This discussion of Aptitude is just about a perfect example of why I'm typing this from W2K.<br><br>Don't get me wrong, I take delight in geeking around with the various OSes, and I'd love to not further line Bill's pockets, but sometimes I just want to use an application and not fool around with a command line or have unexpected things happening.
<br><br>Criminy. I installed Slackware and attempted to access my cdrom. I'm told that only root can open the cdrom. OK, so I log on as root and attempt to change the permissions to allow the lowly user (me) to open the cdrom, and I can't figure out how to do it. I suppose I could, actually. I can program in C, and I did manage to somehow stumble through college, but this is just too much effort to be able to open the GD cdrom. Give me strength, or better yet, W2K.
<br><br>I suppose I'd best put on my flame retardant outfit...<br><br>Art Hampton<br><br>I'm using Slackware because for my taste Ubuntu has turned into too much of a resource hog.<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 11/29/05,
<b class="gmail_sendername"><a href="mailto:talk-request@nblug.org">talk-request@nblug.org</a></b> <<a href="mailto:talk-request@nblug.org">talk-request@nblug.org</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
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<br><br> 1. Re: Ubuntu (A'fish'ionado)<br> 2. Re: Ubuntu (E Frank Ball)<br> 3. Re: Ubuntu (Stephen Cilley)<br> 4. Re: Ubuntu (Troy Arnold)<br> 5. Re: Ubuntu (Troy Arnold)<br><br><br>----------------------------------------------------------------------
<br><br>Message: 1<br>Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2005 12:00:56 -0800<br>From: A'fish'ionado <<a href="mailto:afishionado@gmail.com">afishionado@gmail.com</a>><br>Subject: Re: [NBLUG/talk] Ubuntu<br>To: "General NBLUG chatter about anything Linux, answers to questions,
<br> etc." <<a href="mailto:talk@nblug.org">talk@nblug.org</a>><br>Message-ID:<br> <<a href="mailto:af8b40ce0511281200t2015eac8x56ac2c6eee250d37@mail.gmail.com">af8b40ce0511281200t2015eac8x56ac2c6eee250d37@mail.gmail.com
</a>><br>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"<br><br>> Ahh, you should play around with using aptitude as a straight apt-get<br>> replacement:<br>> aptitude install foo<br>> aptitude update; apt-get upgrade
<br><br><br>See? I'm already learning something new about Debian. ;-)<br><br>William<br>-------------- next part --------------<br>An HTML attachment was scrubbed...<br>URL: <a href="http://nblug.org/pipermail/talk/attachments/20051128/d06b153d/attachment.html">
http://nblug.org/pipermail/talk/attachments/20051128/d06b153d/attachment.html</a><br><br>------------------------------<br><br>Message: 2<br>Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2005 17:47:46 -0800<br>From: E Frank Ball <<a href="mailto:frankb@frankb.us">
frankb@frankb.us</a>><br>Subject: Re: [NBLUG/talk] Ubuntu<br>To: "General NBLUG chatter about anything Linux, answers to questions,<br> etc." <<a href="mailto:talk@nblug.org">talk@nblug.org</a>><br>
Message-ID: <<a href="mailto:20051129014746.GC1979@kamajii.efball.com">20051129014746.GC1979@kamajii.efball.com</a>><br>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii<br><br>On Sun, Nov 27, 2005 at 10:24:11PM -0800, Troy Arnold wrote:
<br>}<br>} Ahh, you should play around with using aptitude as a straight apt-get<br>} replacement:<br>} aptitude install foo<br>} aptitude update; apt-get upgrade<br>}<br>} Its dependency handling is better for one. Say you 'aptitude install
<br>} packageA' while pulls in packages B,C and D. If you later 'aptitude<br>} remove packageA' B, C, and D are gone also. There's also some very cool<br>} stuff in Sid WRT to conflict handling. Aptitude will actually suggest
<br>} several different ways of handling a given dependency situation.<br><br>So as per your advice I tried using aptitude instead of apt-get to<br>install a package, and I get this:<br><br>The following packages are unused and will be REMOVED:
<br> bzip2 docbook-xml lesstif1 libperl5.8 libscrollkeeper0 libvte-common<br> libvte4 libxslt1.1 scrollkeeper sgml-data synaptic vim vim-common<br> xfonts-100dpi xfonts-75dpi xfonts-scalable xserver-common xserver-xfree86
<br><br>What the F????<br><br>I want bzip2. I need lesstif1 for something I compiled.<br>synaptic is a nice gui for browsing and installing packages.<br>I can't live without vim, and the xserver is running!<br><br>apt-get install worked fine and didn't remove anything.
<br>What am I doing wrong?<br><br>--<br><br> E Frank Ball <a href="mailto:frankb@frankb.us">frankb@frankb.us</a><br><br><br><br>------------------------------<br><br>Message: 3<br>Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 00:17:33 -0800 (PST)
<br>From: Stephen Cilley <<a href="mailto:hydro_mancer@yahoo.com">hydro_mancer@yahoo.com</a>><br>Subject: Re: [NBLUG/talk] Ubuntu<br>To: "General NBLUG chatter about anything Linux, answers to questions,<br> etc." <
<a href="mailto:talk@nblug.org">talk@nblug.org</a>><br>Message-ID: <<a href="mailto:20051129081733.4636.qmail@web34311.mail.mud.yahoo.com">20051129081733.4636.qmail@web34311.mail.mud.yahoo.com</a>><br>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
<br><br>I can't say in particular, but one of the things as a<br>complete newbie I find myself asking over and over<br>again is, what's the REAL difference between all of<br>these distros. I realize that that's probably the
<br>whole point of the round table, but I'm afraid I'll<br>get the same answers I've been getting: too general<br>and vague, stuff like, "It's great for media and it's<br>really low overhead." That's not really enough for me
<br>to get any kind of a real tangible understanding of<br>what makes the operating system so good.<br>So, in short, this is my one request: I'd like to SEE<br>all of the key differences demonstrated on the screen.<br> I'd really appreciate a petting zoo after everybody
<br>is done speaking; it'd be cool to be able to have<br>access to 10 different laptops afterward all with a<br>different distro.<br>Anyway, I realize that's not terribly specific.<br>Sorry.<br>Thank you,<br>Stephen<br><br>
<br><br>> Yes, it would. We're anticipating being able to<br>> take questions and/or<br>> demo interesting things. So folks, if there are<br>> things you'd like to<br>> know about Distro X or something in particular you'd
<br>> like to see demo'd,<br>> please speak up now or be prepared to speak up at<br>> the meeting.<br>><br>> -troy<br>><br>><br>> _______________________________________________<br>> talk mailing list
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<br>Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005<br><a href="http://mail.yahoo.com">http://mail.yahoo.com</a><br><br><br><br>------------------------------<br><br>Message: 4<br>Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 01:22:07 -0800<br>From: Troy Arnold <
<a href="mailto:troy@zenux.net">troy@zenux.net</a>><br>Subject: Re: [NBLUG/talk] Ubuntu<br>To: <a href="mailto:frankb@frankb.us">frankb@frankb.us</a>, "General NBLUG chatter about anything Linux,<br> answers to questions, etc." <
<a href="mailto:talk@nblug.org">talk@nblug.org</a>><br>Message-ID: <<a href="mailto:20051129092206.GA18524@zenux.net">20051129092206.GA18524@zenux.net</a>><br>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii<br><br>On Mon, Nov 28, 2005 at 05:47:46PM -0800, E Frank Ball wrote:
<br>> On Sun, Nov 27, 2005 at 10:24:11PM -0800, Troy Arnold wrote:<br>> }<br>> } Ahh, you should play around with using aptitude as a straight apt-get<br>> } replacement:<br>> } aptitude install foo<br>> } aptitude update; apt-get upgrade
<br>> }<br>> } Its dependency handling is better for one. Say you 'aptitude install<br>> } packageA' while pulls in packages B,C and D. If you later 'aptitude<br>> } remove packageA' B, C, and D are gone also. There's also some very cool
<br>> } stuff in Sid WRT to conflict handling. Aptitude will actually suggest<br>> } several different ways of handling a given dependency situation.<br>><br>> So as per your advice I tried using aptitude instead of apt-get to
<br>> install a package, and I get this:<br>><br>> The following packages are unused and will be REMOVED:<br>> bzip2 docbook-xml lesstif1 libperl5.8 libscrollkeeper0 libvte-common<br>> libvte4 libxslt1.1
scrollkeeper sgml-data synaptic vim vim-common<br>> xfonts-100dpi xfonts-75dpi xfonts-scalable xserver-common xserver-xfree86<br>><br>> What the F????<br>><br>> I want bzip2. I need lesstif1 for something I compiled.
<br>> synaptic is a nice gui for browsing and installing packages.<br>> I can't live without vim, and the xserver is running!<br>><br>> apt-get install worked fine and didn't remove anything.<br>> What am I doing wrong?
<br><br>Ahh. When you use aptitude to install packageFoo and packageFoo depends<br>on libFoo then libFoo will be marked as 'Auto installed' This way, when<br>you remove 'packageFoo' then libFoo will automatically be removed.
<br>Kinda like a built-in deborphan if you've used that. The thing is,<br>aptitude doesn't have this meta-data about packages installed via other<br>methods.<br><br>One way around this would be to tell aptitude that your other stuff was
<br>NOT automatically installed:<br>aptitude unmarkauto '~i'<br><br>'~i' is a search pattern meaning all installed packages<br><br>(Aptitude search patterns are very similar to those of Mutt)<br>Here's a copy of the aptitude manual:
<br><a href="http://doc2.inf.elte.hu/doc/aptitude/html/en/ch02.html">http://doc2.inf.elte.hu/doc/aptitude/html/en/ch02.html</a><br><br>You might find the -s flag handy, it tells aptitude to simulate actions<br>without actually changing anything. Also nice, is that you can run
<br>aptitude as a regular user, at least until you actually have it DO<br>something.<br><br>Trying not to sound like an aptitude salesman, I'll just say that its<br>benefits become more apparent over time (as it becomes better aware of your
<br>package installation history) and as you become more familiar with its<br>advanced searching features.<br><br><br>-troy<br><br><br><br>------------------------------<br><br>Message: 5<br>Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 01:47:01 -0800
<br>From: Troy Arnold <<a href="mailto:troy@zenux.net">troy@zenux.net</a>><br>Subject: Re: [NBLUG/talk] Ubuntu<br>To: "General NBLUG chatter about anything Linux, answers to questions,<br> etc." <
<a href="mailto:talk@nblug.org">talk@nblug.org</a>><br>Message-ID: <<a href="mailto:20051129094701.GB18524@zenux.net">20051129094701.GB18524@zenux.net</a>><br>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii<br><br>On Tue, Nov 29, 2005 at 12:17:33AM -0800, Stephen Cilley wrote:
<br>> I can't say in particular, but one of the things as a<br>> complete newbie I find myself asking over and over<br>> again is, what's the REAL difference between all of<br>> these distros. I realize that that's probably the
<br>> whole point of the round table, but I'm afraid I'll<br>> get the same answers I've been getting: too general<br>> and vague, stuff like, "It's great for media and it's<br>> really low overhead."
<br><br>Well, we're covering quite the mix of distributions, and they're all<br>definitely geared to their own subset of users...so you'll get at least<br>some answers.<br><br>> So, in short, this is my one request: I'd like to SEE
<br>> all of the key differences demonstrated on the screen.<br>> I'd really appreciate a petting zoo after everybody<br>> is done speaking; it'd be cool to be able to have<br>> access to 10 different laptops afterward all with a
<br>> different distro.<br><br>Aaron (who is covering Gentoo) suggested hands on also. Logistically<br>it would be tough though, because of the fact that the alarms at<br>O'Reilly will go off if we don't get out of there on time. But I'll see
<br>what the rest of the panel thinks. I'll also see what people think<br>about having a few demo machines setup at the next installfest.<br><br>> Anyway, I realize that's not terribly specific.<br>> Sorry.<br><br>
No, this is very helpful. Really. Thanks for the input :)<br><br>-troy<br><br><br><br><br>------------------------------<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>talk mailing list<br><a href="mailto:talk@nblug.org">
talk@nblug.org</a><br><a href="http://nblug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/talk">http://nblug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/talk</a><br><br><br>End of talk Digest, Vol 20, Issue 28<br>************************************<br>
</blockquote></div><br>