#apt-get -t unstable install (mixed system)

ekdya · 10-09-2005, 08:07 PM

Hello

my system is testing, 2.6.12, I am trying to install an unstable package which
is in only available in stable and unstable.
below is the output which says that apt will remove 2 packages which
means it will brake the dependences of my packages. what do you do in
this case?

thanks

**************************************************
# apt-get -t unstable install maxima
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
gnuplot-nox libgd2-noxpm libgmp3c2
Suggested packages:
gnuplot-x11 gnuplot-doc libgd-tools texmacs maxima-doc
Recommended packages:
maxima-share
The following packages will be REMOVED:
libgmp3 sawfish-gnome
The following NEW packages will be installed:
gnuplot-nox libgd2-noxpm libgmp3c2 maxima
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 2 to remove and 268 not upgraded.
Need to get 8691kB of archives.
After unpacking 24.0MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] n
Abort.
**************************************************

Dead Parrot · 10-10-2005, 02:29 AM

Have you tried "apt-get -t stable install maxima"?

Installing apps that aren't currently in testing can be a bit of a juggling act between stable, testing and unstable because there's often a good reason why some packages have been, temporarily or permanently, left out of testing. In most cases it's doable but you may need to test several different package combinations, sometimes upgrading a package or two while simultaneously downgrading some other packages and marking some packages to be held in their current version, and all the time carefully avoiding any major breakages.

Another option would be to wait until the package you want will be included in testing, but this can be very frustrating. So sometimes you just have to let some less important things break to get the important packages working and hope that the situation will be fixed in the near future. It is way too easy to get stuck into a "dependency hell", which always makes you appreciate more the incredible work that Debian developers do to make everything go smoothly for you.

lpd · 10-10-2005, 11:05 AM

You might try to rebuild the maxima package on your box.
Sometimes that doesn't work, but at least it's worth a try.
Change into a suitable directory and run:

Code:

apt-get --only-source build-dep maxima
apt-get --only-source -b source maxima
dpkg -i maxima_XX.deb

Hopefully you'll end up with a working package.

ekdya · 10-10-2005, 04:15 PM

the reason why I wouldnot "apt-get -t stable install maxima" is because I need the newest possible version.

as to apt-get --only-source build-dep maxima **************************
[/usr/local] apt-get --only-source build-dep maxima
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
E: Build-dependencies for maxima could not be satisfied.

as to getting the source from the maxima website ***************
[/usr/local] cd maxima-5.9.1.9rc4
[/usr/local/maxima-5.9.1.9rc4] ./configure
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking for clisp... false
checking for gcl... false
checking for lisp... false
checking for sbcl... false
checking for lisp... false
checking for openmcl... false
configure: error: No lisp implementation specified and none of the default executables clisp(clisp),gcl(GCL),lisp(CMUCL),sbcl(SBCL),lisp(ACL6),openmcl(OpenMCL) were found in PATH
[/usr/local/maxima-5.9.1.9rc4]