Undoing a change which will break packages still does not permit us to apply changes

[Shriramana Sharma]

Binary package hint: adept

For example, I have mingw32 on a different repository and mingw32-binutils and mingw32-runtime on a different repository. (local repos) mingw32 depends on the other two. I disable the second repo and there are no other repos providing them

1. I open adept and choose to install mingw32. It is marked as BREAK (install).
2. I press "undo" from the toolbar.
3. I select an unrelated package, say "acl" for installation.
4. I press "Apply changes".
5. I get an error saying: dpkg run was refused. There was an error committing changes. Possibly there was some problem downloading packages or the commit would break packages.

Why do I get this error when I have said "undo" already? I am prevented from installing even the unrelated "acl" package.

Note that after I get this error, acl is reset to "not installed - no change". If I now try installing it, there is no problem. But why should I get the problem in the first place?

[Richard Birnie (rbirnie-deactivatedaccount)]

Shriramana,

Just following up on this bug. What version of Kubuntu were you using when this problem occurred? Are you able to reproduce the problem on a fully updated install of Kubuntu 7.04 (feisty)?

I tried to reproduce this on my system running Kubuntu Feisty but mingw32 installs fine for me. You said you are using local repositories, could you give some more detail on your repository set up, just in case there's something there. Finally, does this just occur with the mingw32 package or is it any selection that would break packages?

thanks for your input
Rich

[Shriramana Sharma (jamadagni)]

Sorry for the delay. I was using Edgy. I must make it clear that this problem does not occur with the default repositories. I downloaded the DVD images from cargol.net and mount them on my hard disk as repositories. In them (I am talking about the images for Edgy) the mingw-related packages were not all in one repo. For some reason I had to disable one of the four repos (for four DVD images). Then I found this error. I presume that if there is any other set of package-and-dependencies where one of the dependencies is available but not all, then the install of the dependee fails, and not only that, prevents further installs of other packages even for which dependencies are available.

I hope I clarify the situation.

[Richard Birnie (rbirnie-deactivatedaccount)]

Shiramana,

If the problem doesn't occur with the standard repositories then it sounds like a problem with your repository setup. There's really not much we can do about this. It does sound like you're right that it's caused by a dependency held on a disabled repository. Closing bug

[Shriramana Sharma (jamadagni)]

Perhaps I was not clearer. The problem is not with my repository setup. I am asserting that Adept has a bug which prevents further operations even after an attempted change which would break some packages is canceled. To test this, do the following using the official repositories:

libqt4* packages are present in main. qt4-designer depending on some libqt4* packages is present in universe.

1. Make sure first that at least one of qt4-designer's libqt4* dependencies -- libqt4-core, libqt4-gui, libqt4-qt3support, libqt4-sql, libqt4-dev -- is not installed.
2. Turn off main.
3. Try to install qt4-designer from universe.
4. Adept reports a break.
5. Now deselect qt4-designer.
6. Try to install some other unrelated package, say c2html.
7. Adept does not allow me to install c2html whilst there is no dependency problem.

[Marco Maini (maini10)]

Your issue looks like report 139039 and is still open in Gutsy. Please post there your future comments. Thanks for your collaboration to improve Kubuntu. Feel free to report any other issue.