There've been quite a few people coming to the debian-user list recently with the problem that packages like man-db and xbase-clients go missing when upgrading from potato to woody using 'apt-get dist-upgrade' with potato's apt. I had been advising people to upgrade dpkg and apt to the versions in woody first, which does seem to fix those problems, but at the cost of removing other packages along the way which the user will have to reinstall - so it only helps to some extent, and may not be something we can recommend.
What can we do about this? I think we need to come up with a way to prod potato's apt into making the right decisions on dist-upgrade. For what it's worth, I haven't managed to reproduce the man-db problem yet, but I can reproduce xbase-clients being removed. Here's the 'apt-get -o Debug::pkgProblemResolver=1 dist-upgrade' output with potato's apt: Starting 2 Package xbase-clients has broken dep on libgl1 Considering xlibmesa3 0 as a solution to xbase-clients 0 Holding Back xbase-clients rather than change libgl1 Package xutils has broken dep on xbase-clients Considering xbase-clients 0 as a solution to xutils 0 Holding Back xutils rather than change xbase-clients Package xlib6g-dev has broken dep on xutils Considering xutils 0 as a solution to xlib6g-dev 0 Holding Back xlib6g-dev rather than change xutils Package libopenldap-dev has broken dep on libopenldap1 Considering libopenldap1 2 as a solution to libopenldap-dev -1 Removing libopenldap-dev rather than change libopenldap1 Package libxaw6-dev has broken dep on xlib6g-dev Considering xlib6g-dev 0 as a solution to libxaw6-dev -1 Holding Back libxaw6-dev rather than change xlib6g-dev Package xlibs has broken dep on xlib6g-dev Considering xlib6g-dev 0 as a solution to xlibs 36 Package xlibs has broken dep on xbase-clients Considering xbase-clients 0 as a solution to xlibs 36 Fixing xlibs via remove of xlib6g-dev Fixing xlibs via remove of xbase-clients Done Done The following packages will be REMOVED: libopenldap-dev xbase-clients xlib6g-dev The following NEW packages will be installed: autoconf2.13 autotools-dev bsdmainutils console-common cpp-2.95 debconf-utils g++-2.95 gcc-2.95 groff-base html2text ifupdown ipchains klogd libcap1 libdb3 libdps1 libfreetype6 libgtk1.2-common libldap2 libpcap0 libpcre3 libsasl7 libstdc++2.10-glibc2.2 libungif4g libxaw6 libxaw7 linuxdoc-tools net-tools netkit-inetd netkit-ping perl perl-modules psutils xlibs xlibs-dev The following packages will be upgraded a2ps adduser apt autoconf automake base-config base-files base-passwd bash binutils bsdutils build-essential byacc console-data console-tools console-tools-libs cpio cpp cron debconf debhelper debianutils devscripts diff dpkg dpkg-dev e2fsprogs eject elvis-tiny esound esound-common exim fakeroot fbset fdutils file fileutils findutils ftp g++ gawk gcc gdk-imlib1 gettext-base gmc gnome-bin gnome-libs-data grep groff gzip hostname imlib-base isapnptools ldso less lftp libart2 libaudiofile0 libc6 libc6-dev libdb2 libdb2-util libesd0 libgdbmg1 libglib1.2 libgnome32 libgnomesupport0 libgnomeui32 libgnorba27 libgnorbagtk0 libgpmg1 libgtk1.2 libjpeg62 libncurses5 libnewt0 libopenldap-runtime libopenldap1 liborbit0 libpam-modules libpam-runtime libpam0g libpaperg libpng2 libpopt0 libreadline4 libsp1 libstdc++2.10 libstdc++2.10-dev libtiff3g libungif3g libwrap0 libwrap0-dev lilo locales login m4 make makedev man-db mawk mbr mc-common modconf modutils mount ncurses-base ncurses-bin netbase passwd patch perl-5.005 perl-5.005-base perl-base pmake ppp pppconfig procps psmisc pump sed setserial sgml-base sgml-data sgml-tools shellutils slang1 sp strace sysklogd syslinux sysvinit tar tasksel tcpd telnet texinfo textutils update util-linux vim whiptail xfree86-common xlib6g zlib1g I would love to see a similar log of man-db being removed, as I maintain both it and groff and can probably do something about it if only I can find out what. If anybody can get something like this, please tell me as soon as possible. This was all in a chroot, hence the relatively small amount of stuff installed. Real systems do seem to have the problem too, though. -- Colin Watson [[EMAIL PROTECTED]] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
