dpkg/synaptic help

[ThaddeusW]

Ok I have a laptop with debain sarge 10.0 on it as well. I installed a package that depends on other packages that I cannot install. Ok no problem I think as I try to remove the broken package. Well now synaptic wants to remove 20+ packages that of course are needed. Why does synaptic and dpkg insist on removing every bloody thing just to remove one package? Why cant it just remove the one package and make life simple? I am having allot fun learning linux, today I got cups to print to my network printer. Linux is great but once you hit a problem like this it is very discouraging.

[Vergil83]

what program did you did you install?

you might try running

apt-get -f install

[ThaddeusW]

Well it all started when I installed wine. I added the wine repository to synaptic and found I needed a library called libxxf86dga1 in order to get the latest wine to run. So I get that package and install it. then It says I needed a newer version of libc6 so I get the new libc6 and install that. Then upon trying to re install libxxf86dga1 it also says I need x11-common which conflicts with the xfree86-common that is already installed. Ok i think forget about wine for now, let me remove libxxf86dga1 because synaptic says its broken and wont let me install anything unless it is fixed.

So now I cant remove libxxf86dga1unless I un install a whole bunch of x related stuff along with g++ and a whole bunch of other things. I dont get why it has to remove these things just to get rid of a few files. I read that debian has a pretty hellish package system and to steer clear of it. I now see why. Since I am a newbie should dump debian and switch to fedora or should I keep fighting till I get it workin (my gut feeling is to fight and learn). All help is greatly appreciated.

[Vergil83]

Well it all started when I installed wine. I added the wine repository to synaptic and found I needed a library called libxxf86dga1 in order to get the latest wine to run. So I get that package and install it. then It says I needed a newer version of libc6 so I get the new libc6 and install that. Then upon trying to re install libxxf86dga1 it also says I need x11-common which conflicts with the xfree86-common that is already installed. Ok i think forget about wine for now, let me remove libxxf86dga1 because synaptic says its broken and wont let me install anything unless it is fixed.

So now I cant remove libxxf86dga1unless I un install a whole bunch of x related stuff along with g++ and a whole bunch of other things. I dont get why it has to remove these things just to get rid of a few files. I read that debian has a pretty hellish package system and to steer clear of it. I now see why. Since I am a newbie should dump debian and switch to fedora or should I keep fighting till I get it workin (my gut feeling is to fight and learn). All help is greatly appreciated.

ok, I see the issue now. Wine told you to install their packages (this is wine's fault). The newest wine package isn't in stable for a reason, because libxxf86dga1 is not in stable. And that program is not in stable because stable has not gone to x.org yet.

You have two options if you want to use debian. If you want to stay stable, trying doing

apt-get -f install

If that doesn't fix the issue, uninstall that package anyway, the reinstall x and everyone you want. Then install the stable version of wine.
If you don't mind running testing, change your

 /etc/apt/sources.list

to testing, then

apt-get update 
apt-get dist-upgrade

and everything should fix itself.

[farslayer]

. I read that debian has a pretty hellish package system and to steer clear of it. I now see why..

Actually Debian has one of the EASIEST & BEST package managemtn systems of any distro I have worked with. I don't know where you read that, but it's pretty wrong imho.

Now if the user tries to force the system to install incompatable/unsupported packages (as you apparently did ) well that will give any distro a headache regardless of what package management system it uses..

I would have simplty done an apt-get install wine and let the package management system deal with the dependancies.

[Vergil83]

Actually Debian has one of the EASIEST & BEST package managemtn systems of any distro I have worked with. I don't know where you read that, but it's pretty wrong imho.

Now if the user tries to force the system to install incompatable/unsupported packages (as you apparently did ) well that will give any distro a headache regardless of what package management system it uses..

I would have simplty done an apt-get install wine and let the package management system deal with the dependancies.

if you look at wine's site they complain about how old wine in stable is.

Note to Debian users: The packages included in the main distribution are currently very out of date. We're working on having the latest packages available officially from Debian's servers, but until then we suggest you install the latest Wine by using our apt repository here

http://www.winehq.com/site/howto
They should included this doesn't work with stable.

[AwesomeMachine]

When you install a package in debian from source, that is, not a debian package, you don't use debian tools to unistall it. Go in the source directory and do:

make unistall

Expecting debian to uninstall packages it never installed is a little unreasonable. Also, what is the problem with just leaving the package you want to remove on the hard drive. It probably takes up 27 K, or some such size. Just leave it if your having problems. Linux isn't like windows, where the whole disk fills up if you don't clean it out. Linux stays pretty tidy.

If you really want to get rid of that package, just let debian unistall everything it wants to. If you need any of that again, install it again. G++ isn't used very much, mostly only gcc.

[ThaddeusW]

Hmmm ok I see where I went wrong.

AwesomeMachine: wasnt from source, I got it from the debian packages page.

My problem isnt with the pakage sitting on the disk, thats not a problem. Its that since it has a dependency that I cannot install (x11-common) its is reported broken by synaptic and will not let me install anything until its fixed. Right now I am going to forget about wine. I also didnt force it to install anything it just installed with dpkg.

I really need libxxf86dga1 to go away, is there any way I can delete the entry from the synaptic DB just to get synaptic running and delete the files for that package? I dont want to uninstall half the system just for one package.