Mike, By reinstall I meant copy off your important files and do a fresh install of the machine. It's theoretically possible to fix a system that has a borked dist-upgrade, but it's both painful and time-consuming enough to make a fresh system install the better choice in most cases. The big red-flag I noted is the *780 packages not upgraded*, that's usually a sign of a pending dist-upgrade that didn't complete or broke in the middle, and changing repositories at that point generally just blows apt-get's little tiny mind into small bits. I'm betting that the primary problem you're having with apt-get not finding things and/or not resolving dependencies is because apt-get needs to complete a dist-upgrade but can no longer find the repositories where it started the upgrade, hence it just sort of gives up and can't load or fix anything correctly. Michael Havens wrote: > thank you for giving me (and everyone who pays any attention) a bit of your > wisdom. I thought the only reason my original machine broke was because I > updated after they had released the new KDE. At the time one of the people > trying to help me had said this was the case. > > I would love to reinstall the repositories from the fresh install but those > repositories lead to nothing. I tried to install things from those > repositories and it could find nothing. I'll post a message on the discussion > board and see if someone can post something I can use. > > Joseph, I really appreciate your help and I'll keep you posted on my progress > in this regard. > > On Friday 02 March 2007 8:41 pm, Joseph Sinclair wrote: >> Mike, >> From the apt-get output you posted, it's pretty clear your repositories >> are for a different version of the system than you're running (hence the >> 780 packages not upgraded). The best solution from here is to simply >> re-install with the version you want to be running and DON'T change the >> repositories after that. Apt-get does a GREAT job of keeping your system in >> sync with a single version. On many distro's, however, it won't do the >> upgrade properly (Ubuntu's latest update is infamous in this regard, and >> Feisty is likely to be just as bad; don't upgrade Ubuntu for new versions, >> except LTS->LTS, reinstall instead). For your stable system, you need to >> choose the long-term-support version for whatever distro you're running >> (look for a 3-5 year support commitment, examples include Ubuntu LTS, RHEL, >> etc...) and STICK TO IT. Don't mess around with a stable system any more >> than you have to, and don't upgrade to a new release without testing it >> elsewhere first. I've taken to doing upgrades on my stable system ONLY >> after I've tested the upgrade on another machine (which is why I didn't do >> the Edgy update on all my Ubuntu machines, it broke the test system badly >> enough to require a re-install so my Edgy machines are all fresh installs) >> and determined it's both safe to upgrade and enhances system stability or >> adds critical features. I have multiple Linux systems, one that runs a LTS >> version of Linux that I leave alone except for critical updates; it's >> stable and I use it for day-to-day tasks. The other systems are available >> for experimentation because I DON'T EVER keep important data on them, and >> if they're down for a few weeks it doesn't hurt me. One of the "testing" >> machines is usually the guinea pig for any changes to the stable machine. >> I install the test machine to match stable, then I do to the test what I >> want to do on stable, and I only repeat the change on stable if test works >> fine for several days after the change (if I need something NOW I do have a >> semi-stable system, but that gets into some of the second-order >> complexities of my home net and is beyond the scope of this discussion). >> >> One of the biggest mistakes I see people make, >> IMNSHO, with Linux is experimenting/exploring with their day-to-day >> critical system that has their important data and applications (I even did >> this when I first started using Linux). When they're playing around makes >> the system unstable, they complain about Linux. The thing is that Linux >> isn't at fault, it allows you to do weird stuff because sometimes you might >> want to, but you're expected to either know what you're doing before you >> start, or do your learning on a spare machine you can afford to rebuild >> from scratch every now and then without getting upset. Some people think >> Windows is better for less-technical users because you don't have to >> constantly "tweak it" to keep it up and running. This is complete bunk. >> Windows needs far more support to keep running properly than Linux ever >> has, the difference is that Linux *allows* you to tweak it constantly, so a >> lot of people who should just leave it alone try to make a perfectly >> functional system run "better" and end up breaking it. There's nothing >> wrong with trying things to make a system better, just don't do it with >> your critical day-to-day machine. Again, set up one machine that's for real >> work, and LEAVE IT ALONE except for critical updates (hopefully applied by >> the distribution's auto-update mechanism in the background every week or >> so). Do your tweaking and learning on a separate "learning" system (this >> can be in a Virtual Machine if your main system is fairly powerful) and >> expect to rebuild it from scratch every few weeks when you break stuff. >> >> >> Michael Havens wrote: >>> This gets me to thinking: perhaps i could apt-get the stable version. >>> THAT MIght work. To be completely honest with you I tried it already and >>> it responded: >>> >>> bmike1@1[~]$ sudo apt-get install gnucash=1.8.10-12 >>> Reading package lists... Done >>> Building dependency tree... Done >>> E: Version '1.8.10-12' for 'gnucash' was not found >>> bmike1@1[~]$ sudo apt-get install gnucash=stable >>> Reading package lists... Done >>> Building dependency tree... Done >>> E: Version 'stable' for 'gnucash' was not found >>> bmike1@1[~]$ sudo apt-get install gnucash=testing >>> Reading package lists... Done >>> Building dependency tree... Done >>> E: Version 'testing' for 'gnucash' was not found >>> bmike1@1[~]$ >>> >>> What did I do wrong? Am I supposed to set something to stable? What? >>> >>> On Friday 02 March 2007 6:53 pm, Michael Havens wrote: >>>> That is what caused this whole problem. I upgraded my ssystem and broke >>>> EVERYthing. >>>> >>>> On Friday 02 March 2007 6:48 pm, Jeremy C. Reed wrote: >>>>> That's part (or most) of your problem. You should do the updates. The >>>>> farther you get behind, the harder is will be for you to update your >>>>> system. If you do updates frequently (like every week or at least every >>>>> month), it will make it easier for you to keep up. >>>>> >>>>>> 77 upgraded, 48 newly installed, 18 to remove and 780 not upgraded. >>>>>> Need to get 170MB of archives. >>>>>> After unpacking 41.7MB of additional disk space will be used. >>>>>> Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n >> --------------------------------------------------- >> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us >> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: >> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss