Updates Broken

[zerozero]

if your dist-upgrade ends in your prompt reading a line like this

Code: Select all

0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
amadeu@amadeu ~ $


all is well is your land
as for the trusted LMDE repos, the ones i gave you above are the stock repo for LMDE, if you feel adventurous and want to add something (be careful! might affect your system stability) this is the most comprehensive collection of debian-compatible repos

[limotux]

Thanks a lot zerozero, I'm just reporting back... everything is updating fine with me.
I think I'll stick with the repos you gave me.. but will havea look at your link.

But I wonder why this problem happened initialy? Any repos changed with the latest release?

[zerozero]

hi limotux,
i'm glad things are working now
about the repos, the one i gave you above are the original that came with the first LMDE respin, tracking debian testing, so there nothing changed;
from the 201109 respin on there's a new set of repos, that tracks a mirrored mint repo (for enhanced stability) read here about the update-packs, but if you are happy with testing and can handle, why not stay as you are?

now, why this error happened? honestly, no idea the only thing i can think of is the fact that in your previous souces.list, you had duplicated repos and i already saw apt giving strange errors occasionally because of that.

[limotux]

Hi zerozero,

Now I beleive there is something wrong with the repos.
It just happened again (unresolvable dependencies)

libxine1:
Recommends: libxine1-ffmpeg but it is not going to be installed

libxine1-ffmpeg:
Depends: libavcodec53 but it is not going to be installed or
libavcodec-extra-53 but it is not going to be installed

libxine1-plugins:
Depends: libxine1-ffmpeg (>=1.1.19-3.1) but 1.1.19-3 is to be installed

I think there should be another set of repos that should be included.
What do you think?

From the link you provided above I understand that I should point to (deb http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest testing main contrib non-free) not to (deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ debian main upstream import). Am I getting it right?
I believe I need to get something stable as this is a work machine mainly. I don't want to keep working arround problems. Better stay safe and stable.
What repos should be used then?

[zerozero]

hi limotux,
this time your unresolved deps are normal see
as you are tracking pure testing this kind of problem can happen;
what you can do?
- wait and this things will get sorted out with time;
- as you read in the link i gave you above, mint has now mirrored repos: incoming (a king of testing ground from testing before the pkgs make their way to latest) and this one (latest) that should be the most stable repo (while still tracking debian testing) < forgive the wording, it may sound a bit confusing, but i hope you got the idea>

latest is still not fully implemented, so if your idea is a perfectly stable working machine, wait a few days (can't tell you how many) and do the switch then

[limotux]

hmm... I see!

OK.. I'll wait and see... but now I have an unpleasant feeling that there is this mess!

I've been on linux for about 11 years now, never came accross such problem, and I would not pretend I am experienced with repos and development process, but I know that once you install your distro a repo is the repo, you don't change them, maybe only add to them according to what you install.

I wonder why we are in such situation now.

Shouldn't this be discussed somewhere?
Honestly I was thinking of suggesting to my boss to change all our organizations PCs to LMDE, but now I'm reconsidering this idea and hoping to find a way arround such problem not to happen again.

[zerozero]

if you mean the mess about unmet deps, that happens all the time in testing and sid, if you nean the mess about the new mint repos, bare in mind that all this process is brand new and once is finished its implementation we can have finally a usable and trusted (as in user-friendly) debian testing distro, without the breakages that usually comes with it;

you say more discussed? if you browse the LMDE forum you find dozens of topics about this subject

when latest gets fully implemented, you can suggest LMDE to your boss

[limotux]

Well, I'll tell you something funny that happened.

I thought I should try updating individual packages or a bit more, as I assumed that maybe one package that has unmet dependencywould keep everything else from being updated.

I tried to update everything at once and had the same problem.
Then I got it a bit by bit, 1 or 2 packages at a time.

To my surprise, everything was updated! How? I really can't explain this. But I hope others with the same complain should try and report back.
Can anybody explain this? I can't immagine I was sooo lucky that ALL repos were fixed the same moment I tried this.
I'm really eager to know if this (and hope) works for everybody!
If anybody wants to try, please first try updating all, if it doesn't try individual packs and let us know.

At least it would be a contribution from me, once to be usefull I hope.

[limotux]

...
when latest gets fully implemented, you can suggest LMDE to your boss

I'm serious about that. We have lots of PCs at head office, and several offices overseas... (don't have the exact no. now), but the main thing I am so enthusiastic about implementing linux because of stability and productivity.

Plus.. I get nervous when I work on windoze at office!
If I get some encouragement and support, suggestions from the "community" it will really help me to convince them to switch to LMDE.

[zerozero]

hi limotux,
when i did DU in my LMDE-testing install, about one hour ago, all went fine, granted i didn't had any libxine* to mess it, but i presume the way you did it sorted the dependencies errors better than synaptic (sometimes happens, sometimes not ), if you browse through the LMDE breakages thread you'll see a couple examples of this;

about your plan, i think it's amazing just a couple random ideas:
- i wouldn't go with LMDE-gnome for that plan (although i use it for more than 1 year now, and the new update-packs will make it a very stable system) we can't forget that gnome3 is coming in, and you don't want that change happening in dozen of comp. with noobies in front of them and with important tasks to do;
- the option is LMDE-xfce, if you haven't tried yet, give it a spin; you get basically the same look&feel of the gnome ed. and the same functionality, avoiding the big gnome3 transition;
set those systems to track latest, you will get updates once a month more or less and you can be sure those updates won't be disruptive;

looking forward to hear more from this

[limotux]

.... we can't forget that gnome3 is coming in, and you don't want that change happening in dozen of comp. with noobies in front of them and with important tasks to do;
- the option is LMDE-xfce, if you haven't tried yet, give it a spin; you get basically the same look&feel of the gnome ed. and the same functionality, avoiding the big gnome3 transition;
.....
looking forward to hear more from this

OMG... ! would I be forced to use gnome3 ?
What If I want to stick with this Gnome? Would it be possible?
What about LMDE with KDE? I couldn't find anything about expected release. I have tried on a virtual machine and installed KDE, but it wasn't looking nice, and had a lot of updates, gnome updates and KDE updates)

I think about sticking to a rolling release at work, and prefere either this LMDE with Gnome or KDE.
What you think can be done?

P.S.: I'm talking about +300 PCs with their users to convert, plus about 10% employees who don't need computers in their daily work as the others who will know about it, plus using LMDE at hope then their friends... etc..

P.P.S. When is Gnome 3 expected? I'm thinking to wait till it comes out so I won't need to keep horryfing newbies (but it will be me who takes the first shock and try it first for a few days before implementing it)

[zerozero]

stick with gnome2.x in LMDE i'm afraid won't be possible, gnome3 is coming slowly, can't tell you when the full transition will be, can take a couple months more;
on second though, LMDE will offer soon a KDE respin, maybe that one will suite better your intentions;

and +300 comps is a huge task, well done if you can do that

[limotux]

around when would be the KDE spin expected?

+300 PCs is a huge number, but I think it is not a problem, installation on PCs won't be a problem, installing software as well (I think)
The main problem would be in people resisting change, and even if somehow "enforced" there will still be there feeling not being at home till they get used to it.

Our use is not really complicated, just normal use, office, email client, scan... and such.

Do you think I and other +300 users can get help here? I was thinking of having a special thread for such task.

[zerozero]

around when would be the KDE spin expected?

that is the million dollar question i believe soon

The main problem would be in people resisting change, and even if somehow "enforced" there will still be there feeling not being at home till they get used to it.

you nailed the main issue: it's not about changing, but accepting that changing

Do you think I and other +300 users can get help here? I was thinking of having a special thread for such task.

sounds like a good plan

[limotux]

around when would be the KDE spin expected?

that is the million dollar question i believe soon

You are giving me hope as usual

The main problem would be in people resisting change, and even if somehow "enforced" there will still be there feeling not being at home till they get used to it.

you nailed the main issue: it's not about changing, but accepting that changing

thanks for the complement! this how I work, every thing, every problem, every plan has only one unique central core point, if you target it, it is done

Do you think I and other +300 users can get help here? I was thinking of having a special thread for such task.

sounds like a good plan

I hope it will work. It will make technical support much easier, I think employees will find it interesting to be part of the community. But it might need some speciall attention from the community and maintainers of the forum. An un answered question would have an adverse effect on users. But I'll explain to them the meening of a community and how it works.

[wb666greene]

I'm new to Mint and LMDE in particular. Been using Ubuntu since 2005, and RedHat before that. A few forays into Debian via Knoppix ended in disaster from unmet dependency hell.

I love the idea of a rolling distribution since I can't waste time upgrading systems every six months and Ubuntu never updates the libraries in their LTS versions so you quickly end up stuck with obsolete versions of things like gstreamer.

Initially good experince with LMDE on install and quickly got most of what I needed via synapic, but ffmpeg and everything depending on it is broken.

Did apt-get update, apt-get upgrade and it offered me: "432 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 63 not upgraded." I thought this excessive in less than a week so I answered no and tried update manager.

Unfortunately it is offering 14 packages will be removed 48 packages will be installed. To be removed includes eclipse and some gstreamer elements. I can't live with the tools I need going away with an update!

I'm canceling the upgrade for now.

What is the strategy to have a reasonably up to date rolling release free of applications "disappearing"? Or is my idea of a rolling release a pipe dream?

IMHO all distributions these days are putting too much effort into "how it looks" and not enough into how it works!

The nouveau Nvida driver has improved greatly since Ubuntu 10.04 (my current working system). I'm looking at alternatives before 12.04LTS comes out as even the two year cycle is more frequent than I'd prefer. Once I've adapted to a "look and feel" any chage is counter-productive no matter how well intensioned. I don't miss the Ubuntu/Gnome menu bar at the top, but the Xfce popup menu is already rather busy too highy nested for my borderline carpal tunnel.

[wb666greene]

I did in sequence

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

Lots of updates and nothing removed.


Then did:

apt-get dist-upgrade

and this wants to remove 14 packages (eclipse is the showstopper!) and install 47. Too smart for its own good at the moment. My guess is this is because dist-upgrade installs the 3.0 kernel. No problem waiting for some more dust to settle!


Maybe apt-get update && apt-get upgrade is the way to go and periodically try apt-get dist-upgrade and cancel it if it want to remove something I need.


This will be my strategy for the time being and I'll see how it goes between now and the next Ubuntu LTS release, although I'm not liking much of what I see about "Unity" or Gnome3
I already know I don't like KDE,although I do like a lot of the KDE apps -- they all seem to work fine with Gnome.

[marlar]

I am stuck with the Eclipse issue too. I use it for Android programming so update pack 3 is no-go.

If I update via aptitude instead of mintUpdate, I have the choice to examine several suggestions for resolving the dependency issues. Most of them involves removing Eclipse, but suggestion 21 offers:

--\ Keep the following packages at their current version:
foomatic-db-engine [4.0.7-2 (now)]
gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly [0.10.18-1 (now)]
libntfs-3g804 [1:2011.1.15AR.4+2011.4.12-2 (now)]
mint-flashplugin [2011.04.12 (now)]
mint-meta-codecs [2011.06.15-1lmde1 (now)]
ntfs-3g [1:2011.1.15AR.4+2011.4.12-2 (now)]
sat4j [2.2.3-1 (now)

Would that be a viable solution or does this too have bad side effects?

PS. I thought the update packs were meant to prevent serious issues like this!

[zerozero]

marlar: about eclipse, check this topic viewtopic.php?f=190&t=80144&hilit=+eclipse

wb666greene: your questions should be asked in a separate topic

[marlar]

marlar: about eclipse, check this topic viewtopic.php?f=190&t=80144&hilit=+eclipse

wb666greene: your questions should be asked in a separate topic

Thanks, I have already seen that thread but it doesn't really solve the problem. The thing is that I have already Eclipse installed and tweaked for Android programming including special plugins and my customs shortcuts. I don't want to reinstall and start over with the setup.

My specific question is if the proposed aptitude suggestion sketched here viewtopic.php?f=198&t=81388&p=480133#p480133 would solve the problem without introducing new ones.