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I had fun with the N800 when I first got it, but I'm at the point of giving up on it and chucking it in a drawer forever. The problem is repositories: seemed like a good idea at first, but boy is the implementation screwed up. I'm at my wits end with this. I was willing to invest a few hours getting repositories sorted out one time at the start, and I don't mind having to do an occasional minor fix, but I'm frustrated with applications that break for no apparent reason and turn out to have time-sucking repository problems when I try to update or re-install them. I'm starting to think that Nokia's future efforts with devices like the N900 are doomed to never enjoy much success if they can't improve this situation.

Case in point, now Canola doesn't work any more on my N800 since the last time I used it (finds local media files but says the file is not found when I try to play it). No apparent reason why it's suddenly broken. When I try to re-install it, it complains about dozens of missing dependencies (a lot to do with Python, which I also re-installed, and lightmediascanner). Why?? It installed fine when I first installed it, and I haven't removed any repositories. I've visited the Canola site and added their latest repository, no help.

So what the heck do I do now? It would take hours to painstakingly follow up each missing dependency in the Details list, locate repositories for each of tem, go through the process of adding them with all the long, long waits and frequent crashes. And I'm not sure it would help in the end, because those repositories should have been there in the first place. And am I going to see the same problem again next month for no apparent reason?

Can anyone suggest where I can find the right set of repositories, or at least how to fix the Canola problem?

Did you use Canola cleanup to uninstall? If you didn't, please try it. Canola problems haven been discussed recently in multimedia forum. I didn't have the exactly same problem as you but I also had problems with lightmediascanner. It was fixed by running clean up, installing latest Canola AND tuning plugin. You need the tuning also to get all basic features to work since basic Canola install is (still?) broken.

Hordeman's post in previously mentioned thread about repositories.

When I had similar problems I ran Canola2 Cleanup, and then reinstalled Canola.

I think your problem may also be that Canola2 was "updated," for better or for worse, recently. Users posting on this thread about that update have said that, in addition to using Canola Clean-up before re-installing, you have to install Canola Tuning Plug-In after installing Canola for it to work right.

Thank you all for your help! Canola is back in operation after I ran Canola Cleanup and re-installed.

But really, what a horror story these repositories are ...

I installed the Canola UPNP plugin, but it still doesn't see UPNP feeds. Is UPNP still broken in Canola?

You've had trouble with one package so the repositories are now a "horror story". . . .

No, General, it wasn't just this one package, one time. You've been around here long enough to know that there have been many problems with repositories, and I've had plenty of them personally. Sometimes you need to take a step back to see how it looks to people who don't have your deep expertise. Nokia is trying to attract new users to Maemo in competition with Apple, RIM, Palm, Microsoft etc. The Debian repositories scheme was a good idea that could have been an advantage in user convenience. Instead I think it has become a disadvantage because of poor management. This is my personal viewpoint, but it's an honest one based on personal experience - take it for what it's worth.

DJames1, I can understand that you were upset because of the Canola installation, but I really think that it was a problem with Canola and not the repositories. Personally, I've only had issues with Canola installations; though, I do have it working now. Can you provide any other examples where you had issues with the repos?

you can stay as you are for the rest of your life or you can change to mainstay