Debian 'unstable' has jacked my box... again!

[milanuk]

God, sometimes it seems I never learn.

I've gone back and forth over the last few weeks btwn Debian and my favorite rpm based distros (SuSE & KRUD). Finally I decided I was going to stick out this Debian thing. Part of the reason it took so long for me to settle down w/ Debian is that I was uncomfortable w/ the way that stable is pretty much set in stone, and new apps are rarely ever added to it. Thus for the third time, I decided to try to upgrade to unstable, since everyone seems to think it's the cat's meow. The moons must have been aligned just right, since I managed to d/l about 50M last night on my crappy little connection. Ran the dist-upgrade (w/o the -ud) this morning, and wouldn't ya know it? 40 some packages weren't configured/installed correctly. WTF? Over 40 freaking packages? Multiple runs of apt-get, even w/ the -f (fix-broken) set didn't do any good.

I noticed that ppp, nmh, and some others that I didn't really need were on that list, so I figured I'd open dselect, update, and unselect those that I didn't need and their dependencies. Now when I went to (I)nstall, it wantedto Install something like 72M of new files! WTF?

So I exited dselect, ran apt-get dist-upgrade again, and now only (only!!!) about a dozen or two packages are still jacked up.

Any suggestions, beyond reinstall and stay w/ stable?

Monte

[ColdPack]

Originally posted by milanuk:
God, sometimes it seems I never learn.

I've gone back and forth over the last few weeks btwn Debian and my favorite rpm based distros (SuSE & KRUD). Finally I decided I was going to stick out this Debian thing. Part of the reason it took so long for me to settle down w/ Debian is that I was uncomfortable w/ the way that stable is pretty much set in stone, and new apps are rarely ever added to it. Thus for the third time, I decided to try to upgrade to unstable, since everyone seems to think it's the cat's meow. The moons must have been aligned just right, since I managed to d/l about 50M last night on my crappy little connection. Ran the dist-upgrade (w/o the -ud) this morning, and wouldn't ya know it? 40 some packages weren't configured/installed correctly. WTF? Over 40 freaking packages? Multiple runs of apt-get, even w/ the -f (fix-broken) set didn't do any good.

I noticed that ppp, nmh, and some others that I didn't really need were on that list, so I figured I'd open dselect, update, and unselect those that I didn't need and their dependencies. Now when I went to (I)nstall, it wantedto Install something like 72M of new files! WTF?

So I exited dselect, ran apt-get dist-upgrade again, and now only (only!!!) about a dozen or two packages are still jacked up.

Any suggestions, beyond reinstall and stay w/ stable?

Monte


This is not my being rude. But what do you mean by "jacked up"?
Like, they won't install after the download for some reason?
If that is the case (I'm not sure), at the command line run "dpkd --configure -a" and that will take care of any leftover uninstalled packages from you dist-upgrade.
Let us know what you need.


------------------
"What do people mean when they say the computer went down on them?"
---Marilyn Pittman

[This message has been edited by ColdPack (edited 12 December 2000).]

[Pierre Lambion]

I have mixed feelings about debian. apt-get install is nice but dselect is aweful, evil, ugly, unusable, dangerous, viral, deadly!

I like slackware very much because its packaging system is so transparent but I always end up with missing libraries, bad locales, ...

So, now I'm in Debian again (potato, did a minimal install and won't touch dselect !!

Pierre

[ColdPack]

Yeah, deselect is pretty aweful. I stay away from it as much as I can, too.
Unfortunately, it is necessary sometimes.
But I am suprised to hear such huge problems with apt as above... even with a dist-upgrade on a fresh install of potato.
Then again, you never know what may happen when you run unstable.
Speaking of which, debian 2.2r2 was released last week with a some fixes to r0 and r1. To coincide, Storm has released Hail 2.06 which is based on debian 2.2r2 so, do those upgrades if you like!

------------------
"What do people mean when they say the computer went down on them?"
---Marilyn Pittman

[ColdPack]

Now I'm not sure what kind of connection you have but you could try this.
Download an "unofficial" copy of woody as an iso and burn it and install it.
The images are updated every weekend.
There's also an "unofficial" potato "extra" cd that comes with kde, kde2 and helix gnome.
So, it's up to you! http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif
http://lists.debian.org/debian-cd-0010/msg00018.html


------------------
"What do people mean when they say the computer went down on them?"
---Marilyn Pittman

[This message has been edited by ColdPack (edited 12 December 2000).]

[milanuk]

Originally posted by ColdPack:
Now I'm not sure what kind of connection you have but you could try this.
Download an "unofficial" copy of woody as an iso and burn it and install it.
The images are updated every weekend.
There's also an "unofficial" potato "extra" cd that comes with kde, kde2 and helix gnome.
So, it's up to you! http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif
http://lists.debian.org/debian-cd-0010/msg00018.html




I'd seen the extra potato cd. My connection at home is via 56k modem, but due to rural phone lines, I normally get about 1.5-2.0kbps d/l speeds. Plus I don't have a CD burner. At work, though, I do have a much faster connection (~50-100kbps d/l w/ Download Accelerator), and blanket permission to burn CD's during lunch and after work on the computer in the next office http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/wink.gif. The rub is that at work, all the machines are Win9x, and I haven't had good luck w/ the pseudo-image kit, at least on a previous laptop (P166w/40MB RAM). W/ my 'new' one (P166 w/ 64 MB), since the old one went tits up on me, I might try again. I'd prefer to just d/l the iso images straight out, but the Debian project seems to frown on that for understandable reasons.

[milanuk]

Originally posted by ColdPack:

This is not my being rude. But what do you mean by "jacked up"?
Like, they won't install after the download for some reason?
If that is the case (I'm not sure), at the command line run "dpkd --configure -a" and that will take care of any leftover uninstalled packages from you dist-upgrade.
Let us know what you need.



Pretty much. When I run 'apt-get dist-upgrade' it runs thru, installs what it can, and then it seems like a bunch of packages won't install. I'm not at the machine right now, but it seems like the problem child if I remember right seemed like a package 'netbase' didn't get configured right, which snowballed into causing a bunch of packages that depend on it to not get configured during install. The rub is that Netscape now will not work, so if I get back to you later, it may be using links http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/wink.gif

Monte

[ColdPack]

Originally posted by milanuk:
Pretty much. When I run 'apt-get dist-upgrade' it runs thru, installs what it can, and then it seems like a bunch of packages won't install. I'm not at the machine right now, but it seems like the problem child if I remember right seemed like a package 'netbase' didn't get configured right, which snowballed into causing a bunch of packages that depend on it to not get configured during install. The rub is that Netscape now will not work, so if I get back to you later, it may be using links http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/wink.gif

Monte


I would try
dpkg --configure -a
and see what happens.
That would be my first step.
Then come back and tell us what happened and maybe we can backtrack what happened and fix it!
Later!

------------------
"What do people mean when they say the computer went down on them?"
---Marilyn Pittman

[This message has been edited by ColdPack (edited 12 December 2000).]

[milanuk]

Originally posted by ColdPack:
I would try
dpkg --configure -a
and see what happens.
That would be my first step.
Then come back and tell us what happened and maybe we can backtrack what happened and fix it!
Later!



Well, I'll try that, too. I'd like to try getting Debian on a few of my other computers. They are used primarily by the kids, so I don't want to deal w/ explaining unstable vs stable and why X doesn't happen to work today http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/wink.gif.

I'm gonna try (keyword: _try_) to use the pseudo-image kit for Win9x and make some 2.2r2 cds, and hopefully the potato 'extra' cd as well. I'll be back for help if I run into something I can't figure out. Likely it'll be on a different topic, as it might be wandering a bit for this one http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/wink.gif

Thanks for your help,

Monte

[Strike]

Ditch dselect and go for aptitude. It's my new favorite front-end to apt.

[ColdPack]

Originally posted by Strike:
Ditch dselect and go for aptitude. It's my new favorite front-end to apt.

I forgot all about that. Yeah, that's much better!


------------------
"What do people mean when they say the computer went down on them?"
---Marilyn Pittman

[Unruly]

what I'd do is comment out all the stable tree's in my sources.list and add all the unstable ones, and then just apt-get update; apt-get upgrade my way into it... apt-get dist-upgrade is fairly dangerous unless you like dealing with broken packages...

I kinda like stable... it works great, and I've had phenominal uptimes... it's fairly up to date, nothing spiffy or fancy. But then, I'm over the "need the latest and greatest peice of software" craze.

If I want the newest stuff, I temporarily uncomment my unstable lines and install the package, then comment it again.

------------------
Nathan
Q: How many existentialists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: Two. One to screw it in and one to observe how the lightbulb itself symbolizes a single incandescent beacon of subjective reality in a netherworld of endless absurdity reaching out toward a maudlin cosmos of nothingness.

[milanuk]

Originally posted by ColdPack:
I would try
dpkg --configure -a
and see what happens.
That would be my first step.
Then come back and tell us what happened and maybe we can backtrack what happened and fix it!
Later!


Well, this is pretty long, but it's the whole enchilada. Any input is greatly appreciated.

Setting up setserial (2.17-18) ...
Can't locate warnings/register.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/lib/perl5/5.6/i386-linux /usr/lib/perl5/5.6 /usr/local/lib/site_perl/i386-linux /usr/local/lib/site_perl /usr/lib/perl5/5.005/i386-linux /usr/lib/perl5/5.005 .) at /usr/lib/perl5/5.6/vars.pm line 11.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/5.6/vars.pm line 11.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Base.pm line 6.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Base.pm line 6.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Template.pm line 8.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Template.pm line 8.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/ConfigDb.pm line 6.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/ConfigDb.pm line 6.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/debconf/frontend line 9.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/debconf/frontend line 9.
dpkg: error processing setserial (--configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Setting up ifupdown (0.6.4-1) ...
Can't locate warnings/register.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/lib/perl5/5.6/i386-linux /usr/lib/perl5/5.6 /usr/local/lib/site_perl/i386-linux /usr/local/lib/site_perl /usr/lib/perl5/5.005/i386-linux /usr/lib/perl5/5.005 .) at /usr/lib/perl5/5.6/vars.pm line 11.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/5.6/vars.pm line 11.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Base.pm line 6.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Base.pm line 6.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Template.pm line 8.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Template.pm line 8.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/ConfigDb.pm line 6.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/ConfigDb.pm line 6.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/debconf/frontend line 9.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/debconf/frontend line 9.
dpkg: error processing ifupdown (--configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Setting up xfs (4.0.1-11) ...
Can't locate warnings/register.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/lib/perl5/5.6/i386-linux /usr/lib/perl5/5.6 /usr/local/lib/site_perl/i386-linux /usr/local/lib/site_perl /usr/lib/perl5/5.005/i386-linux /usr/lib/perl5/5.005 .) at /usr/lib/perl5/5.6/vars.pm line 11.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/5.6/vars.pm line 11.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Base.pm line 6.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Base.pm line 6.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Template.pm line 8.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Template.pm line 8.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/ConfigDb.pm line 6.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/ConfigDb.pm line 6.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/debconf/frontend line 9.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/debconf/frontend line 9.
dpkg: error processing xfs (--configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Setting up xserver-common (4.0.1-11) ...
Can't locate warnings/register.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/lib/perl5/5.6/i386-linux /usr/lib/perl5/5.6 /usr/local/lib/site_perl/i386-linux /usr/local/lib/site_perl /usr/lib/perl5/5.005/i386-linux /usr/lib/perl5/5.005 .) at /usr/lib/perl5/5.6/vars.pm line 11.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/5.6/vars.pm line 11.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Base.pm line 6.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Base.pm line 6.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Template.pm line 8.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Template.pm line 8.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/ConfigDb.pm line 6.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/ConfigDb.pm line 6.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/debconf/frontend line 9.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/debconf/frontend line 9.
dpkg: error processing xserver-common (--configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Setting up bsdmainutils (5.20001028-4) ...
Can't locate warnings/register.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/lib/perl5/5.6/i386-linux /usr/lib/perl5/5.6 /usr/local/lib/site_perl/i386-linux /usr/local/lib/site_perl /usr/lib/perl5/5.005/i386-linux /usr/lib/perl5/5.005 .) at /usr/lib/perl5/5.6/vars.pm line 11.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/5.6/vars.pm line 11.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Base.pm line 6.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Base.pm line 6.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Template.pm line 8.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Template.pm line 8.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/ConfigDb.pm line 6.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/ConfigDb.pm line 6.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/debconf/frontend line 9.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/debconf/frontend line 9.
dpkg: error processing bsdmainutils (--configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Setting up xbase-clients (4.0.1-11) ...
Can't locate warnings/register.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/lib/perl5/5.6/i386-linux /usr/lib/perl5/5.6 /usr/local/lib/site_perl/i386-linux /usr/local/lib/site_perl /usr/lib/perl5/5.005/i386-linux /usr/lib/perl5/5.005 .) at /usr/lib/perl5/5.6/vars.pm line 11.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/5.6/vars.pm line 11.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Base.pm line 6.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Base.pm line 6.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Template.pm line 8.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Template.pm line 8.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/ConfigDb.pm line 6.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/ConfigDb.pm line 6.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/debconf/frontend line 9.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/debconf/frontend line 9.
dpkg: error processing xbase-clients (--configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Setting up console-data (1999.08.29-12.1) ...
Can't locate warnings/register.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/lib/perl5/5.6/i386-linux /usr/lib/perl5/5.6 /usr/local/lib/site_perl/i386-linux /usr/local/lib/site_perl /usr/lib/perl5/5.005/i386-linux /usr/lib/perl5/5.005 .) at /usr/lib/perl5/5.6/vars.pm line 11.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/5.6/vars.pm line 11.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Base.pm line 6.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Base.pm line 6.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Template.pm line 8.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Template.pm line 8.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/ConfigDb.pm line 6.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/ConfigDb.pm line 6.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/debconf/frontend line 9.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/debconf/frontend line 9.
dpkg: error processing console-data (--configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Setting up netkit-inetd (0.10-3) ...
Can't locate warnings/register.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/lib/perl5/5.6/i386-linux /usr/lib/perl5/5.6 /usr/local/lib/site_perl/i386-linux /usr/local/lib/site_perl /usr/lib/perl5/5.005/i386-linux /usr/lib/perl5/5.005 .) at /usr/lib/perl5/5.6/vars.pm line 11.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/5.6/vars.pm line 11.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Base.pm line 6.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Base.pm line 6.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Template.pm line 8.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Template.pm line 8.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/ConfigDb.pm line 6.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/ConfigDb.pm line 6.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/debconf/frontend line 9.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/debconf/frontend line 9.
dpkg: error processing netkit-inetd (--configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 2
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of netbase:
netbase depends on ifupdown; however:
Package ifupdown is not configured yet.
netbase depends on netkit-inetd; however:
Package netkit-inetd is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing netbase (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of exim:
exim depends on netbase; however:
Package netbase is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing exim (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of xdm:
xdm depends on xbase-clients; however:
Package xbase-clients is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing xdm (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of console-tools:
console-tools depends on console-data (>> 1999.08.29-3); however:
Package console-data is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing console-tools (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
adduser
setserial
ifupdown
xfs
xserver-common
bsdmainutils
xbase-clients
console-data
netkit-inetd
netbase
exim

[Xsecrets]

I really don't get what people hate so much about dselect It's really a great tool for me. I guess it could be pretier, but who cares. It works. Well as long as all of the dependecies for a particular package are located on the server or cd whichever you pick and that's not the fault of the program it's the fault of the person who maintains the package.

[pipe]

There is a known bug with perl-5.6 and dpkg.

Try the following as root:
ls /usr/bin/perl*

(Output should look like this)
#ls -1 /usr/bin/perl*
/usr/bin/perl-5.004
/usr/bin/perl-5.005
/usr/bin/perl-5.6
/usr/bin/perl.dist
/usr/bin/perl5.005
/usr/bin/perl5.00503
/usr/bin/perl5.6.0
/usr/bin/perlbug
/usr/bin/perlbug-5.005
/usr/bin/perlbug-5.6
/usr/bin/perlcc
/usr/bin/perlcc-5.005
/usr/bin/perlcc-5.6
/usr/bin/perldoc
/usr/bin/perldoc-5.005
/usr/bin/perldoc-5.6

If you see /usr/bin/perl.dist, type:
mv /usr/bin/perl.dist /usr/bin/perl

If you only see /usr/bin/perl-5.6, then type:
ln /usr/bin/perl-5.6 /usr/bin/perl

Then do:

dpkg --configure -a

[pipe]

Or simply try this first:

dpkg --configure perl-5.6-base

Then:

dpkg --configure -a

[milanuk]

Well, guys, I managed to well and truly hose the system by trying to remove the offending packages, and got to the point where dpkg and apt-get wouldn't even work. So I bailed, did a clean minimum reinstall off the 2.2r0 cd's and am working my way back. No X for now; in an effort to force myself to get some of these other issues worked out and get a functional system running under debian.

Thanks anyway,

Monte

[pipe]

Sorry to hear it.

It's the bad Perl-5.6 setup that's fuxoring debconf.

[DrDrake]

I had the same damn problem last night.. with perl that is.. debconf pooped out

[ColdPack]

I've been working my way up to woody piece-meal. Not doing the big balls-to-the-wall dist-upgrade because, this way, I can get a better handle on what's going on with what's being upgraded.
So far, very few problems. Just one recently with XFree4.0.2 which is now resolved.
So, perhaps upgrade to woody bit by bit. It seems to be going well for me, so far. http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/wink.gif
By the way, there is a difference, now, between unstable and woody. Woody is considered 'testing', now, because they are hoping to release it sometime in the next 6 months or so (so I've heard).
So, make sure your sources.list points to woody and not unstable.
Ta TA!



------------------
What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I
definitely overpaid for my carpet.
-- Woody Allen, "Without Feathers"

[wmHardRock]

Use testing. It's like unstable, but packages are added two weeks after they make it into unstable and only if no bugs are found. Else they don't get in. So you have a stable and still reasonably up-to-date system