[linux-help] Re: apt-get/dpkg question

[Thomas Wallis <wallis@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 3 Jul 2001, Benjamin F. Bunck wrote:

> 
> Well, my home computer is off right now, and I won't be able to get to it 
> until this evening, but basically, my /etc/apt/sources.list looks like this:
> 
> ______________________________________________________
> #
> #
> # <various comments made in the default file>
> #
> #
> 
> #<comment>
> < here are the sources that were added during the installation,  things like 
> < "deb http://http.debian...."; etc.  Everything seems to be working here, as 
> < far as I know.
> 
> #KDE2
> deb ftp://kde.debian.net/pub/kde potato main crypto
> _______________________________________________________
> 
> 
> Again, it looks like apt-get can find the packages that I know are part of 
> kde2, like kdebase, but I can't find them when I search through the database 
> using "dpkg -l *kde*" or something similar.  

        Dear Ben:

        dpkg -l just lists the installed packages.  What you probably need
to do is run dselect.  If you have never used it, it can be tricky.  
First choose (A)ccess, under that menu choose APT, if it isn't chosen
already.  Then use (U)pdate which will scan your sources.  Then use 
(S)elect.  Select is the most difficult part of dselect, but if you are
looking for kde stuff just keep paging through the screens of packages.
If you find what you want, press + to add it to the list of packages.  
dselect may take you into various package conflict/dependancies resolution 
subscreens which look a lot like the main select screen.  Normally you can
get past these by pressing enter.  Then once you have your packages
selected with + (which will change the prefix on them to __*) hit enter
one more time in the main select screen.  This will take you to (I)nstall,
where you press enter again and it downloads and installs all selected
packages.  Then you can quickly go through Config, Remove, and Quit. 
Config and Remove shouldn't have any work to do because apt is smart 
enough to do their work for them.  

        dselect is a Debian user's best friend once you get to know it. 
It beats typing in all those memorable dpkg commands.  It might be
possible to use an apt command line to do this work too, but I know
dselect better and (IMHO) I think dselect is better tool for installing
large subsystems.  I have seen Debian systems that seem to have broken/not
installed packages and dselect was able to fix them.  Hope this helps! 

                Good Luck!

                Tom Wallis

 > > Ben
> 
> 
> 
> On Tuesday 03 July 2001 10:15 am, you wrote:
> > could you post your /etc/apt/sources.list
> >
> > On Mon, 2 Jul 2001, Benjamin Bunck wrote:
> > > I'm trying to install KDE2 on a debian machine and I've run into
> > > something a little strange.  I've added a source for the KDE2 binaries to
> > > my /etc/apt/sources.list file, and have run "apt-get update" to
> > > re-retrieve the package files.
> > >
> > > If I then go on to run something like "apt-get install kdebase", I meet
> > > the usual, "you need these dependencies..." stuff, and it looks like it's
> > > going to work (and I assume it will).  However, when I run "dpkg -l
> > > *kde*", none of the KDE2 files are found.  Any ideas?  Do apt-get/dpkg
> > > look in different places for the package database?  Is there a way to
> > > search the packages with apt-get (I couldn't find one in the man page...)
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Ben
> > >
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Disclaimer: All opinions expressed here are my own and not those of WSU.

EMAIL address:  wallis@xxxxxxxxxxx    wallis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  

   


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