't make it too tough to roll over in bed.

Yours

4Foot