Gutsy upgrade nightmare

[Mario Vukelic]

On Tue, 2007-11-06 at 20:51 -0700, Art Edwards wrote:
> Here is what I get when I try to remove texlive-lang-french:
> 
> Setting up texlive-lang-french (2007.dfsg.1-3) ...
> Running mktexlsr. This may take some time... done.
> Running updmap-sys. This may take some time... done.
> Building format(s) --byhyphen .
>         This may take some time... 
> fmtutil-sys failed. Output has been stored in
> /tmp/fmtutil.YCGI8170
> Please include this file if you report a bug.
> dpkg: error processing texlive-lang-french (--configure):
>  subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
> I get this when I have asked to remove the package.
> The file /tmp/fmtutil.YCGI8170 contains
> fmtutil: no format depends on `//'.

I see. This is clearly a bug in the package, which you should file in
Launchpad, along with /tmp/fmtutil.YCGI8170

See https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/+filebug

Sorry, I have no experience with this package and don't know how to fix
it. 


> I have a couple of  related issues with this. First, for both nvidia and
> ati cards, one is required to use a restricted module, or a binary from the
> manufacturer, u less you want really slow graphics (indirect rendering). This violates
> the spirit of GNU/Linux. I choose to use a binary driver, but I think
> the default should be free, open software in a linux distribution,
> especially one derived from Debian.

Ubuntu has a very clear policy on this, and it's no use discussing it
here since its "pragmatic" handling of driver and codec issues
contributes greatly to its popularity. There are other forums and
mailing lists for this topics.

For those who absolutely want only free software there is Gobuntu [1]
and an endless number of other distributions, including Debian proper,
but note this also means you laptop WLAN won't work in many cases, along
with many other things.

There is little use for Ubuntu to be just like Debian.

[1] http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/gobuntu

> > Personally I think that there is much to learn about how to use 3D
> > acceleration of the desktop to improve usability, but the exposé-like
> > overview (F12 I think) is a definite winner, as is the new Alt-Tab
> > behavior, and for I think that the desktop switch animation makes it
> > much easier to new users to understand what is going on.
> >
> >   
> I think that's a hard argument to make. 

You do not really provide any counter arguments though

> First, I think more of
> productivity than usability. 

This may be so, but other people think more of usability than
productivity. Besides, the two go hand in hand.

> A bare-bones windowing system is usually
> sufficient to get, say, 85%-90% of the possible productivity
> enhancement. 

In your humble opinion  ;)

> Only if you spend your life making video's would you notice
> anything above raw X.

It's not about speed, really.

> I had beryl in feisty, but I found it more
> distracting than helpful, so I dropped it.

Well, I guess it depends on what effects you had enabled, no? I have
already explained why I like some of the animations.

This really is the wrong list for such discussions, but we'll keep it
short ;)