Thread: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
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sulu is offline sulu
2011-09-01 , 18:16
Posts: 915 | Thanked: 3,209 times | Joined on Jan 2011 @ Germany
#2385
Originally Posted by oldpmaguy View Post
I have a question/problem. I'm getting all sorts of unmet dependencies when I try to install apps via the Synaptic Package Manager.
Easy Debian is a mix of mainly two Debian releases. It's about 1/3 Lenny or Oldstable (the previous release) and 2/3 Squeeze or Stable (the current release). In general mixing releases is a bad idea because it easily breaks things. However in this case this mix was necessary to get a working system because some functions depend on interactions with Maemo which uses software that is between those two Debian releases.
This is why it's pretty hard to add new software to Easy Debian.

Originally Posted by oldpmaguy View Post
So, I tried enabling a bunch more of the repositories (well, all of them!). That only made thi gs worse, I'm afraid.
Yes, this made things worse. I'd suggest to start with a fresh image. I usually have 3 images of Easy Debian on my N900:
1. The one I'm working with which contains all the changes I've made.
2. A backup of 1. which is in a state I believe to be working in case 1. breaks.
3. A stock image in case I was wrong with 2.

Currently I even have 5 images, 1. and 2. for Lenny and Squeeze. I'm trying to sort that mixed release problem out by doing a full dist-upgrade to Squeeze so that there are no packages from Lenny left. If you read the last two pages of this thread you'll find that I'm pretty close to a solution but to be honest I'm not yet sure if I'll be successful. If I am I'll lose sound support in Easy Debian but I'm fine with that.

Originally Posted by oldpmaguy View Post
So my question is, what are the "default", optimal repositories that should be enabled?
If it was a normal Debian the answer would be to only activate the Stable repository but this is no normal Debian and there is no easy answer.

Originally Posted by oldpmaguy View Post
And what should I do about unmet dependencies?
The only thing you can do is to try to upgrade or install a package, watch very attentively what changes this will cause and maybe abort the process (and depending on the situation chose another repository to install the package from). To judge that needs quite a lot of experience. I'm sorry, but there is no easy answer.

Originally Posted by oldpmaguy View Post
(Specifically I was trying to get mplayer installed.)
Pretty long ago I did that too. I think I remember that the version from Lenny Multimedia was working better than the one from Squeeze. But I found it doesn't make much sense. mplayer is also available for Maemo and there it will be able to profit from some hardware acceleration. So if your goal is not to tinker with Easy Debian but to get a working mplayer I'd suggest to install it in Maemo.
 

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