phonon-backends-gstreamer requires excessive dependencies

[Alexander van Loon]

Feedback of apt from the terminal, if trying to install the phonon-backend-gstreamer package on Kubuntu 10.04:

alexander@prudentia:~$ sudo apt-get install phonon-backend-gstreamer
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  gconf2 gconf2-common gnome-keyring gstreamer0.10-alsa gstreamer0.10-plugins-base
  gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer0.10-x gvfs gvfs-backends
  indicator-application libappindicator0 libavahi-glib1 libavc1394-0 libcdio-cdda0
  libcdio-paranoia0 libcdio10 libdbusmenu-gtk1 libdv4 libgconf2-4 libgcr0 libgdu0
  libgnome-keyring0 libgp11-0 libgvfscommon0 libidl0 libiec61883-0 libindicator0
  libjson-glib-1.0-0 liboil0.3 liborbit2 libpam-gnome-keyring libproxy0
  libraw1394-11 libshout3 libsoup-gnome2.4-1 libsoup2.4-1 libvisual-0.4-0
  libvisual-0.4-plugins policykit-1-gnome
Suggested packages:
  gconf-defaults-service libdv-bin libraw1394-doc gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  gconf2 gconf2-common gnome-keyring gstreamer0.10-alsa gstreamer0.10-plugins-base
  gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer0.10-x gvfs gvfs-backends
  indicator-application libappindicator0 libavahi-glib1 libavc1394-0 libcdio-cdda0
  libcdio-paranoia0 libcdio10 libdbusmenu-gtk1 libdv4 libgconf2-4 libgcr0 libgdu0
  libgnome-keyring0 libgp11-0 libgvfscommon0 libidl0 libiec61883-0 libindicator0
  libjson-glib-1.0-0 liboil0.3 liborbit2 libpam-gnome-keyring libproxy0
  libraw1394-11 libshout3 libsoup-gnome2.4-1 libsoup2.4-1 libvisual-0.4-0
  libvisual-0.4-plugins phonon-backend-gstreamer policykit-1-gnome
0 upgraded, 40 newly installed, 0 to remove and 5 not upgraded.
Need to get 5,302kB/7,293kB of archives.
After this operation, 36.0MB of additional disk space will be used.
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Aren’t a lot of these dependencies unnecessary? As far as I know, GStreamer is a multimedia framework which is not tied to GNOME. Yet, installing it on KDE will also pull in GNOME software such as gconf, gnome-keyring, gvfs and libsoup. Also some Ubuntu specific software like the indicator applet. Could something please be done about the way this package is packaged, so that my Kubuntu system isn’t ‘polluted’ with all kinds of GNOME software?

[pinzia (pinzia)]

it's a problem with gconf! similar problem was https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gst-plugins-good0.10/+bug/346994 now question https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gst-plugins-good0.10/+question/65009

[Alexander van Loon (avanloon)]

Thank you for your comment pinzia. It’s a pity to see that your bug was declared invalid, and your question unanswered. Before any overzealous developer wants to dismiss my bug report as well because it is written in the form of a question, let me formulate the bug one more time. The package phonon-backend-gstreamer erroneously depends on certain GNOME software.

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

The problem is gstreamer0.10-plugins-base recommending gvfs, which pulls in the GNOME stuff.

[pinzia (pinzia)]

please try:
sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends phonon-backend-gstreamer
and post results

[Alexander van Loon (avanloon)]

Thanks for acting so quickly on this bug report Jonathan. Thanks for your workaround pinzia, not installing recommends works.

alexander@prudentia:~$ sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends phonon-backend-gstreamer
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  gstreamer0.10-alsa gstreamer0.10-plugins-base liboil0.3 libvisual-0.4-0
Suggested packages:
  gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly
Recommended packages:
  gvfs libvisual-0.4-plugins gstreamer0.10-plugins-good
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  gstreamer0.10-alsa gstreamer0.10-plugins-base liboil0.3 libvisual-0.4-0
  phonon-backend-gstreamer
0 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 0 to remove and 5 not upgraded.
Need to get 1,072kB of archives.
After this operation, 3,670kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

[Alexander van Loon (avanloon)]

Installing without recommends doesn’t work with the package gstreamer0.10-plugins-good.

alexander@prudentia:~$ sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends gstreamer0.10-plugins-good
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  gconf2 gconf2-common libavc1394-0 libdv4 libgconf2-4 libgnome-keyring0 libidl0
  libiec61883-0 liborbit2 libproxy0 libraw1394-11 libshout3 libsoup-gnome2.4-1
  libsoup2.4-1
Suggested packages:
  gconf-defaults-service libdv-bin libraw1394-doc
Recommended packages:
  gstreamer0.10-x gnome-keyring
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  gconf2 gconf2-common gstreamer0.10-plugins-good libavc1394-0 libdv4 libgconf2-4
  libgnome-keyring0 libidl0 libiec61883-0 liborbit2 libproxy0 libraw1394-11
  libshout3 libsoup-gnome2.4-1 libsoup2.4-1
0 upgraded, 15 newly installed, 0 to remove and 5 not upgraded.
Need to get 1,912kB/2,682kB of archives.
After this operation, 15.4MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

[pinzia (pinzia)]

the problem for me is: gstreamer-good depends unnecessary by gconf.
why base ugly and bad not depends by gconf?

I think my bug it's a duplicate of this; i s correct?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the gvfs depends is a recommend, gconf is used by good which has code using gconf so it's a really depends, not a bug, those source are coming from Debian anyway so changes should be done there if required

[Alexander van Loon (avanloon)]

Even if gvfs is ‘merely’ a recommend, I don’t think many people will know the command line switch exists to install without recommends. They’ll just use KPackageKit to install and that will pull in gvfs. Do I understand correctly that you advise to file a bug report for the gvfs recommendation on Debian’s bugzilla?

Regarding the gconf dependency, I filed a bug against gst-plugins-good on GNOME’s Bugzilla here: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=621362

[Alexander van Loon (avanloon)]

Filed bug report at the Debian bug tracking system: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=595651