This is quite frustrating... I reflashed my N810 today because it was acting buggy. So after a fresh flash I start to install the applications I used to use only to find out that I can barely install anything anymore. There are tons of "Unable to install _____" or "_____ failed to install".

Specifically I can't get the rtcomm update to work so I don't have any real IM functionality, and I can't get Canola to work even though it thinks its installed (its in my app list, but won't load). The annoying part is that all of these things were once installed on my N810 without any hassle, how can they be so inconsistent in their instillation?

Did you re-enable the extras repository? . . .

Yes I did, after downloading the rtcomm installer, I run it out of the application launcher and it opens the Application manager, then asks me if I want to install. I hit ok and it says "Unable to install. Software contains updates to packages installed from a different source and is likely to harm the system. Contact software author. Continue installing?" I hit OK, then it starts downloading 2.51MB, but it the progress bar doesn't move, and after a few seconds it says "Downloading rtcom-beta-os2008 failed".

Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

And Canola is being a complete pain, I can't uninstall it because there are a bunch of things that require it. I've never had that issue before. Is there any way I can uninstall it without going around and manually installing all the other things that depend on it? It would be nice if there was an "Uninstall all" button that would remove everything required to remove the application that you'd like to install.

Just for fun, I just uninstalled Canola 2. I didn't have to uninstall anything else, so I don't know what is happening in your case.

And how many other things do you have to uninstall? I have never had to uninstall more than a few things to get something specific uninstalled. That changed an easy task of about two minutes into a horrendous task of -- about five minutes.

I have an N800 with OS2008; it's hard to believe that that makes much difference.

Here are a few things that I do that probably many others don't do. Maybe they help me stay out of trouble, or maybe they will get me into trouble someday

I periodically delete ALL the repositories on my tablet and use the Gronmayer site's one click installer to put them back. That is on the theory that maybe some of the repositories that were broken might be fixed.

I periodically run apt-get update and on some occasions apt-get upgrade. Sometimes there are suggestions to add -f to fix something, and I do that.

I look thru my installed applications and delete the ones that are occasionally marked broken. (xournal, for example).

Interesting... on the Gronmayer site is there one button that will install all defaul repositories, or are you finding them individually on the list? Or maybe you just hit the select all box and install everything?

This problem might be more than just with these applications, it might be something else causing it. I just tried to install modest directly from its website, and I got the same "Downloading Modest failed". I'm really not sure whats going on.

At the risk of saying "me too", let me say this: App installation sucks.

I'm trying to bring my new n800 up to the functionality my 770 had. Now, the 770 was running os2006, and the n800 is running os2008. It's a bigger, beefier machine, and so it should have many advantages. I now have lots of stuff on the n800 that the 770 never had. But things i had and still want include:

native C compiler. Can't find it. Don't tell me to use sbox.
gpecalender, gpetodo - doesn't install. I think it's some library. I recall tracking down a library on the 770, but don't recall how i got it.

Things i never had:
apache - doesn't install.

Some apps that used to work are no longer in the repositories.
Some apps install fine if you happened to load them after some other app that happens to pull in some required library.
Etc.

I regularly back up my data, but have not found a way to back up my apps.
For repeatability, i'm considering downloading .deb's to my desktop and installing them on the tablet only from there. Then i'd be able to restore all my apps after reflash. Maybe after my next reflash. The problem is that, when it works, it's really convenient to install over wifi with the app manager, possibly pointed by the web browser. "Click here to install".

I'm also, unfortunately, very aware of how a broken repository or app can screw up a system.

In addition to the apps installation being quite poor, there are some really poorly described apps out there. This weekend, i installed 'flite'. The install went fine. But i'd skipped it because the description said, "This is a port of flite for the 770." That told me nothing. But Google knows better, and 'flite' is a smaller, faster version of 'festival', written from the ground up in C. I'd never heard of flite, but i use 'festival' on my desktop all the time for text to speech. And, on the Nokia, it's a pretty exciting idea to be able to download a book in plain text from gutenberg.org and have it read to me on the fly like a podcast. Only, i don't have to store the audio, so it doesn't take huge amounts of space on my flash. There's currently no GUI, but i can cope with that.

This description thing might be approached in the wiki. There seems to be a section aimed that way, but with zero content. Should i start editing?

<Rant>
I'm in the same boat -- just upgraded to the latest minor rev change of the OS, and lost all my custom installed apps. As a n00b to the IT, I've got to say I was more than mildly alarmed. (Picture me sitting here at my table, shouting out loud, cursing, and ready to fling my N800 and never pick it up again...) I mean, even Canola and the FM radio -- back to square zero!

I can't think of too many OS's that completely wipe out all your user settings for a minor rev upgrade. Call me biased (my background is in OpenVMS, where I can still run apps that were written 30 years ago on VAXen on modern day Itanium systems without a recompile, and I go for years between reboots!), but this is a piss poor way of doing things.

It's big things like this that give this unit the rep of being only for hardcore hackers, and not a consumer friendly device.

Pardon me, I've got to go -- I've got a couple dozen more apps to reinstall now...

stop that, you're making me nostalgic for when I was a student on placement at Philips Radio Communications Systems and I worked as a junior operator on the VAXen (the biggest was an 8800)!

yeah exactly how i felt. The thing here is that rtcomm installer installs in your extras and you have to run it from there. And regarding canola use canola cleanup and start afresh