handling dependencies

[Ewan Mac Mahon]

On Sat, Jun 24, 2006 at 09:47:29PM -0700, maxim wexler wrote:
> > I'm not sure this'll work, but try explicitly removing gpsim with
> > 'apt-get remove gpsim', then try the 'apt-get -f install' to fix up
> > any remaining damage. Also get a net connection (can you?) and
> > apt-get update, then apt-get install gpsim to get the Breezy
> > version.
 
> booyah at ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get remove gpsim
> Password:
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree... Done
> Package gpsim is not installed, so not removed
> 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not
> upgraded.

OK - well that's probably a good sign, but to double check try doing:
dpkg -l gpsim

Which should list the package status,, including the 'half-installed'
states, which should tell us for certain whether or not it's completely
off.

> W: Couldn't stat source package list
> http://us.archive.ubuntu.com breezy/main Packages
> (/var/lib/apt/lists/us.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_breezy_main_binary-i386_Packages)
> - stat (2 No such file or directory)
> W: Couldn't stat source package list
<snip similar>
> W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these
> problems
>

> > Also, try to work out how you've got into this state of mixing
> > Breezy and Dapper packages - this may not be the only problem.
> 
> How I got into this state? Lessee, couldn't use apt-get so I
> downloaded gpsim_0.20.14-7.3_i386.deb and did dpkg -i which resulted
> in all those dep problems.

OK - I see. The original problem is with apt's package lists (more
below) the new problem is that you've tried to install the Dapper build
of gpsim, and it wants to pull in bits of Dapper, which it can't (and
you presumably don't want anyway). I think it looks like you've got the
dapper version of gpsim completely off now (the dpkg -l will tell us for
sure), so now we need to fix the original apt problem, then get the
Breezy version of gpsim installed.

> And whenever I start synaptic a Warning! box opens:
> 
> W: Couldn't stat source package list http://us.archive.ubuntu.com
> breezy/main Packages
> (/var/lib/apt/lists/us.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_breezy_main_binary-i386_Packages)
> - stat (2 No such file or directory) W: Couldn't stat source package
<snip more> 
> Hmm, a good candidate for the "rest of the problem"?
>
Yup. The way apt-get works is to download lists of available packages
and store them locally, it then uses those to work out what is available
from the repositories. You system seems to be missing those lists. Both
apt-get from the command line and synaptic are complaining about the
same thing. If you just look in /var/lib/apt/lists/ with ls, nautilus,
whatever you should, in principle, see these list files, one per section
of the repository. On your system that directory is probably (almost)
empty. Running 'apt-get update' will fix it. This situation shouldn't
ever happen, but there was a bug in apt-get that would cause it if it
tried to update while the net connection was down:
<https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/apt/+bug/23965>

An up to date Breezy install should have the fix for that - is it
possible that your system is not fully updated?

 
> In synaptic I found gpsim listed under 'uninstalled' and marked it for
> install and got this error box(red circle- white line through it):
> 
> gpsim:
> 
> Package gpsim has no available version, but exists in the database.
> This typically means that the package was mentioned in a dependency
> and never uploaded, has been obsoleted or is not available with the
> contents of sources.list

The missing package lists mean that when you ask either apt-get or
synaptic to install gpsim they've no idea where to get a copy. If you
can get 'apt-get update' to work then you should just be able to 
'apt-get install gpsim' in the usual way.


> Sorry for all the verbosity, didn't know what to leave out ;)
>
Don't worry - more information is always better than less.
 
> I'll try apt-get update. How does that differ, if at all, from using
> synaptic?
> 
It doesn't really, 'apt-get update' is the equivalent of doing 'reload'
in synaptic - they both get new copies of the package lists. The main
advantage of using apt-get at the command at times like this is that the
errors are more easily cut-n-pasted into email :-)

> BTW, I'm on a verrrry slow dialup that maxes out at 2.9k/s, one of the
> hazards of country living.
> 
That could make life a little awkward. Do you have access to a faster
connection anwhere else (even a Windows box)? It might be that the best
approach for the future is to get your machine to generate a list of
things to download, take the list to somewhere with a faster connection,
grab everything onto (for example) a USB stick, then take them home and
install them.

Ewan

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