Notices

this happens when I try to install this canola plugin from 3rd party repository:

/home/user # apt-get install canola2-youtube-plugin
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
hildon-update-category-database libfreetype6
libglib2.0-0 libhildonfm2 libhildonmime0 libmad0
libogg0 libosso1 libtheora0 mplayer
Recommended packages:
libglib2.0-data
The following packages will be REMOVED:
osso-software-version
The following NEW packages will be installed:
canola2-youtube-plugin libmad0 libogg0 libtheora0
mplayer
The following packages will be upgraded:
hildon-update-category-database libfreetype6
libglib2.0-0 libhildonfm2 libhildonmime0 libosso1
6 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 1 to remove and 141 not upgraded.
Need to get 3546kB of archives.
After unpacking 5668kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

Assuming that's a word-for-word cut'n'paste from the output, then osso-software-version is a 3rd party package designed to install the appropriate osso-software-version-rx*4-unlocked package. It can be safely removed.

If it's NOT an accurate representation of the actual error output (and it actually reads something like "osso-software-version-rx34" or "osso-software-version-rx44"), then somebody with more time should look through your dependencies and ask more probing questions to figure out the source of the problem.

Thanks G.A. Yes that was a direct copy/paste from xterm. Most references from an ITT search for that package name pointed to the 40+ page diablo thread.

I'm making an ignorant assumption that the "osso-software-version-rx44" and "osso-software-version-rx34" designate between diablo & chinook? Anyhow, your reply that it's safe to delete gives me enough confidence to carry on and remove it. Thanks again.

RX-34 is the designation for the N800 and RX-44 for the N810 (the N810W is RX-48 and the 770 was SU-18).

It returns version info. My guess is that if you replace certain files then it is removed to signify that you no longer have a "known version."

Mine was removed when I installed parts of SDL/openGL. After that Fanoushes script that connects to my bluetooth keyboard stopped working. I found that it was calling osso-software-version to determine which version I have and therefore what to do to connect to the keyboard. I just hard-coded osver=os2008.

But are there other things that call it? I hope not!

Not quite. It's a meta-package that encompasses everything that makes up "Maemo". Wasn't quite as important in the pre-SSU days, but now it's used to push SSU updates (osso-software-version-rx*4 is updated, and pulls in all the new packages).

You are saying that SSU won't work now? Nutty! How can I get it back but keep the libs I need?

Don't worry...I unistalled it too because I don't see the point in having gizmo, skype, and rhapsody installers on my device.

In many cases you're still going to be fine without it. It's job is just to help make sure you have the most up to date software. The programs you have installed will most likely update (if) when any updates for them are available. The only time this tends to become a problem is if a new package becomes part of the standard packages that are installed by default on your system. In this case, you would have to go manually install that package. Metapackages only insure that you have installed all of a set of packages. Basically, Nokia if you don't care about having the Nokia pre-determined set of propriotary packages on your system you can get rid of it. The programs you tend to use ought to be just fine. Just run apt-get update and then apt-get dist-upgrade every once in a while to make sure and you'll be fine.

The easier way to do this that doesn't nuke system updates is to remove the .desktops from /usr/share/applications/hildon.

Yes, until they don't get the next update and run screaming for help to figure out why.

Please, dear god, don't do that. An apt-get dist-upgrade with the SDK repository (which is added by several .installs, including the one for Fring) equals an unbootable tablet.

There are reasons why we recommend doing and not doing certain things.

I'm not sure that this is easier. I was already removing other packages for programs I don't use in the default setup. Removing them saved space (not much, but some) for programs I do use. Most users who've figured out the utility of apt-get aren't going to run into problems with this. A newbie, maybe...but I doubt that they're gonna be using the command line for anything. Heck, most have no idea what it is.

You'd still get updates. You just won't get that package updated because it's not on your system anymore. The packages that it depended on that you still have installed should still be detected and then updated as well. I've never run into a debian system that worked otherwise (and I used them for years).

Keeping a repository like this enabled is the problem. Not a dist-upgrade. It should only be enabled for a specific application install (if used at all). Besides, I'd expect that people using this repository would know how to prevent this problem. I've yet to break my device with this command. Anyways, most of the programs that do this are going to uninstall this osso-software-version anyway (as in the case of this user).

While I understand you point of view, I still think my recommendations are quite valid.