Synaptic broken in 6.4.4?

Hello, I'm trying to install rdesktop and claws. I'm running 6.4.4 off a live cd. I've added Binary (deb) http://us.debian.org/debian lenny main to my repositories, it is enabled. I didn't touch any of the others. I get no matches when I do a search for "claws" and "rdesktop". According to http://packages.debian.org/lenny/rdesktop, I should be finding it. Any idea what's wrong? I also manually downloaded the .deb file, but I've tried both double-clicking on it and right-clicking and "Synaptic Package Manager", but nothing happens. -Charlie

You should be able to get the latest claws and rdesktop without having to add that older Lenny repository. Have you tried hitting RELOAD icon in Synaptic first before searching? You'll have to hit reload every time you run from CD before adding any packages.

General notes: Now that Squeeze is out, you may find the volatile repository inactive. You may want to uncheck those in the repository list and hit RELOAD again. I would also try to use a Debian mirror, and not the main site to reduce the load.

I also spotted that you are missing a crucial trailing backslash in your manually edited repository for lenny. it should have that trailing backslash between the url and the release, ie ...debian.org/debian/ lenny main... Be sure not to forget that backslash and always RELOAD to make synaptic aware of your changes.

Try just the included repos, and hit reload and see if that fixes the problem first.

Hi, Charlie, dram.

FWIW My Synaptic is set pretty wide and is up-to-date and I get no claws
or rdesktop entries in it.

The archive for rdesktop on sourceforge leads me to believe it is inactive
isofar as development is concerned.

http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/f...sktop-announce

dram's advice is crucial, I often forget on a new install to reload Synaptic before I begin.

Cheers.

owch!
Just found them both; new install it seems.
rdesktop is installed, claws is not.

I can report claws and rdesktop available on
both Knoppix 6.4.4 and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS,
via Synaptic. The hard way.

Hello, I'm able to refresh and get stuff to work, but I'm currently running Knoppix 6.2 instead of Knoppix 6.44. The earlier kernel appears to play nicer with my wireless adapter. I'm still unclear why double-clicking on a downloaded .deb file wouldn't start Synaptice trying to install it, or something. -Charlie

Hi Charlie,

I think there are several bits of confusion here. The advice from dram and utu is correct, if brief.

Where did you read that clicking on a .deb file will open synaptic ? You clearly expect this to work but I do not see why.

synaptic is a GUI front end for the command line package named apt which is itself a front end for another command line package names dpkg. AFIK, dpkg is the only package that deals with .deb files directly. synpatic does not deal with .deb files so I see no reason why clicking on such a file would open the application.

synaptic (and friends) are very clever programs that make the very complex issue of package management simple to use. A long as your needs are simple. That is the nature if GUI applications.

To install the rdesktop package, synaptic (et al) will check all the package dependencies to see if there are other packages that need to be installed or upgraded and will download, install, remove, upgrade these to satisfy the dependencies. By going directly to the .deb file you are taking on that responsibility yourself. Believe, you probably don't want to go there.

For an ordinary desktop installation (Debian, Ubuntu) the dependency management is complex enough but with Knoppix it is even worse because you have package from Debian's stable, testing, unstable and experimental repositories (and you've apparently now added oldstable aka lenny to the mix).

This is why most people (I think) do not up 'upgrade' their Knoppix using synaptic - they 'upgrade' by installing the next release. I have Debian squeeze on a desktop. It has been 'stable' for three months now but already there are a couple of hundred packages that are out of date and I should do an upgrade. A year ago when Debian squeeze was still in testing a couple of hundred packages changed every week.

You say you are using Knoppix 6.2.1, LiveCD. That is what two years old ? It has a very out of data idea of what software in the Debian repositories. Very probably the version of rdesktop your Knoppix knows about it no longer available. What would you expect a KISS user friendly, GUI application going to do other than leave rdesktop out of the list of applications it can install ?

So you 'hit' reload as dram suggested and now your Knoppix is at least up to date enought to know which version of rdesktop is available. You might be lucky and still be able to install this after all this time. It is more likely that to install this version of rdesktop, synaptic will have to install new libraries and to do that it would have to remove old libraries and so break other applications (that you might not care about). What will synpatic do in such circumstances ? I don't know and I've better things to do in life than find out the hard way just so I can give you advice you will ignore.

You have added a Debian lenny repository to your list and you think you have fixed synaptic. It may be after all this time that lenny is more compatible with your old Knoppix than squeeze. If this works at all, it is by chance, not design. Good luck,

You and I have discussed this before and I think I told you that both rdesktop and claws (mail) are on the DVD edition of Knoppix (6.4.4 yes, 6.2.1 probably) and I suggested you download and use that instead. It's free software so you are free to do what you want. If you want to do the synaptic equivalent of climb the north face of the Eiger with only a toothpick you are free to do so. Just don't take anyone with you and please make sure you have not got the wrong end of the toothpick before you report synaptic is broken.

Now, if your wireless does not play with Knoppix 6.4.4 as well as it does with 6.2.1 perhaps you could start another thread and people might be able to help with that problem.

Thanks Forester.

I was figuring synaptic could work with a .deb file because it shows up in the context menu (right click) of the .deb files, at least it did with 6.4, I haven't looked yet in 6.2.

I can't boot off a DVD drive, although I do have an external DVD drive that I can read from. Can I boot off an internal CD and install packages off a DVD?

I'd like to start a thread about my wireless problems but I can't figure out how to capture the output of the Ctrl+Alt+F12 console. The /var/log seems to be pretty empty compared to other linux distros.

Thanks,
-Charlie

Quote:

---

The /var/log seems to be pretty empty compared to other linux distros.

---

... there are no loggings to /var/log with Knoppix by default. To change this behaviour rename the file '/etc/syslog-knoppix.conf'.

This will only work in a HD-installation or with persistent memory of an usb-stick, not in a CD-live-session.

Greetings Werner * http://www.wp-schulz.de/knoppix/summary.html
Own Rescue-CD with Knoppix (Knoppix V6.4.4 remaster)

IIRC, syslog does appear on ctl-alt-f12 on SOME keyboards, but not all.
ctl-alt-f5 to get back to X.

FWIW, here's my syslog-knoppix.conf

By and large it puts syslog on vt12 and in /var/log/syslog
and puts kern.log in /var/log/kern.log.

# /etc/syslog-knoppix.conf
# Configuration file for syslogd started from /etc/init.d/knoppix-autoconfig
#
# This file is here merely to avoid logging to the system console when
# programs do an openlog() with LOG_CONS, which would clutter the output for
# screenreaders. acpid is known to do that.

# Normal logging messages go to /dev/tty12, except for passwords
*.*;auth,authpriv.none /dev/tty12

# ONLY Emergency messages are allowed to go to all consoles.
*.emerg *

# Add back kern.log and syslog
kern.* /var/log/kern.log
*.*;auth,authpriv.none /var/log/syslog

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Charlie Foxtrot

I can't boot off a DVD drive, although I do have an external DVD drive that I can read from. Can I boot off an internal CD and install packages off a DVD?

---

Ah .... a really old laptop. You didn't say before and I didn't ask. Sorry. I guess your laptop can't boot from USB either ? That could become a real pain 'cos you can't have persistent store and that means you'd have to reinstall rdesktop and claws each time you boot and set up your mail account again (and make sure you leave messages on the server etc.)

There are ways around that but probably the first thing to do is see about your wireless.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Charlie Foxtrot

I'd like to start a thread about my wireless problems but I can't figure out how to capture the output of the Ctrl+Alt+F12 console. The /var/log seems to be pretty empty compared to other linux distros.

---

The answer is in this case is to open a terminal / console and use:

Code:

---

dmeg | less

---

to browse the kernel messages. Use return to move down a line and the space bar to move down a page.

I guess your laptop does not have a built in wireless so you are using a USB or perhaps even a PCMCIA card. Even better. Boot without your wireless, open the terminal / console, now plug in your wireless. Count to ten and print out the final lines of dmesg with:

dmesg | tail -n 25

When it all works you should see lines saying a new usb device has been plugged in, then some lines from the driver Linux loads to handle you wireless and then some lines about wlan0 as Linux tries to configure you wireless connection.

Anyway, create a new forum thread, copy and paste what you see into a first post for Knoppix 6.4.4, which doesn't work, and then do the same in a second post for Knoppix 6.2.1, which you say does work and we'll see what the differences are.

When you've time, of course. No hurry.