On Thu, 20 Aug 2015 09:12:19 +0200 (CEST) Magnus R <mara...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear all, > > I run Debian Unstable. I haven't been able to do a > > apt-get dist-upgrade > > for some time now since it wants to remove some essential packages > which after upgrading is not installable anymore, for example konsole > and okular. > Yes. > > Is there anything I can do to fix this? No. > Or do I just have to wait > until the packages I need are back to normal (that is installable). > Yes. There is a new revision of the C libraries available. It is not compatible with [the existing compile state of] some of your current packages, and some packages require it. If you want one of the new packages, whether for installation or upgrade, the new libraries are necessary, which in turn requires the removal of those packages which won't work with it. There is no way to satisfy the requirements, until the existing incompatible packages are made to work with the new libraries. There's probably only a small number directly involved, but the large web of dependencies spreads the trouble to hundreds of packages. If you have aptitude installed, and if you don't it's too late to install the current version, you might try an aptitude full-upgrade. This is equivalent to the apt-get dist-upgrade, but with better dependency resolution. I don't think you will gain much, my aptitude goes away and thinks for a while, and then gives up, something I've never seen happen before. It offers to spend longer looking, but it isn't going to find an answer. I presume you are still doing an apt-get upgrade, which should deal with most of the packages which aren't involved in the current mess. I'm seeing aptitude safe-upgrade working for twenty to thirty packages a day. You might, with very careful cherry-picking, manage another two or three, which I was doing using Synaptic. I've given up now, as it's not worth wading through over two hundred to find a couple which work. -- Joe
