openoffice / other broken packages in sid

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Thu, Jul 28, 2005 at 07:17:26PM -0400, Daniel Armstrong wrote:
> Today I did a base install of Debian on my laptop, upgraded to Sid...
> 
> ---------------------------------------
> 
> (my sources.list)
> # unstable archives
> deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
> 
> # unstable archives - src
> deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
> 
> -----------------------------------------
> 
> ... did my...
> 
> sudo apt-get update
> sudo apt-get -u dist-upgrade
> 
> ....and successfully installed xserver-xorg and a number of other
> packages. But when I tried to install OpenOffice or its components I
> get a slew of broken dependencies:
> 
> $ sudo apt-get install openoffice.org
> Password:
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree... Done
> 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.
> 
> Since you only requested a single operation it is extremely likely that
> the package is simply not installable and a bug report against
> that package should be filed.
> The following information may help to resolve the situation:
> 
> The following packages have unmet dependencies:
>   openoffice.org: Depends: openoffice.org-debian-files (> 1.1.3+1.1.4)
> but it is not going to be installed
>                   Depends: openoffice.org-bin (> 1.1.3+1.1.4) but it
> is not going to be installed
> E: Broken packages
> 
> ------------------------------------------------
> 
> Subsequently, I found other big packages with broken installs such as
> the Gimp and Gnome. I tried a repeated install attempt after another
> apt-get update with no luck. Any other Debian users experiencing a
> pile of broken packages? Any suggested workarounds? I Googled around
> but not sure why so much appears to be broken or how to fix.

Sarge was recently released.

As a result a pile of new stuff that was on hold has now entered sid
(unstable).  Things that have recently entered or are in the middle of
entering are:

x.org
gcc 4.0
postgresql 8
new gnome, new kde, new many other things.

As a result of changing to gcc 4.0, the C++ ABI has changed from version
1.0.2 to version 2, which means all c++ programs and libraries must be
recompiled and reuploaded.  This means a pile of things using c++
libraries are currently uninstallable since some of the libraries they
depend on have been replaced with the new ones and others have not, and
until all the libraries are updated the program itself can't be
recompiled.  It's a lovely mess, and well that's what happens every time
the gcc developers change the C++ ABI.

This is also one of the reasons they call it 'unstable'.  It is where
transitions occour, and right now we have got a number of them at the
same time.  It is perfectly normal, and should hopefully be under
control in the next week or two.

Lennart Sorensen
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