On Sun, Dec 31, 2006 at 11:55:38AM -0800, Andrew Sackville-West wrote: > > Its not so much the removal of a package that disturbs me - it is > > the apparent lack of warning or explanation. > > well, since it was removed from the official repositories in 2001: > > http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=98215 > > it is very unlikely that you successfully installed it from official > repositories in 2006. you obviously installed it from another > source. so technically, it was not "Removed without notice". You have > simply lost track of where it came from ;-P
I don't remember doing it, but it looks like I must have done, so mea culpa on that one... Mind you - it still looks like xlockmore and xearth disappeared from the official packages with only an automated acknowledgement that they are gone rather than an explanation: http://packages.qa.debian.org/x/xlockmore/news/20061119T233918Z.html http://packages.qa.debian.org/x/xearth/news/20060610T210838Z.html And a were it not for those examples of things that had disappeared from the official packages I probably would have been less quick to jump to conclusions about xv ;) > > It makes me rather reluctant to upgrade if some package that I have > > come to rely on might unexpectedly disappear - perhaps unnoticed > > until it is urgently needed... > > that is the problem with using packages outside the official debian > repositories. You got caught because a non-official package you were > using has gotten out of sync with the official libraries that support > it. best bet is to file a bug report with the group that is supplying > the package. or use the source, luke. Don't want to sound like I am just complaining without offering anything constructive, so here is the solution I have found to obtaining xv for the current Etch system: 1. Visit http://bok.fas.harvard.edu/debian/xv/index.html and obtain: xv-3.10a.tar.gz xv-3.10a-jumbo-patches-20050501.tar.gz xv-3.10a-jumbo20050501-1.diff.gz 2. Make sure the following packages are installed xlibs-dev, dpkg-dev, libc6-dev, libtiff4-dev, libjpeg62-dev libpng-dev, zlib1g-dev, debhelper, libxt-dev 3. Follow the instructions on the URL as follows: tar -xvzf xv-3.10a.tar.gz mv xv-3.10a xv-3.10a-jumbo20050501-1 cd xv-3.10a-jumbo20050501-1 patch -p1 < ../xv-3.10a-jumbo-fix-patch-20050410.txt patch -p1 < ../xv-3.10a-jumbo-enh-patch-20050501.txt patch -p1 < ../xv-3.10a-jumbo20050501-1.diff chmod 755 debian/rules dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -uc -b cd .. sudo dpkg -i xv_3.10a-jumbo20050501-1_i386.deb sudo dpkg -i xv-doc_3.10a-jumbo20050501-1_all.deb It would be nice if that procedure could be bundled up into a debian source package if my understanding is correct and the problem with xv was that the licence prohibits distribution of modified binaries. Perhaps it is possible - I don't know enough about debian packages to know for sure. The good thing about that is the entire dist-upgrade requirement stemmed from my needing the X development libraries, and at least this exercise has verified my ability to build X applications now :) Now to see if I can find the other two applications that I lost in the process of the upgrade... Regards, DigbyT -- Digby R. S. Tarvin digbyt(at)digbyt.com http://www.digbyt.com -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]