[Ubuntu 8.10] Need help getting out of odd update manager loop

[David Karr]

On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 5:30 PM, H.S. <hs.samix at gmail.com> wrote:

> David Karr wrote:
> > On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 3:33 PM, Scott Abbey <scott at eotr.net> wrote:
> >
> >> On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 6:21 PM, David Karr <davidmichaelkarr at gmail.com
> >
> >> wrote:
> >>> On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 3:05 PM, H.S. <hs.samix at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>> Which exact repo did you add? Right after you added this repo and
> >>>> checked for upgrades and installed the above two packages, were these
> >>>> the only packages that were needed to be upgraded/installed?
> >>> Ah! I didn't pay attention to this right after it, but now I see that
> the
> >>> new repo is the key to this.
> >>>
> >>> The repo URI was "http://http.us.debian.org/debian".
> >> Be very careful adding repos to your system. Debian's repos are *not*
> >> compatible with Ubuntu, generally speaking. Key libraries are at
> >> different versions and can cause major havoc to an Ubuntu system. It
> >> appears you've lucked out this time, but for future reference, don't
> >> just add any old repo to your sources. My personal suggestion, for
> >> simplicity's sake, is to stick to the official Ubuntu repos and the
> >> occasional launchpad.net PPA. If you absolutely must have a package
> >> that can't be installed from one of those two, you can try downloading
> >> *just the package* from Debian.
> >>
> >
> > In this case, I was only using it to install an Emacs lisp package. In
> the
> > future, if I have to do that again, I'll enable the repo, install just
> that
> > package, and disable the repo.  If it's for anything else, I'll keep it
> away
> > from update manager.
>
> One can do this very systematically such that you can add the repo and
> it will be checked only for that package. You need to look at apt
> documentation for that. This is a relatively more common thing in Debian
> where can be running, say, Debian Testing and using Nvidia package from
> Debian Unstable. The key is the /etc/apt/preferences file and I think
> you need to look at apt pinning and also the "-t" option of aptitude (or
> apt-get). All this, of course, if you want to go down this path. Not
> sure how this works in Ubuntu though (mixing Hardy, Interpid, Juanty, or
> even Debian); works wonderfully in Debian.
>

I'll definitely take a look at this.  For a one-time shot, it was easy
enough to limit the package list to just the single elisp module I wanted.
My mistake was forgetting to remove the repo after I installed the elisp
module.


>
> Take a look at this:
> http://debian-book-bg.openfmi.net/queue/apt-pinning.html
>
> Trust me, the dpkg from Debian is one of the best package managers I
> have ever seen. And it is quite flexible while robust. No wonder
> Canonical chose Debian to base Ubuntu on. :)
>
>
> >
> >>> Any reason not to proceed with the flash plugin update at this point?
> >> You should be ok now that you've disable the Debian repo. Go ahead and
> >> delete that repo entirely to avoid future snafus.
> >>
> >
> > I think I'm ok with leaving it there, but unchecked, if I have to install
> > any other Emacs lisp packages again.  I'll never forget the impact of it
> > now. :)
>
> Here is what I do in such special cases. I add the repo and then use the
> terminal to do the updates.
> to update:
> $> sudo aptitude update
>
> then do a simulated update:
> $> sudo aptitude -sV safe-update
>
> where "s" tells to simulate only and "V" tell to show version.
>
> If I want to install a package <package>, then
> $> sudo aptitude -s install <package>
>
> In short, use "-s" switch to see what will happen. It shows all the
> details of what will or will not happen without actually doing anything.
>

It was easy enough to essentially do this graphically. I'll keep this in
mind next time, though.
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