apt-get questions pt 1. was Re: [H-GEN] newbie setting up Debian

Jonathon M. Abbott s362814 at student.uq.edu.au
Fri Apr 6 02:39:42 EDT 2001


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On Fri, Apr 06, 2001 at 02:48:04PM +1000, Mark Venz wrote:
> On Thu, 5 Apr 2001, Jonathon M. Abbott wrote:
> > > X -version 4.0.3
> >
> > Hmm, how did you get 4.0.3 on a Debian 2.2 system?
> >
> I downloaded the XF86*.t* and install *.sh's from aarnet.
> The urgency with this machine was to get X up to run a Soccer Server.
> I tried with apt-get, but not know anything about it - I managed to only get some
> of the required files - so I did it the hard way.

The normal way of getting X up on debian is to install
task-x-window-system-core which should pull in all the required
dependencies.

Unfortunately, installing a non-debian X onto your system may
have been a bad idea. More below.

Did you specifically require X 4.0.3, or just X 4.0.x, or did you
have trouble getting *any* X going?

> > Assuming you haven't done anything tricky like roll your own X, you should be able to find out what version is installed with
> > dpkg -s xfree86-common | grep Version
> Version: 3.3.6-11potato15
> 
> Since dpkg version and X don't match, is there a way I can update dpkg version?

In a word, no. It's generally regarded as a bad idea to install
non-packaged stuff directly into /usr [If you put X under
/usr/local then everything should be fine, just get the latest X
.debs and remove your install, but I have a feeling you're not
going to be so lucky.] If you try and install the correct X
packages, you're likely to get a whole bunch of conflicts.

> Or doesn't it matter.

It may be possible to "fix" it, with a lot of fiddling, but it
may just be best to start from scratch.

> Thanks for all the help so far,

Always a pleasure to help a fellow Debianite. :-)

-- 
Jonathon M. Abbott                    s362814 at student.uq.edu.au
Time goes, you say?
Ah no!
Time stays, *we* go.
		-- Austin Dobson

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