cannot install php5-mcrypt

[Mistere]

I started by trying to install phpmyadmin:

# apt-get install phpmyadmin
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  phpmyadmin: Depends: php5-mcrypt but it is not installable
E: Broken packages

I tried to install php5-mcrypt separately:
# apt-get install php5-mcrypt
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package php5-mcrypt is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package php5-mcrypt has no installation candidate

Appears to be related to karmic packages being pinned?

[Ken Hawkins (khawkins98)]

Yes, this is related to the PHP being pegged at 5.2.

You can remove that pegging and go to 5.3 and install PHPMyAdmin by:

sudo rm /etc/apt/preferences.d/php
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin

But you'll also need to go through some more config re-integrating MYSQL.

Below are my notes.
----
#SETUP MYSQL PASSWORD
/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u phpmyadmin password 'yourpaas'

#REMOVE PEGED SOURCES, UPDATE, INSTALL PHPMYADMIN
#Pantheon pegged the system to a specific version of 5.2, making it impossible to install phpmyadmin
#Note that this WILL take us to 5.3 PHP
sudo rm /etc/apt/preferences.d/php
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin
# select apache 2
# select “keep the local version currently installed”
# again, select “keep the local version currently installed”
# yes to “ Configure database for phpmyadmin with dbconfig-common?”
# input the root password for mysql that you just set
# set your phpmyadmin pass
# Possible your mysql data permissions may need to be fixed

copy contents of “/etc/phpmyadmin/apache.conf” into end of “/etc/apache2/apache2.conf”

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

#Had to set mysql pass again
/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u phpmyadmin password 'yourpaas'

#good to go
#be sure you can access port 81
http://yoursite.com/phpmyadmin/