Evolution and Dependency Hell

[irlandes]

I had problems in the last fall and summer with Mandrake 9.2, acted like broken subsystem netfilter, it would get totally lost when I changed from dial-up to network card. I bought SuSe 9.2 and KPPP wouldn't work, indicating SuSe Pro 9.2 was not properly tested, so I put in Drake 10.1 CE which was also clearly not properly tested. There is even a missing link cc1plus to cc1 which breaks compile (IF YOU CAN GET YOUR HANDS ON KERNEL-SOURCE, which isn't likely).

Now, I have an original problem with Evolution. The 2.0.1 (I think) which comes with 10.1 will NOT send/receive messages after you type a new message (thus another proof 10.1 not properly tested) unless you do a complete reboot. That is a bloody nuisance, as you can imagine.

Mandrake does not seem to make available rpm's that I can find.

I went though some basic Dependency Hell installing Norlug evolution-data-server, and libevolution, finally installing --nodeps.

When I tried to install evolution, it told me it needs:

gtkhtml >= 3.2.4
gal >= 2.2.4
libgal >= 2.2.4

Norlug has no such rpm. Rpmfind has no such rpm. rpm.pbone.net has no such rpm. I think I went though this exact dependency hell before, but can't remember when, unless it was with a compile error.

So, unless someone has a fix, I am going to have to reinstall the old, busted, untested version.

That means in the longterm I will have to be seeking a new distro. Since the mainstream ones seem to be buggy, I am going to have to look at say Knoppix or Kanotix, I don' t know. That is a major hassle on dial-up.

I gotta' tell you, this crap is not a threat to Windows as bad as Windows is. How could I possibly recommend a Windows user install something like this? I've been using Linux since late 1999, even made a converted LiveFloppy ala the new Live CD's, and I can't get these new versions to work myself. What chance does a newbie have?

If paying the big bucks means I would have a good distro, I'd pay it, but I paid $99.40 for SuSe and got ****. Also, it is likely that drake Power pack has the same exact evolution problem that CE has.

Thanks for any tips.

[hard candy]

I don't use Evolution very much but Ubuntu seems to have it nicely integrated. I can see Suse having problems with Evolution since it seems geared towards KDE, have you tried KDE's PIM and Kmail?
But it seems I remember Ximian connector had auto download rpm's for Evolution last year. Perhaps that was for Redhat only, can't remember.
As far as dialup, are you using an external or internal modem? Which brand?

[CoffeeMan]

I would suggest avoiding RPMs and using a distribution with an adequate package management system like debian or gentoo. I would even suggest Slackware, because it is a very straightforward distribution.

[Sgood1971]

I agree, RPM's are too much pain to maintain when you could be using apt-get instead. Ubuntu and Mepis are two of the better, "Ready to go out of the box" distro's that I have tried (IMHO) If you like KDE go with Mepis, if Gnome is your thing, try Ubuntu. Just my .02, but I was a die hard SuSE fanatic until I learned that non .RPM distros are where it's at.

As for you original problem, I am sorry I don't know how to help you. :(

[Icarus]

RPMs are not that difficult to handle...
rpm -ivh something.rpm

if it complains about a depenancy, FIX IT!
then if it gets into a circular depenacny cycle (packageA needs packageB and packageB needs packageA) run them in the same line

rpm -ivh packageA.rpm packageB.rpm

Also, SUSE is KDE based and Evolution is a Gnome tool...so there is a ton of dependancies

SUSE has a Desktop edition which uses Gnome instead of KDE and has Evolution

Look in the SUSE forums, there are lots of posts about installing Evoltion

[nouse66]

you might want to try downloading mandrake 10.1 instead of the community edition because there were definately bug fixes.
mandrake comes with the urmpi tool for dealing with dependancy issues. once you setup your urpmi sources (see easyurpmi.zarb.org for help) and then type "urpmi evolution" and it should get all the dependancies.
OR
just use the gui config tool for installing software (uses uprmi sourcs)

[CoffeeMan]

RPMs are not that difficult to handle...
rpm -ivh something.rpm

if it complains about a depenancy, FIX IT!
then if it gets into a circular depenacny cycle (packageA needs packageB and packageB needs packageA) run them in the same line This is true, but this also applies to tarballs and .deb packages, what is nice about debian and the rderivatives is the fact that apt-get will take care of dependencies for it. I havnt forgotten about yum, which does the same thing as apt-get but with rpms instead of dpkg. No huge difference there. I personally like SuSE, 8.1 was my first distro and I liked it better than mandrake 9.2 and redhat 9 which I tried shortly after. But I now use Gentoo and Debian exsclusivley because of the package management.

[irlandes]

Most responses include the advice to jump distros as a solution. Over the years, I have concluded that commonly proposed solution is not good advice.

I have been all over the place since December, and am simply not going to start all over on distros which have their own problems, I have seen postings on problems with all those distros mentioned, and changing brings its own start-up problems, as well as the chances of major problems with any given machine.

SuSe 9.2 did not work, KPPP was broke for me as for everyone else who tried it, and sure enough lots of folks said to use wvdial. BARF!!!!! Configure each time I need to change phone numbers???? I think not.

One response said to fix it. I know how to fix dependency issues, IF THE DEPENDENCIES ARE AVAILABLE.

My problem is the listed missing dependencies are simply not available in any recognizable form.

gtkhtml >= 3.2.4
gal >= 2.2.4
libgal >= 2.2.4

I went through this same list of missing dependencies some time ago, and no one was able to tell me where to find them for Mandrake 10.1. I found rpm.pbone.net and I found www.rpmfind.net and I found norlug, and none of them have those version numbers.

I well know --nodeps, used it several times today. The Official CD's so highly recommended, and which I have obtained, had evolution-data-server and libevolution working as cross dependencies, that is each one insisted it could not be installed until the other was present. So, --nodeps is the solution to that. And, so much for the idea that 10.1 Official is noticeably better than CE.

A couple years ago, I forget what I was doing, but I ended up with 5 or 6 pages of dependency hell recorded in my notebook, to get something to work. I did in the end, because they were available.

If I think CentOs 4 will work on a Dell laptop, I may try that if I need to change.

Otherwise, I may wait for 10.2 and burn incense hoping they bother to test it. (Mandrake does not always do that.)

[hard candy]

This is kind of a Suse upgrade, it is Novell Desktop evaluation download. It includes Evolution. If you'd like I could download it and mail it to you.
http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/features/evolution.html

[Sgood1971]

Originally posted by hard candy
This is kind of a Suse upgrade, it is Novell Desktop evaluation download. It includes Evolution. If you'd like I could download it and mail it to you.
http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/features/evolution.html

hard candy,

That is a very generous offer. I feel guilty about jumping on the 'Switch Distros' bandwagon, and will throw in my own offer as well. I have the SuSE 9.1 Pro Linux Technical Resource Kit that Novell sent me when they first took over. It's on DVD, but if you want it and have a DVD drive I would be glad to send it to you. I know you probably don't want to 'downgrade' but for me, 9.1 Pro was rock solid and KPPP worked just fine and it also found and configured my winmodem with no problem.

[irlandes]

...INDEED a generous offer. However, while wishing to state my extreme thanks for the offer, having stated my view that it is better to fix problems than to jump distros, accepting your generous offer would, how did LInus say it the other day, show me to be a software whore. (Forgive me if I forget the exact wording of his quote, when asked why he was uaing a Mac.)

That is, my view can be bought.

That reminds me of an old joke. A pastor's wife said something negative about prostitution. A man asked her if she would sleep with him for 100 dollars. She became very angry. Then, he asked her if she would sleep with him for ten million dollars. and she thought a while and said, yes, she would. Of course, he then told her she was also a prostitute, she was just haggling for a higher price.

I did try again Novell, via google. I tried it before, with no luck. This time I looked again very carefully, and there was (to me at my age) a microscopic arrow that I missed before which led me to the Evolution page, and thus to the blog page, which includes various goodies, such as patches, and in my case a listing of tar packages, including the previously unfound gal and gtkhtml tarballs of the correct numbers.

I will probably download all the relevant packages, since if I try CentOs, will want them.

My remaining problem is I can't compile with Mandrake 10.1. I assumed it was the missing kernel source package, but I got access to Official CD's, and installed kernel-source.

I get the same error message as before when I try to compile kgeography. can't find X includes, which by examining file Configure in the tar ball, specifically wants:

/usr/X11R6/include

files.

Now that I have access to the Official CD's, which one assumes will compile, I am going to, well, let me explain so noobs can have a free tip.

Suppose you wish to find a file on your rpm CD''s. Insert the CD#1, for a simple example, in the drive. Open fhe file browser, and enter the CD until you are in the page with the rpm files. Click on TOOLS in the menu, then OPEN TERMINAL to, um, open a terminal. Enter su then the passsword, which changes the prompt from $ to #.

Then, type rpm -qpl * > /home/bruce/CD1filelist.txt

Note this only makes sense if your user name is bruce, change it to whatever your user name is, of course.

and let it run. It will take a while, because it has to list all files in all rpm's on the page. They will be stored in the text file which I named logically based on the CD number

Then, when it is done, take the file browser, go to /home/bruce and click on CD1filelist.txt which will open it in either KATE or KWRITE, depending upon your assocations.

Click on EDIT in menu, then FIND. Type in file name you seek, and hit FIND to search for it.

You may have to dig a bit to figure out which rpm it is in, assuming you find it in that CD. Repeat this procedure for all CD's if you want full access.

If you want a file which tells what each rpm does, change command above only by using -qpi instead of -qpl. Of course, you will have to use file name CD1fileinfo.txt

If I cannot find /usr/X11R6/include files, I may start looking at CentOs 4. Not sure it will run laptops or not. I expect if it doesn't the problem will be video difficulties.

Thanks again!!!!