- Site menu:
- Latest Discussions
- Latest Newswire
- Archives
- Submit Story
- Story HOWTO
- Syndicate
- E-mail Alerts
How I Accidentally Un-Installed Synaptic - The Debian Chronicles
The next day I got started on the to-do list we made in Part 1. After I got the Video card and CD drive switched out I wanted to erase Ubuntu and re-format the partition it was on. My friend suggested I use GParted so I took his advice and downloaded the Live-CD, burned it to CD-R and re-booted the computer directly into the program. GParted quickly read the two hard drives and provided a nice straight forward menu of all the partitions. Here's what they looked like:
hda1 ext/3 4.6g Ubuntu install. You may be asking yourself why I went through the trouble to erase a perfectly good Ubuntu install and change the format on the partition for no reason, good question. If I'm installing Debian why should I keep Ubuntu around if I never use it and I had never used GParted and wanted to check it out. It could be used to test other Linux Distributions like Sidux or PCLinuxOS and Damn Small Linux, or DSL for short. I formatted hda1 and then hdb1 to ReiserFS and then had to boot into Windows and use its partition program to reformat hda4 fat-32 partition into NTFS so that Windows would actually let me install programs and games on it. Why am I keeping Windows again? I felt bad using a whole CD-R disk for a 35meg install program but it was a whole lot cheaper than downloading and burning four or five DVD's of software that would only get used once. With a fresh pot of coffee all to myself and the to-do list completed I finally put "the rubber to the road". I started a pot of coffee, put the install disk in and re-booted the computer.. After answering the basic questions like name, language and location, the install program asked me where I wanted to install it. I chose hdb1 as the destination and slammed my second cup of coffee as I watched the install program pull everything from the Internet and install it at the same time. I was sweating a little from the excitement, trepidation and seriously strong coffee I make. On the boot screen Debian was added to the list of boot options but I noticed is that there was still an option for Ubuntu even though it wasn't there anymore, I'll worry about that later. It was now done with the basic installation. I got XChat up and running and got on IRC with my friend so that I could ask him for help if I needed it, which I did, a lot. I thought that I would be able to choose the GUI during the install with but Gnome is the default GUI when doing a net install. Gnome is nice but I have been using KDE for 3 or 4 years now and I am kinda stuck on it. With the basic install done, it was time to really get my feet wet setting up and using Synaptic. My friend had all kinds of info and helped me configure it like his and we added repositories and all kinds of stuff so I would be able to get all KDE and all software I could ever want. So my friend asks, "You like KDE right?, you want to upgrade to KDE 3.5.6?, it should be easy", I respond with my best Forrest Gump impression "okay". He guided me through configuring Synaptic and the software repositories. We enabled the 'experimental' repositories at which point he tells me that "very few people run Debian using the experimental repositories all the time but don't worry we are only going to enable them long enough to get the KDE upgrade and then we will go back to using the stable and testing repo's". I followed his direction and we got the experimental repositories loaded into Synaptic and I checked the KDE packages for upgrade. This is where I made a critical mistake, I didn't look closely (or at all really) at what the program listed as going to be installed, upgraded and (especially) un-installed. I was completely unaware of challenge that lay in front me as I hit the apply button... Everything upgraded and looked to fine and dandy until I went to open up Synaptic again, because it wasn't there. At first I thought I was just wasn't seeing it but nope, it was gone. I had somehow managed to un-install the software installation program on my own computer. Only I could do something that stupid, My grandfathers words rang in my head "The only difference between Genius and Stupidity is, that Genius has its limits". I am living proof he was right. After my self loathing ebbed to a manageable level I started to figure out what went wrong. opened up a terminal window and tried to install Synaptic by means of apt-get but that failed to to dependency problems. So I looked at the list and tried to determine which ones in particular were keeping me from successfully re-installing Synaptic. I will spare you the hours of frustration involved with the trial and error process of narrowing down the list of culprit programs that I needed. Here's what I figured out after the adrenaline rush of my temper tantrum subsided, or maybe it was the coffee.. To resolve a dependency Synaptic had upgraded libvte4 to libvte9 which for some reason needed to un-install Synaptic to do so and would not allow me to re-install it until I had deleted libvte9 and re-installed libvte4. I must say that in figuring out what I did and how to fix it I was taught a lesson in patience and humility. I will never again not take the time to look over just exactly what is going to be added and taken away when I hit the upgrade or install button ever again. Needles to say I have KDE 3.5.6 and all is well. I returned my repositories to 'testing' but I don't think I will be venturing into the 'experimental' repo's for a while, if ever. So in my next installment I start to get more than just my feet wet running Debian and I wonder aloud why I have to call my browser Iceweasel instead of Firefox. |
|
|
Comments (21)
Etch vs. Testing
Any dist or blind upgrade at this point is probably foolish if you keep testing. Actually, if you use synaptic, it's going to be quite obvious that things have changed. Just don't grab for all that new stuff ;-)
Oh, and, Scotts problem wasn't that he got something from experimental, but that he failed to check what was to be removed. Many of us have been running kde 3.5.6 for some time and it's quite 'stable'.
Its funny though, I have been running Debian for 5 or 6 years and while I dont know when expiremental came into being I do know that I have yet to had any burning reason to even make an entry for it in my sources.list. Once in a blue moon do I find reason to uncomment unstable and go looking for anything in there, the last time was about 6 to 9 months ago when I was playing with getting the nvidia drivers and using Etch.
I usually find tesing to be perfectly acceptable except for the first month or two after an unfreeze.
Yep. A wise move. I usually keep all the basic system in testing and only go outside that when I'm pretty sure I can safely downgrade to recover. Another tip is to let your friends be the first to try the new stuff first :D
The theory is that normally anything that moves from unstable to testing is that its been the system and been run through a few times, there are no major bugs or dependancy issues and hasnt really blown anyones system up. The Debian folks run a few scripts on it and if all goes well after a waiting period it automagically moves into testing.
This is great when there isnt a freeze on in preperation for a new stable release as packages trickle in and glaring errors show up quickly and can be dealt with in litle or no time. The freeze however has been on for some months now which means all kinds of unseen or unnoticed bugs and dependancy issues could be lurking just waiting to hit testing to show their ugly heads.
It makes for a good argument for snapshoting the testing repo at the time of the freeze and then freezing only the next stable instead of freezing the entire testing branch. That however makes too much sense so probably wont ever happen.
I'm usually on IRC Server: irc.oftc.net Channel: #debcentral Nick: R0nin
In the evenings I'm also on Server: freenode Channel:#mepis
If you need help, or just want to talk, there are a lot of good, knowledgeable users that hang there. Most of them don't even run Mepis :D
I don't knock Mepis anymore. It's the only distribution that would run without any problems on my wife's new laptop (Compaq Presario C502US). It even starts the wireless without a problem. If not for Mepis I would be running Vista while babysitting my son.
Not knocking, just noting. Most there, including myself, started with Mepis too. Better that people start with Mepis where we know they'll get decent support and guidance. they can move to Debian or something else when they get their sea legs.
That's also what I tell people who want to start using Debian. Try stable. Make that work for you, and if you like it and begin to worry about "outdated" applications, _then_ move to Unstable.
After that, what, LFS?
Entirely up to them. At that point they have the info :D
dselect
Type dselect as root with command line.
I've tried tasksel, which I dumped because it wouldn't let me choose _which_ desktop to install. I like granularity of control.
I will sometimes run "apt-get update ; apt-get upgrade" in a relatively stable system, because just "upgrade" will not erase anything. No conflicting packages are erased, and any packages that conflict with the installed packages will be left "unupgraded".
dselect is the same as running "apt-get dist-upgrade", since conflicted packages will in fact be deleted. That is what happened in the original article.
But using both dselect and apt-get, apt prompts and says, "The following packages will be REMOVED, y/n?" first, so there is no excuse, just someone who didn't pay attention.
Synaptic gives you the same warnings.
Quoting:I've tried tasksel, which I dumped because it wouldn't let me choose _which_ desktop to install. I like granularity of control.
tasksel knows about kde-dektop as well, but it's hidden by default. There's a CLI option to make it available, not to mention special Debian Installer ISO's for KDE.
/me head swells...
Post a comment
A free account is needed to post. Write your comment here first: your text is kept in this browser while you sign up or log in, and is waiting for you when you come back.
Your message:Sign up and post (it is free) or Log in and post