Error installing texlive-base
Hello, everyone. I'm having problems installing texlive in my PC. I'm using unstable here. Everything started a couple of days ago, when I needed the package physics.sty. I had to install texlive-science. But dependences came in, and somehow I got a lot of configuration errors, and installation was not completed. I uninstalled all texlive related packages I could see, trying to make a fresh start. I think the problem is with texlive-base. I have all its dependencies installed and updated (tex-common, texlive-binaries, etc.), and I'm attemting to install texlive-base only. I get this: --- Performing actions... Retrieving bug reports... Done Parsing Found/Fixed information... Done Preconfiguring packages ... (Reading database ... 217166 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../texlive-base_2021.20210921-1_all.deb ... dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/texlive-base_2021.20210921-1_all.deb (--unpack): conffile name 'remove-on-upgrade /etc/texmf/dvipdfm/config/config' is not an absolute pathname Errors were encountered while processing: /var/cache/apt/archives/texlive-base_2021.20210921-1_all.deb E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) Press Return to continue, 'q' followed by Return to quit. --- In case it helps, /etc/texmf only contains texmf.d and web2c I don't know where to go from here, so any help will be appreciated. Best regards, Victor
Re: Error installing texlive-base
El jue, 14 oct 2021 a las 12:46, The Wanderer () escribió: > > On 2021-10-14 at 10:57, Victor Hugo Muñoz wrote: > > > Hello, everyone. > > > > I'm having problems installing texlive in my PC. I'm using unstable > > here. > > That may be the root problem, or at least, the best place to solve it. > The basic rule of running unstable is "if it breaks, you get to keep all > the pieces". IMO, no one should ever run unstable on a computer they > *need* to be functional. Yes, I know the risks :-) My office computer is in stable for that reason. This is my home computer. Anyway, I'm extremely conservative with upgrades, and do not upgrade if I think I'm going to break something important, This may be the first major issue I've had for years in this particular machine. > > Preparing to unpack .../texlive-base_2021.20210921-1_all.deb ... > > dpkg: error processing archive > > /var/cache/apt/archives/texlive-base_2021.20210921-1_all.deb > > (--unpack): > > conffile name 'remove-on-upgrade /etc/texmf/dvipdfm/config/config' is > > not an absolute pathname > > I'm not an expert on this part of the system, but to my eye, this looks > as if there's an syntactically-invalid entry in the list of conffiles > for that package. > > If I'm not mistaken, that list is defined in > '/var/lib/dpkg/info/texlive-base.conffiles'. On my system (running > testing, with version 2020.20210202-3), that file contains two lines, > neither of which starts with 'remove-on-upgrade' nor matches that path. > Thanks for the suggestion. The file does not exist in my system. I checked the contents of the deb file, and nothing. I only found a mention to dvipdfm in etc/libpaper.d/texlive-base Tried to find if it may be installed by some other package, but searching contents of packages in the debian web site, I found no match. Victor
Re: Error installing texlive-base
El jue, 14 oct 2021 a las 13:35, Andrew M.A. Cater () escribió: >> > It might be worth checking what packages you have installed. If you > can manage to, uninstall them (or use dpkg --purge to purge texlive-base > then retry. Thanks for the idea. It didn't work. texlive-base is not installed, so purge di nothing. I rechecked the packages installed. Some tex-related packages still had configuration files, so i purged them all. Then I started again, installing tex-common, texlive-binaries, and then texlive-base. And here it fails again as above. > > Also, as ever, my advice would be to use stable unless there is a > really compelling reason: unstable can change radically and > breakages happen. Yes, I tend to be careful before upgrades and have managed to have no major issues for years. This is my home PC anyway, so I have more freedom for failure. But, well, latex is fairly critical for me :-) Victor
Re: Error installing texlive-base
El jue, 14 oct 2021 a las 13:46, David Wright () escribió: > > I'm still running buster, but what that /looks/ like to me is that > you're running a version of dpkg that is, as yet, ignorant of the > ?new flags in packages' lists of conffiles. > > I say flags, but the only one defined is exactly the one you've > observed: remove-on-upgrade. So I'm guessing that a naïve dpkg > would think that is supposed to process "remove-on-upgrade" as > a conffile name, and complains. > And it looks that this worked! You were right, I had not the latest version, so I upgraded dpkg, and yes, texlive-base passed the installation without errors. I have yet to reinstall the rest of the latex subsystem, but I guess I'm on my way now. Thanks a lot! Victor
Re: Error installing texlive-base
El vie, 15 oct 2021 a las 10:20, Greg Wooledge () escribió: > > On Fri, Oct 15, 2021 at 10:56:25AM +0300, Andrei POPESCU wrote: > > > > Packages are not allowed to use dpkg features that are not present in > > stable. > > > > In this particular case, according to the changelog 'dpkg' introduced > > that feature in 1.20.6, while stable already has 1.20.9. > > Huh, interesting. So the OP's problem arose because they're running > post-bullseye unstable or testing, with pre-bullseye dpkg? Gah. Why > do people do things like this to themselves > Actually, yes. Why? Due to confinement, my home PC has also been my office PC. And since I had a working machine, decided to upgrade packages only if strictly necessary. Although I have installed reportbug to watch out for reported issues, upgrades in unstable can break important things and that cost has not been acceptable for me for a long time. Victor
Re: Error installing texlive-base
El lun, 18 oct 2021 a las 9:07, Andrei POPESCU () escribió: > > On Vi, 15 oct 21, 10:39:54, Victor Hugo Muñoz wrote: > > > > Actually, yes. Why? Due to confinement, my home PC has also been my > > office PC. And > > since I had a working machine, decided to upgrade packages only if > > strictly necessary. > > As you found out (the hard way), the "strictly necessary" isn't always > obvious. > > > Although I have installed reportbug to watch out for reported issues, > > upgrades in unstable > > can break important things and that cost has not been acceptable for > > me for a long time. > > Switch to stable then ;) > > You were already using packages older than latest stable, so what is the > benefit of running (something that appeared to be) unstable? > Living? :-) I mean, I guess we all have our pressures, work/family/etc., so in the end it's a balance between things, and the perceived time one has to fix things if they break. >From the very beginning, when I started using Debian (back in potato times) I have run stable at work, and unstable at home, with periodic updates. To try new features in advance, to try new software in advance, whatever. And eventually, less time to play, and a variable risk disposition. Life is always complex, and computers are a part of it. Victor
