Hoary Hosed: synaptic in dependency hell

[Bob Nielsen]

On Thu, Jul 21, 2005 at 10:48:25AM +1000, Peter Garrett wrote:
> On Wed, 20 Jul 2005 17:27:14 -0700
> "Kevin O'Gorman" <kogorman at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > On 7/20/05, Kevin O'Gorman <kogorman at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > On 7/20/05, Xavier Poinsard <xpoinsard at openpricer.com> wrote:
> > > > Kevin O'Gorman a écrit :
> > > > > My Warty never made it all the way to Hoary.  The problem of most
> > > > > pressing importance
> > > > > is that synaptic is complaining so much I cannot tell what is working
> > > > > and what is not when
> > > > > How do I clear this up, so that I can go about my business?
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > did you try "sudo apt-get dist-upgrade" ?
> > > 
> > > No.  I don't remember ever hearing or reading about it.  I'm trying it now, and
> > > will report results.
> > > 
> > > Thanks.
> > 
> > Results were poor.  Here's part of what I got.  Unfortunately, I don't know what
> > it takes to do the "configuration" that seems required.
> > 
> > 
> > Setting up xfsprogs (2.6.20-1) ...
> > dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of ubuntu-base:
> >  ubuntu-base depends on at; however:
> >   Package at is not configured yet.
> >  ubuntu-base depends on mailx; however:
> >   Package mailx is not configured yet.
> >  ubuntu-base depends on mutt; however:
> >   Package mutt is not configured yet.
> >  ubuntu-base depends on postfix; however:
> >   Package postfix is not configured yet.
> >  ubuntu-base depends on postfix-tls; however:
> >   Package postfix-tls is not configured yet.
> > dpkg: error processing ubuntu-base (--configure):
> >  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
> 
> It might be worth posting your " /etc/apt/sources.list "  file ...
> If you are sure the file is OK: - Have you tried 
> 
> sudo apt-get -f install   # without any packages - just the command, as at left of the "#"

Sometimes it is necessary to alternately run 'apt-get dist-upgrade' and 
'apt-get -f install' a few times before everything gets installed and 
configured.