Re: [tlug] libraries

[Matt Gushee <mgushee@example.com>]

On Sat, Apr 06, 2002 at 10:59:23AM +0200, Zuco Pietro wrote:

> When I try to install a new package almost always I need some libraries or
> some new libraries than I don't have. In that moment I have to looking for
...
> For example, I installed debian and I wanted the latest version of XFree86.

Are you using the "stable" distribution? Potato? You're running into the
fact that Debian is very conservative about labeling things ready-for-
prime-time. That's a good thing from the perspective of putting together
a solid, production-quality system, but it can be very frustrating when
you want to try the latest stuff.

If you really want a bleeding-edge system and don't care if a lot of
packages are broken, you should upgrade to Debian-unstable. Or if you
want to go somewhere in between, you could try the testing distro --
many people say it is quite solid in practice (however I think XFree86
4.x is still 'unstable'--but more on that below).

If you want to keep your Potato system, but have a few brand new packages,
a *partial* solution to your problem is to download the latest source
packages from your usual Debian archive. If your Potato packages are in

/debian/dists/potato/main/binary-{i386|all} on the FTP server, you
should find the unstable sources in alphabetical subdirectories of 
/debian/pool/main

[you'll also find unstable, and testing, binaries, but they usually don't
 work on Potato]

If you haven't built a Debian source package before, you usually need
three files: a foo-bar_version.orig.tar.gz, a foo-bar_version.dsc, and
(if there is one) a foo-bar_version.diff.gz. You place those three files
in a convenient location on your system (I use /usr/src/debian), and in
that directory run
 
  dpkg-source -x foo-bar_version.dsc

then cd to the newly created build directory (usually foo-bar-version),
and run

  dpkg-buildpackage

and you wind up with one or more nice .deb packages ready to install.

Except when it doesn't work. A certain (growing?) portion of packages
require the latest version of debhelper, and to install *that*, you need
to upgrade Perl to v5.6. I haven't yet dared to do that -- I think it can
be risky. This is the point where I usually give up and build from a
plain old tar.gz.

The above notwithstanding, unless you're a hardcore X11 geek, you probably
don't want to compile X from source. I've tried it (back when I worked at a
Japanese university and could find the time to play with such things), and
it can get ugly.

But you might find this helpful:

  http://people.debian.org/~cpbotha/xf410_potato/READ.THIS

... unless you really want XFree86 4.2. In that case, all I can say is
"good luck."

-- 
Matt Gushee
Englewood, Colorado, USA
mgushee@example.com
http://www.havenrock.com/