[kwlug-disc] Debian/Ubuntu dependency management

unsolicited unsolicited at swiz.ca
Tue Aug 12 13:36:11 EDT 2014


 > Leave the following dependencies unresolved:
 > 3) kubuntu-restricted-extras recommends libavcodec-extra-53

Got that this morning too. Accept the recommends.

Feels like some functionality got moved out of extras and into the 
'main'. It uninstalled the extras, installed the new version of the 
main, and all seems happy. Besides, just how upset would you be if an 
avcodec broke on you for a while. (More likely an example of software 
we'll never use coming along for some other dependency ride, cause 
someone deep within doesn't understand that not being able to watch a 
movie on your server with gui really isn't required to be forced upon 
everyone in the world.)

So, I'll modify our recommendations for always hit Q ... take a peek at 
how involved the recommends is suggesting. If like the above, probably 
worth just doing. If it looks like something rather more involved ... 
give it a couple of days.

Particularly with the 'required but X will be installed' or 'conflicts 
with such and so'. I just give it a couple of days. This may also work 
around any half-updated mirror, I suspect. [Favourite: 
http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/... - thanks Kyle (?), ever since your 
note they updated/fixed it, the speed coming from there is just ... cool!]

More than once I've seen the recommends being screenfuls of uninstalls, 
mostly taking all of kde with it ... stop, do not pass go. Wait. 
Probably for quite some time. A basic path choice has changed, whatever 
you are trying to do is causing a go back to square one and install 
separate pathway - this is less a dependency problem than a use / logic 
problem. e.g. IIRC kde-base + kubuntu-desktop settings = minimal kde, 
but come along and try to add kpim later and ... it's a mess. Doable ... 
but ... 'scary'.


As for i386 / x64, I expect my aggravation would have been decreased if 
I had installed both at the beginning - then the upgrade pathways over 
time would have stayed consistent. It was discover of the need to add it 
after the fact that caused most of my aggravation, I suspect. And an 
example of the above screenfuls!

Not a panacea ... way better than anything else I've seen, though. (Not 
that I've tried BSD or such in a long time.)


On 14-08-12 01:01 PM, Khalid Baheyeldin wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 12, 2014 at 12:55 PM, unsolicited <unsolicited at swiz.ca> wrote:
>
>> I doubt this is the case most of the times. Repositories are small enough
>> to sync pretty quickly. In any case, any such issue would be resolved
>> within a couple of hours. They're not that big. If in doubt, switch to the
>> main repository rather than a mirror, or do security updates only, for that
>> moment. (It always astonishes me just how much smaller linux software
>> distribution is - what windows would be if all the cruft were stripped
>> away. It's just an OS and app core functionality, people!)
>>
>
> My guess is that it is a Kubuntu specific thing, which has less of an
> installed base in the *buntu universe, and therefore it was detected later
> than it would have been if it was a Unity thing.
>
> For example, part of the conflicts I was getting was:
>
> Leave the following dependencies unresolved:
> 3) kubuntu-restricted-extras recommends libavcodec-extra-53
>
>
>> Usually best to just say Q (quit) at that point, and give it a couple of
>> days.
>>
>
> That is exactly what I do too.
>
>
>> The last time I encountered this before was when trying to add i386
>> packages to my x64 system, for Wine and Skype IIRC. NOT FUN!
>>
>
> I have the i386 packages too, and for Skype as well. Really annoying when
> you run a 64 bit and have to do this just for one vendor.
>
>
>
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