LMDE 201403 Update Manager Error, pkgProblemResolver

[AlanWalker]

Re: Update Manager Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated

Question: Is there an error in the instructions on the Debian Packages page

https://packages.debian.org/jessie/amd6 ... y/download ?

***

As per the instructions on the above download page I altered my /etc/apt/sources.list to include the line ''deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian jessie main"; checking for accuracy, I saw that ~/sources.list was correctly updated.

Having done so, and returning to my desktop, I noticed that the Update Manager was flagging that updates were available, or 'to be done'. Starting the Update Manager I saw that its process ended with the following error:

ERROR###ERROR###ERROR###ERROR###ERROR###ERROR###ERROR
E:Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breaks, this may be caused by held packages.

Looking at the Information Manager's "Information" box I found:

++ Launching mintUpdate in root mode
++ Starting refresh
++ Auto-refresh timer is going to sleep for 15 minutes, 0 hours and 0 days
-- Error in checkAPT.py, could not refresh the list of packages
++ Starting refresh
-- Error in checkAPT.py, could not refresh the list of packages

Removing the line in my /etc/apt/sources.list that I had just added I found my Update Manager status had returned to "... up to date".

Browsing to http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian I found that there was no "~/jessie/main", but that there was a "~/dist/jessie/main".

I am not inclined to try the update again without more knowledge so I ask, does anyone here see a possible error in the Debian download instructions?

[zerozero]

what exactly are you trying to achieve?

which package you need that is in jessie and not in lmde?

adding the testing repo and performing a dist-upgrade with mintupdate is asking for troubles, big ones: for starters, if you are using cinnamon it will break. so, you should be thankful that mintupdate couldn't solve the dependencies and aborted the upgrade.

if you need a specif package that is not in lmde's repo and is in jessie's repo you should add the repo, update (never upgrade or dist-upgrade or use mintupdate) and search for the package within synaptic and install it (with the relevant dependencies);
then remove the jessie repo and update again.

[AlanWalker]

what exactly are you trying to achieve?

Well, use of the word "exactly" probably isn't applicable as I was in the process of a general exploration of SSH keys and Public keys and, in pursuit of that effort, looking to install erlang-public-key_17.0-dfsg-1_amd64, according to instructions found on the Debian page referenced.

which package you need that is in jessie and not in lmde?

'Which package I need...' isn't exactly applicable either as erlang-public-key~ was a package arbitrarily picked to further my look into SSH and Public keys; what I knew (or thought then, and still (somewhat) think I know) about it was that erlang-public-key~ was suitable for Debian Jessie 64bit.

adding the testing repo and performing a dist-upgrade with mintupdate is asking for troubles, big ones: for starters, if you are using cinnamon it will break. so, you should be thankful that mintupdate couldn't solve the dependencies and aborted the upgrade.

Well, yes... I could-be/am somewhat thankful of that. I have about 20 hours invested in LMDE and while trashing my current instance of it is no big deal, I would rather avoid doing so.

"deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian jessie main " is a testing repository? I didn't know that! I had inferred that "jessie main" was stable (due to the word "main" being used); but then, with virtually less than a month into Linux, that's the kind of mistake one is venturesome liable to.

if you need a specif package that is not in lmde's repo and is in jessie's repo you should add the repo, update (never upgrade or dist-upgrade or use mintupdate) and search for the package within synaptic and install it (with the relevant dependencies); then remove the jessie repo and update again.

The whole "install/update" thing on Linux is, more or less, a fog to me. I want to know the basics involved, and reading hasn't done much to dispel that fog.

I see, through your comments, that the process you suggest for installing a package found in Jessie but not in LMDE is:

1. Edit ~sources.list to add a repository
2. Update
3. Use Synaptic to install (dependencies being resolved)
4. Remove the repository added to ~souces.list in 1 above
5. And 'update' again.

2 above suggests (to me) that 'update' downloads all packages from any repository in ~sources.list.
3 above suggests that Synaptic works with whatever packages are on the local system
4 and 5 above suggests that local packages be returned to the state it was prior to 1 and 2 above.

I didn't know that... Is my assessment of what you wrote correct?

Using the Software Manager seems mostly ok, but I want to become comfortable with using the most basic tools for package/program management; hence I cope with the fog by doing things like attempting to install erlang-public-key~

Thanks for your words and effort.

Regards

Oh, (edit) PS... is that a mistake in the Debian install page?