aptitude vs. muon

[chb]

I've discovered a rather strange issue with aptitude:

It wants to remove a whole lot of system libs in order to install libgpod4 - doing the same with muon leads to just removing libgpod4-nogtk and installing libgpod4.

root@Beryllium:~# aptitude install libgpod4
The following NEW packages will be installed:
 libgpod-common{a} libgpod4{b}
0 packages upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 259 kB of archives. After unpacking 717 kB will be used.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 libgpod4: collides: libgpod4-nogtk but 0.8.0-3build1 is installed.
 libgpod4-nogtk: collides: libgpod4 but 0.8.0-3build1 is to be installed.
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

   Remove the following packages:
1)   libc6           
2)   libcomerr2         
3)   libdb5.1          
4)   libdbus-1-3        
5)   libffi6          
6)   libgcc1          
7)   libglib2.0-0        
8)   libgpod4-nogtk       
9)   libpcre3          
10)   libpng12-0         
11)   libselinux1        
12)   libssl1.0.0        
13)   libudev0          
14)   libuuid1          
15)   zlib1g           



Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?]

[SteveRiley]

Re: aptitude vs. muon

What does old reliable apt-get want to do?

[chb]

Re: aptitude vs. muon

apt-get wants to do the right thing. Just tried to install libgpod4-nogtk again, aptitude still wants to remove libc6, muon wants to remove clementine and libgpod4 and apt-get does the same. So it looks like an aptitude bug.

[SteveRiley]

Re: aptitude vs. muon

Trust your gut and go with apt-get. Aptitude hasn't got any.

[NoWorries]

Re: aptitude vs. muon

I also use apt-get to quickly update and dist-upgrade, but for package management I use Synaptic. When I tested Synaptic to see what is did to install aptitude, I get the packages listed in the graphic. I checked my system and found that the package libgpod4-nogtk was installed. I have not used muon very much, but initial experiences with it made me suspect that it would not always show all the packages that would be installed and removed. I got the impression that it was a "dumbed down" package management system.

[SteveRiley]

Re: aptitude vs. muon

One thing that bit me early on when I first discovered Muon and used it to prune packages from my PC was the Preview Changes button:



Once de_koraco called it to my attention, I regularly check this before let Muon do any work.

Here's what that button shows when I instruct Muon to install Aptitude:


Your screenshot shows the package libparse-debianchangelog-perl because Synaptic, like Muon, defaults to treating recommended packages as dependencies. I've explicitly instructed Muon not to do this by unselecting all options:


Still, though, it's hard to beat apt-get's output for providing the most detailed information:

sriley@SRiley-T410:~$ sudo apt-get -s install aptitude
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree    
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
 libboost-iostreams1.46.1 libcwidget3 libept1 libsigc++-2.0-0c2a
Suggested packages:
 aptitude-doc-en aptitude-doc tasksel debtags libcwidget-dev
Recommended packages:
 libparse-debianchangelog-perl
The following NEW packages will be installed:
 aptitude libboost-iostreams1.46.1 libcwidget3 libept1 libsigc++-2.0-0c2a
0 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

I'm at a loss to understand why your Synaptic wants to install libclass-accessor-perl, libio-string-perl, and libsub-name-perl. Those aren't installed on my PC now, and you can see that neither apt-get nor Muon want to add them on mine...

[NoWorries]

Re: aptitude vs. muon

Thanks for the insights regarding muon. I will have to start using it now as I like the interface. Regarding the packages that my system wants to install we seem to have differences which I am at a loss to understand. When I changed muon to the settings you are using, I got the same packages as with synaptic

When I use apt-get I have a different list of packages, namely:

sudo apt-get -s install aptitude
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree    
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
 libboost-iostreams1.46.1 libcwidget3 libsigc++-2.0-0c2a
Suggested packages:
 aptitude-doc-en aptitude-doc tasksel debtags libcwidget-dev
Recommended packages:
 libparse-debianchangelog-perl
The following NEW packages will be installed:
 aptitude libboost-iostreams1.46.1 libcwidget3 libsigc++-2.0-0c2a
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

My system was installed from a beta dated 5 October and I have not reinstalled after the release date. I also have KDE 4.7.2 installed. So why are our systems so different in this regard?

[SteveRiley]

Re: aptitude vs. muon

This is a real mystery. Our apt-gets are not quite identical: mine wants to install libept1, while yours doesn't. And our Muon outputs differ even more. I'm mystified by this.

One thing... do you have the Kubuntu PPA added to your software sources and have you also chosen to get updates from the backports and the proposed repositories? I do all these. Perhaps that's a reason for the discrepancies we see.

[kubicle]

Re: aptitude vs. muon

This is a real mystery. Our apt-gets are not quite identical: mine wants to install libept1, while yours doesn't. And our Muon outputs differ even more. I'm mystified by this.

Maybe NoWorries already has libept1 installed?

[NoWorries]

Re: aptitude vs. muon

This is a real mystery. Our apt-gets are not quite identical: mine wants to install libept1, while yours doesn't. And our Muon outputs differ even more. I'm mystified by this.

Maybe NoWorries already has libept1 installed?

Yes, you are correct. I already have libept1 installed.

I found another interesting difference between muon and Synaptic in that Skype 2.2.0.35-0oneiric2 is available in Synaptic whereas in muon it is not listed - same repositories - I must say this is puzzling .

[SteveRiley]

Re: aptitude vs. muon

Maybe NoWorries already has libept1 installed?

Yep...

sriley@SRiley-T410:~$ apt-cache rdepends libept1
libept1
Reverse Depends:
 libept1:i386
 synaptic
 synaptic
 packagesearch
 goplay
 debtags
 aptitude-gtk
 libept-dev
 aptitude

Because NoWorries had installed Synaptic, it pulled in libept1. I haven't installed Synaptic and therefore none of its dependencies.

Regarding skype... I wonder if there's some kind of error in its packaging? It also fails to appear in Muon on my machine. It does appear in Apper...though its description is completely blank. Perhaps some error in the package affects Muon's ability to indicate that the package exists?

[woodsmoke]

Re: aptitude vs. muon

I tend to just use what is easiest at the time but one thing about a "package manager" such as synaptic is that one can easily figure out which ppas are not working so one can remove the particular item so as not to get the "can't retrieve" messages on updates etc.

However, given that, I like the new front end that Muon presents.

woodsmoke

[NoWorries]

Re: aptitude vs. muon

This is a real mystery. Our apt-gets are not quite identical: mine wants to install libept1, while yours doesn't. And our Muon outputs differ even more. I'm mystified by this.

One thing... do you have the Kubuntu PPA added to your software sources and have you also chosen to get updates from the backports and the proposed repositories? I do all these. Perhaps that's a reason for the discrepancies we see.

Yes, I do have the kubuntu-ppa added and the backports selected. I have now selected the proposed repositories and dist-upgraded. Still my Aptitude packages are the same as I got before. I have a 32B system which gives the same results as my 64B Laptop.

I find this a rather interesting exercise as our differences in package selected for the installation of Aptitude has not been fully resolved. I am rather fascinated by the fact that chb has disappeared from this discussion after his post:

apt-get wants to do the right thing. Just tried to install libgpod4-nogtk again, aptitude still wants to remove libc6, muon wants to remove clementine and libgpod4 and apt-get does the same. So it looks like an aptitude bug.

[SteveRiley]

Re: aptitude vs. muon

I find this a rather interesting exercise as our differences in package selected for the installation of Aptitude has not been fully resolved. I am rather fascinated by the fact that chb has disappeared from this discussion after his post:

Yeah, the conversation kind of shifted from what Aptitude wanted to do and moved toward what happens when someone wants to install Aptitude. I don't have an answer for the first part. But for the second part, I think we've narrowed it down our differences regarding libept1. Both Aptitude and Synaptic depend on that. Since you have already installed Synaptic, you have libept1, and therefore your apt-get for Aptitude doesn't need to reinstall that package. Since I have neither Synaptic nor Aptitude installed, my apt-get for Aptitude needs to include that package.

[NoWorries]

Re: aptitude vs. muon

I did not consider that libept1 was a major difference. I had other packages from muon such as libio-string-perl, libparse-debianchangelog-perl and libsub-name-perl to be installed. These did not show on your list and my understanding was that you did not have them already installed. At least the package managers appear to not be in danger of causing the equivalent of "rpm-hell" .