Wednesday, April 25th
09:25 EEST
I do my regular ”sudo apt-get update, check the topic on irc.openproject.org’s #debian and sudo apt-get upgrade” -cycle.
The following packages have been kept back gnome-bin gnome-control-center libcapplet0 libgnome-dev libgnome-vfs0 libgnome32 libgnomeui32 libgnorba-dev libgnorba27 libpgperl libpgsql2.1 libpopt0 postgresql postgresql-client postgresql-contrib ppxp-applet task-database-pg 37 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 17 not upgraded.
Seems that GNOME needs some tweaking, maybe it’s in preparation for 1.4. Downloading the packages takes 5 minutes 30 seconds, using a cable modem and a local Finnish mirror. Unpacking and configuring is usually quite fast with my Duron 750 MHz and 128 megs of memory.
Then, at 09:39 the upgrade stops with
Unpacking replacement xfig ... Errors were encountered while processing: /var/cache/apt/archives/libpgtcl_7.1release-1_i386.deb E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
Well, it’s isn’t exactly the first time. It would seem that libpgtcl tries to overwrite a file that’s already in postgresql-pl (found that out by trying sudo dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/libpgtcl_7.1release-1_i386.deb . I’ll try to upgrade rest of the packages first and return to this later. I’m not even using PostgreSQL right now, so I don’t mind if it breaks.
Now, the only problem with this approach is that dpkg doesn’t agree with my chosen path, but instead instructs me in the following way:
$ sudo apt-get upgrade Reading Package Lists... Done Building Dependency Tree... Done You might want to run `apt-get -f install' to correct these. Sorry, but the following packages have unmet dependencies: pgaccess: Depends: libpgtcl (>= 7.1) but 7.0.3-4 is installed E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f.
I do as I’m told, and end up with the file overwriting problem, again. *Sigh* I decide to take the easy way out, and just remove pgaccess. Just that task-database-pg requires it … oh heck. So it’s time to start forcing things, which is always wrong (see the moral here?) but I have to do it anyway.
My sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite installs the package cleanly, only giving a warning saying dpkg - warning, overriding problem because --force enabled. Now back to the upgrade, which finishes cleanly. It’s now 09:57, and the process took almost 30 minutes, including the time it took to write things up.
With the easy things completed, it’s time to try upgrading GNOME. I just copy and paste all the packages listed into an apt-get upgrade -line and hit enter.
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable distribution that some required packages have not yet been created or been moved out of Incoming.
Okay, so the GNOME packages aren’t ready yet. I’m cool with that, but I’ll try to install as many of them as possible, anyway. I’m that kind of a person. After closer inspection I find that installing, for example, gnome-bin would remove some development packages from my hard drive. Now, I’m not sure if I’d even need them, but I’m sure the next time I need them to compile some obscure tarball, I won’t remember to reinstall them. So I put off the GNOME upgrading. The clock reads 10:03, not bad.
17:12 EEST
I notice that one of the packages not upgraded by apt-get upgrade is task-database-pg. So I install it and have no trouble with it. Boring.
Thursday, April 26th
12:50 EEST
Hmm, GNotes didn’t start up at all. Well, I gues the GNOME packages are updated already, so let’s see what happens. The normal sudo apt-get update gives46 packages to upgrade, plus a bunch of others that’ve been kept back.
apt-get upgrade ends cleanly at 13:02. Then to tackle the other packages, mainly bonobo gnapster gnome-bin gnome-control-center libcapplet0 libgnome-dev libgnome-vfs0 libgnome32 libgnomeui32 libgnorba-dev libgnorba27 libpgperl libpgsql2.1 postgresql postgresql-client postgresql-contrib ppxp-applet sysklogd. Something has to be broken here, and indeed it is:
Sorry, but the following packages have unmet dependencies:
ppxp-applet: Depends: libart2 (>= 1.2.13-5.1) but 1.2.13-5 is to be installed
Depends: libgnome32 (>= 1.2.13-5.1) but 1.2.13-5 is to be installed
Depends: libgnomesupport0 (>= 1.2.13-5.1) but 1.2.13-5 is to be installed
Depends: libgnomeui32 (>= 1.2.13-5.1) but 1.2.13-5 is to be installed
Depends: libgnorba27 (>= 1.2.13-5.1) but 1.2.13-5 is to be installed
E: Sorry, broken packages
So okay, I don’t upgrade ppxp-applet … actually, why is that one even installed? I don’t have a modem, never had with this installation. I’ll get rid of it later, now I just want to upgrade my GNOME (sounds weird, that). Some reorganization of packages seems to have happened, but In apt I trust
.
The following extra packages will be installed: klogd libdb3-dev pidentd The following packages will be REMOVED: libdb2-dev postgresql-pl The following NEW packages will be installed: klogd libdb3-dev pidentd 17 packages upgraded, 3 newly installed, 2 to remove and 1 not upgraded. Need to get 6330kB of archives. After unpacking 2343kB will be used. Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
At 13:08 something in PostgreSQL goes the broken way.
The upgrade will now be done and output will be sent to /var/lib/postgres/automatic_update.log. Sorry; the automatic database upgrade failed. A log of the upgrade attempt is in /var/lib/postgres/automatic_update.log
dpkg -s gnome-core reports Version: 1.4.0.2-2. Good. I remove the ppxp-applet package, which I’ve installed for god knows what reason. After that it’s time to check out what’s wrong with PGSQL. I su as root and start digging the logs. Since I have no active dbs at the moment, I simply decide to reinstall the postgresql package hoping that it’ll fix things.
Good plan, just that it doesn’t work. Seems that the postgresql package itself is broken. Now someone please tell me why I didn’t bother to check this with #debian? It would seem I’ll have to wait t’till things clear up a bit. Or maybe … let’s try to dpkg --purge all the PGSQL packages and reinstall them.
Woah, it worked! Funny, I really don’t remember many other cases in my 1,5 years with Debian Unstable that I would’ve had to purge and reinstall. But it works, which is enough for me now. I’m signing out at 13:29 EEST.
13:36 EEST
Oh yeah, the postgresql-pl package, which was removed earlier. Seems it’s not needed anymore, since apt-get install claims that Package postgresql-pl has no available version, but exists in the database. This typically means that the package was mentioned in a dependency and never uploaded, has been obsoleted or is not available with the contents of sources.list
However the following packages replace it: postgresql
13:50 EEST
Oh yeah, one more thing. Since the GNOME 1.4 packages are here, I suppose Nautilus has been updated to 1.0.2 too. Currently I’m running a deb built from the rpms with alien, since Nautilus 1.0 simply doesn’t work with my locale. Actually it does more (or less) than simply doesn’t work – it goes into an infinite SEGFAULT – restart -loop. But let’s upgrade and see what happens. I just have to clean away the old packages first.
Hmm, I’ve put nautilus-mozilla on hold. Wonder why. And before I forget, GNotes works just fine. I don’t know why it didn’t load the last time. Ah, the reason nautilus-mozilla was on hold was that the package’s been obsoleted. At one minute to 14:00, the installation finishes. Lessee.
Yes, I see. Doesn’t work. Back to the converted rpms we go. Of course the deb packages differ from the rpms so that I have to remove everything first and then reinstall and even force-overwrite. Lessee again. Oh yes, it’s better now. Much better.
Tuesday, May 1st
11:09 EEST
Back from vacation, so let’s do the sudo apt-get update again! (Sorry, Rocky Horror was on last night). And what do we run into, whee.
98 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded. Need to get 73.1MB of archives. After unpacking 3041kB will be used. E: Sorry, you don't have enough free space in /var/cache/apt/archives/ to hold all the .debs.
Maybe now would be the time to listen to a friend’s advice and try some other package control tool aside from apt-get. But I’m in a kind of hurry, so I’ll just try to whip up something. After manually installing konqueror, kword, xnest and libarts and something else, the upgrade goes fine.
15:47 EEST
Frustrating. Now that I’ve restarted X after the upgrade, I see that GNOME (or something, maybe running out of disk space on /var/home ?) has devoured all my GNOME configs. Or at least the panel and Evolution. I’ve no idea what’s up.
Wednesday, May 2nd
18:49 EEST
sudo apt-get update and we’re away. Everything looks just fine, so I upgrade.
35 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 22.0MB of archives. After unpacking 460kB will be used.
On a quick note, it would seem that GNOME and KDE are among the packages being updated.
19:23 EEST
Whups, I kinda forgot what was happening. When I came back from cooking, everything was just fine.
Thursday, May 3rd
17:51 EEST
I do sudo apt-get update, check the news on apt and #debian’s topic. Since there’s nothing there, into upgrade we go.
17 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 9025kB of archives. After unpacking 1769kB will be freed.
Seven minutes later the upgrade is over, and things look fine – no errors or anything. Only later do I notice that gnome-panel has all the launchers placed in it. I readd them to no avail.
Friday, May 4th
20:49 EEST
I type the usual, sudo apt-get update, once again msg apt news and check out the topic. Nothing there.
33 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 7678kB of archives. After unpacking 449kB will be freed.
The upgrade takes about then minutes, and it looks like panel is one of the updated packages. I’ll try it later. (Didn’t do anything.)
On a completely different angle, I think there’s something wrong with NVidia’s drivers. I use sproingies from the xscreensaver-gl package, and leaving it on for a few hours results in excessive memory leaks and / or X getting sig 11. I changed my screensaver back to random, that worked just fine.
Saturday, May 5th
13:03 EEST
Nothing special. Todays menu includes sudo apt-get update and
The following packages have been kept back gtkhtml libgtkhtml-data libgtkhtml-dev 19 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded. Need to get 8401kB of archives. After unpacking 460kB will be freed.
and later on
sudo apt-get install gtkhtml libgtkhtml-data libgtkhtml-dev
That’s all folks.
Sunday, May 6th
13:53 EEST
After firing up X and the company, I notice konqueror doesn’t display web pages in anti-aliased fonts anymore. Just a quick check shows that all the font settings have been resetted. Welll, no time to mourn that now, I go into sudo apt-get update.
57 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 49.7MB of archives. After unpacking 3053kB will be used.
Fifteen minutes later the upgrade stops. PostgreSQL is giving me trouble, again.
/var/cache/apt/archives/postgresql-client_7.1release-3_i386.deb E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
I hit apt-get upgrade again, this time getting a lot printout which basically says that the automatic upgrading of my db didn’t work, and asks me Do you want me to continue with the automatic update? [y/N]. Now, the only right answer is – of course – yes. And it works, too. I wonder if these pgsql problems have something to do with the fact that I haven’t created any databases and that postmaster isn’t running during the upgrade?
After restarting X (a lot of X packages were updated), anti-aliasing works again. Oh the miracles of modern technology.
19:00 EEST
I started compiling a new kernel, 2.4.4 to be exact, to get my scanner to work. In the process I noticed make-kpkg didn’t function as it’s supposed to. A moment of digging revealed there was a bug in the package fileutils, luckily a bug that was easy to fix by inserting one line into the source package and rebuilding. No, I didn’t think of that myself, I found it out from the bug report.
Created: Wed Apr 25 09:37:32 EEST 2001 Last modified: Wed May 9 23:12:46 EEST 2001