On Tue, Jul 10, 2001 at 10:02:03AM -0700, David Fuchs wrote: > Joost Kooij wrote: > > >[ouch! next time, please hit enter after +/- 72 characters.] > > > Sorry, I've corrected this now... > > > > >On Tue, Jul 10, 2001 at 12:08:27AM -0700, David Fuchs wrote: > > > >> I've recently installed Debian (Potato) on a personal computer, > >>and I'm having some difficulty with the package manager (dpkg) that came > >>with it. The problem came up after I installed the Ximian Gnome packages > >>(via apt-get). Once that had completed, I had a working copy of Ximian > >>Gnome (and all it's other installed applications). I then decided to > >>upgrade XFree86 to v4.1. During the upgrade, I backed up and removed > >>the contents of /etc/X11 and /usr/X11R6, just to start fresh. > >> > > > >Don't use apt-get for this directly, use dselect, the proper frontend. > > > > The Ximian Gnome crew had the option to install via apt-get. I used > that option... > > > > > > >Don't use rm -rf for this directly, use dselect, the proper frontend. > > > > It wasn't exactly `rm -rf' that I used to rename those folders... > but I see your point. > > > > >> Once I had XFree86 4.1 installed, I needed to re-install some of the > >>Ximian Gnome packages (namely gdm, as it's config rested in /etc/X11/gdm). > >>Upon running `dpkg --install', I found that it never actually install gdm. > >>Sure enough, it created the directory structure under /etc/X11/gdm, but > >>there were no files to speak of. The backup I had displayed a number > >>of files (sessions and config data). I tried `dpkg --install' again, > >>and put it in the background. I noticed during the install, that it was > >>creating the proper files that I was missing, but they were suffixed with > >>'.dpkg-new'. Once `dpkg --install' had completed, it removed those files > >>rather than renaming them (to chop the .dpkg-new off). Hence my problem. > >> > > > >Don't use dpkg for this directly, use dselect, the proper frontend. > > > Alright, sir, I believe we're vitiating the goal of this mailing > list. It would be wonderful if you could back up the monomaniacle > inclination toward 'dselect' in your last three statements with some > explanation. I'm looking for information on dpkg, not dselect. If I > absolutely must use dselect, I would like to know why, and what > functionality it provides to Debian that dpkg (or one of the dpkg > utilities such as 'dpkg-deb') does not. I'm doing this to learn, and > using the base tools for debian package management will inherently tell > me how dselect works.
Hi. I'd like to insert my two cents worth. I don't believe that
dselect provides any functionality that can't be done with dpkg(and
it's numerous options). That is why is is called a 'frontend' to dpkg.
Personally, I like to use aptitude as my frontend to dpkg and apt. I
first learned quite a bit about dpkg before starting to use it though.
It seems you are interested in doing the same. Good idea, imho. I even
made a little bash script as a way to learn bash shell scripting, dpkg,
and apt called 'clone-debian'. It is a little buggy and ugly though(not
wrapped to 72 chars) and I haven't worked on it months but have been
thinking about doing so again. Some of the bashisms are pretty intense
to try and figure out! What frontend to use is simply a matter of
personal prefernce, of course.
>
> >
> >> So the question is, why did dpkg not install the files properly?
> >>Obviously it's keeping track of what's installed (or should I say, what
> >>it *thinks* is installed). dpkg's assumptions don't help me, however,
> >>and I can't be certain my applications are installed correctly if it
> >>goes removing things after the fact. How can I force dpkg to *forget*
> >>about what I've already installed, so I can install it again? Better yet,
> >>is there a way to force a proper re-install with dpkg?
> >>
To check and see if all you applications are installed correctly
check out the 'debsums' utility. To reinstall something with dpkg just
download the .deb and then 'dpkg -i <package.deb>'. The default action
of dpkg is to reinstall when doing this. For apt-get it's 'apt-get
install --reinstall <package>'.
> >You never completely removed the packages, probably. There is "remove",
> >which removes the binaries etc., and there is "purge", which also
> >removes configfiles.
> >
> Ok.
>
> >
> >When you only "remove", and later reinstall, your original configfiles
> >will still be inplace. That is, unless you have removed some of these
> >files while the package was removed, then it will not put a new configfile
> >in if it finds that the old one is gone. This is just like when upgrading
> >an installed package: if you removed a configfile on the old version,
> >you don't expect it to reappear after upgrade.
> >
> Sounds good. It looks like the reason dpkg removed those 'dpkg-new'
> files was because dpkg found the package was already installed. This
> was because it was never purged, only removed. I will attempt to purge
> everything, and then install. A purge should remove any list files
> associated with the particular packages, correct? If so, an install (I
> take it you must do an install, not re-install, after purging) should
> re-construct those list files? I certainly hope so.
>
> >
> >> One way I've found to re-install, is to use `dpkg-deb --extract
> >><filename> /', but that's not good, as it kind of defeats the point
> >>of dpkg, as dpkg is used to not only extract, but to configure things
> >>you install as well, correct? I've also found another way, which is to
> >>remove the list files associated with a program (I think I found them in
> >>/var/lib/dpkg/status/info/* ??). Again, this defeats the point of dpkg,
> >>as dpkg should be a package manager on it's own accord, so I shouldn't
> >>need to be deleting things. Of course, after deleting a bunch of those
> >>list files, dpkg complains whenever I run it that it's missing things.
> >>It would be great if someone could tell me how to repair this as well...
> >>
For this you should read the doc's as stated below and as you
confirmed below. The file to edit is /var/lib/dpkg/status.
HTH even if only a little,
Jim Richards
> >Please, for your own sake, do not hack into the package management system
> >at this level, until you have read all the documentation, in which case
> >the above explanation would have been more evident from the start.
> >
> Yes, I'll make sure I've read all the dpkg documentation.
>
> >
> >Cheers,
> >
> >
> >Joost
> >
> >
> Thanks,
>
> -David Fuchs
>
>
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