My dpkg/APT knowledge/skills need to go from near-beginner to at least intermediate-level fairly quickly, but I have lots questions. Where to go (e.g., what forums, lists, IRCs, other sites) to ask them? Why I ask:
>From using desktop ubuntu for a few years (and server ubuntu for longer, and mint for a few months) I have some experience with APT. Mostly I have used non-interactive command-line `aptitude` (i.e., `sudo aptitude <update|full-upgrade|install|remove|purge> ...`) rather than, e.g., * the interactive, character-mode-graphical `aptitude` (i.e., `sudo aptitude`) * full GUIs (e.g., synaptic, Ubuntu Software Center) This worked well, because I kept up-to-date and because ubuntu shielded me from massive breakage. However it does require (more or less) periodic reinstalls; after the latest, I indulged my desire to switch to rolling release. Yesterday I installed LMDE http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1604 and am presently barely functional (i.e., I have emacs and firefox), thanks largely to the "update pack" functionality in mintupdate-debian http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1781 and the mint intermediate repos me@it:~$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ debian main upstream import deb http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest testing main contrib non-free deb http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main contrib non-free deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org testing main non-free However I currently - have 888 updates (per mu-d) - have 69 broken packages (per `aptitude`) - need to get some bigger apps/functions running (e.g., chromium, libreoffice, DVD playing) - fear breaking big things (e.g., X, GNOME) I suspect getting out of this hole quickly will require more knowledge of APT and its tools than I currently have, so I'm trying to learn the interactive `aptitude` via its tutorial http://algebraicthunk.net/~dburrows/projects/aptitude/doc/en/index.html and any other tools that might help (e.g., I've heard of `debdelta` but know nothing about it), but I already have questions, so am wondering: * Are there places to ask questions that specialize in APT and its tools? Esp that are kind to the less advanced practitioner ?-) * Is this list a good place for APT questions? It's pretty high-volume, and debian is a much broader topic than APT, but if it's the best thing available, I can cope. * Since I'm an LMDE user, should I just stay on its forum? http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewforum.php?f=141 I suspect my concerns are more generic (i.e., applicable to debian and any derived distros, not just LMDE), but I Could Be Wrong. Feel free to reply directly to me (as well as the list) and to forward, and TIA, Tom Roche <tom_ro...@pobox.com> -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/877h6eiqev....@pobox.com
