Debian: Broken packages, bug

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Tue, Nov 01, 2011 at 09:07:34AM -0400, Russell Reiter wrote:
> They are all important lines, sometime's you have to read between them.

Certainly true.  Certainly in this case the important line would have been:
E: /var/cache/apt/archives/gstreamer0.10-gconf_0.10.30-1_amd64.deb:
 trying to overwrite '/usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstgconfelements.so',
 which is also in package gstreamer0.10-plugins-good 0.10.24-1

> You mean your malfunctioning Nautilus doesn't use mime types?

I would hope it does.  On the other hand mime types probably don't have
anything to do with the package conflict in this case.  They could be
an issue later if something doesn't work with gstreamer (as is often
the case).

> It doesn't start at all, or it starts and doesn't parse and display
> directory contents.

Probably depends how far dpkg can before running into conflicts.

> Unmet dependencies are not quite the same as not being installed
> properly. That message says in effect, it should work when you meet
> those dependencies. How you meet them is up to you.

In the interest of future upgrades, meeting them through apt would make
sense.  Sure equivs can be used to convince apt that you have done so,
but isn't usually the first choice.

> Each of those packages that apt cannot handle at this time may be
> compiled and installed one at a time to meet those unmet dependencies.

It would be more productive to get the debian source package and fixing
the control file to have the missing 'Replaces' that the bug report says
it needs.  Still would need compiling, but much less messy and easier
to maintain.  Meeting the dependancy of the code is one thing, but
meeting the dependancies of the packaging system is another.

> Personally, I have never been able to keep a gnome system which deals
> with video and audio streaming without having to hand bomb something
> into the configuration.

Gnome and gstreamer certainly can be hassle.  I think I usually end up
using mplayer in the end after giving up on whatever gnome has tried
to do.

-- 
Len Sorensen
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