Hi there, I've just installed Debian etch on an old machine I had lying around. A colleague of mine recommend that I be using the testing branch, so I added the testing branch to my sources.list file, ran apt-get update then apt-get dist-upgrade and all went smoothly. Was in the process of setting up a web server for some local development testing, and had problems getting php5 to run properly. So I decided to remove the testing branch from the sources.list file. Updated all the packages, removed apache2 and php5 then reinstalled using the stable packages. Hooray, I had my test php script running and being served, so I decided to move onto installing mysql. I try apt-get install mysql-server-5.0 and am told it can not be installed due to unmet dependencies. So I try including the dependencies in my apt-get install call and I get more unmet dependencies. My question is, have I done something in my shifting about of sources.list to go and make apt-get not want to automatically resolve the dependencies (which isn't that the purpose, and one of the major features of apt-get)? Have I completely overlooked something obvious? If I use the testing branch, I can install packages for mysql, and it will resolve all the dependencies and things, but then I have my php5 configuration problem, it just seems to be when I try to do it only using the stable branch apt-get does funny things. Any of the linux guru's got any pearls of wisdom to help me understand the way the apt packet manager works with regards to up/downgrading amongst the various branches? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Gray
Ok I've been playing around. I've gone back to the testing branch, and now have got php configured and working properly (such a simple solution but thats another story) so I will keep on using the testing branch as it doesn't seem to be plagued with the missing dependencies problem I seem to have with the stable branch and apt-get. If anyone does have any interesting insight as to why apt might have decided to play up after going back to the stable branch, I would love to know because that would be interesting Cheers, Gray
For future reference, if your going to downgrade to stable i'd suggest nuking it and starting again. Programs new to testing wont necessarily be in stable and you'll find your self in the borked position you were in earlier. TBH testing is pretty much rock solid the main advantage stable has over testing is that you don't need to run apt nearly so often to keep the machine up to date.
Yeah I do update everytime I change sources.list. I imagined that the problem stemmed from grabbing testing branch packages that may not be in the stable branch, and having testing packages still floating around trying to interact with stable stuff. Am back on the testing branch now as mentioned, and haven't seemed to have any problems, so I'll put it down to a lack of understanding, and hopefully I don't make too many more newbie mistakes (wishful thinking I know ). I guess it is my try first, ask later when I've screwed it royally mentality hehe
