broken packages

[darco]

Is there a problem w/todays (7/24) update? MintUpdate reports "Could not apply changes! Fix broken packages first." Synaptic does not report any "broken packages". I also ran sudo dpkg --configure -a just to be on the safe side but no luck. Anyone else getting this error?

darco

**edit...strange but I unchecked all and checked one at a time..the first FF update took, then it reappeared?...I then checked the xgl only and then all the packages were updated????***

[tel1jag]

I am having the same problem.

[darco]

crap....I just lost FF completly????? After the above update, I was in Opera and then I noticed the FF icon disappeared...In a terminal I typed firefox and it says its not loaded!!!!..rebooted, same thing.Went to Mint SW Portal to d/l FF and I get the broken packages error like above...
..my wifes gonna be pissed when I tell her that her bookmarks disappeared...dam you MINT!

darco

[clem]

Her bookmarks should be safe in her own home directory, I wouldn't worry about that. Open a terminal and see what "apt install firefox firefox-3.0 xulrunner-1.9" says.

Clem.

[darco]

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
xulrunner-1.9 is already the newest version.
xulrunner-1.9 set to manually installed.
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:
xulrunner-1.9: Breaks: firefox-3.0 (< 3.0.1) but 3.0+nobinonly-1mint1-0ubuntu0.8.04.1 is to be installed
E: Broken packages

darco

[jacfrosty]

Darn it!!! This as just happend to me.... Arrrgggg!!!

What is going on here???

Someone please help me get Firefox 3 back... please!!!

[lr13]

Same thing - after update lost firefox 3. Had to reinstall FF 2.

[clem]

OK, I moved these updates to level 5 until the problem gets solved. I'll be posting here to give news about this.

Clem

[clem]

Can you check whether or not you've got a file called /etc/apt/preferences and what the output of "apt policy" is?

Clem

[clem]

That shows a priority 700 for Mint repositories and 500 for Ubuntu's so you shouldn't see FF 3.0.1 yet...

[clem]

OK, I understand the problem.

Explanation:

- Firefox 3.0 needs Xulrunner 1.9.
- Mint maintains Firefox but not Xulrunner.
- Ubuntu updated Firefox to 3.0.1 (you don't see that update since Mint maintains that package), that's fine... (3.0.1 will come in our repos today or tomorrow)
- Firefox 3.0.1 needs Xulrunner 1.9.0.1... which theorically is fine... but the problem here is that.. since we don't maintain Xulrunner.. you actually see the update for Xulrunner..

So you ended up with Xulrunner upgraded to 1.9.0.1 and since your version of Firefox 3.0 required Xulrunner 1.9, it got broken.

Solution:

- We need to maintain Xulrunner too.
- To fix things for you we need to upgrade FF to 3.0.1

I'll start doing both right now.

[clem]

Hold on.. I'm not completely sure about my previous explanation. Basically you shouldn't see these updates unless you've activated "dist-upgrade" in mintUpdate. It's probably due to a metapackage which we don't maintain. I'm having a look...

Clem.

[red-e-made]

Hold on.. I'm not completely sure about my previous explanation. Basically you shouldn't see these updates unless you've activated "dist-upgrade" in mintUpdate. It's probably due to a metapackage which we don't maintain. I'm having a look...

Clem.

I'm having the same problem, but I wanted to add that even unchecking all the Level 5 updates and trying to install a Level 3 - mozilla-mplayer - my mintUpdate flickered a bit then did nothing.

Good luck on finding a solution - I really don't want to go back to Opera.

[clem]

No, the explanation is right. You've got dist-upgrade enabled (or worse you performed a direct apt dist-upgrade) so new packages get updated no matter what.. even if that means you'll loose packages on the way (due to changes in dependencies). It's quite unfortunate that the version numbers for Ubuntu's xulrunner turned that way but basically dist-upgrading xulrunner meant you'd loose firefox 3.

I'll add firefox 3.0.1 to the repository and I'll see if we can maintain xulrunner as well.

PS: Make sure to stop using "dist-upgrade", it's quite risky.

Clem.

[red-e-made]

No, the explanation is right. You've got dist-upgrade enabled (or worse you performed a direct apt dist-upgrade) so new packages get updated no matter what.. even if that means you'll loose packages on the way (due to changes in dependencies). It's quite unfortunate that the version numbers for Ubuntu's xulrunner turned that way but basically dist-upgrading xulrunner meant you'd loose firefox 3.

I'll add firefox 3.0.1 to the repository and I'll see if we can maintain xulrunner as well.

PS: Make sure to stop using "dist-upgrade", it's quite risky.

Clem.

Hm. Well fortunately the moment I got that "Error: Broken packages" message from mintUpdate, I came here. I still have FF3 - I just have an unlocked icon in the panel. Which when compared with a vanished browser is really no big deal to me.

Thanks for looking into this, and for adding 3.0.1 to the repository.

[clem]

Hi,

Firefox 3.0.1 was added to the repositories. You should now be able to upgrade or to reinstall it.

This one liner should do it for everybody: "apt update; apt install firefox firefox-3.0"

Note: To be safe in the future, have level 1 & 2 checked in mintUpdate, have level 3 defined as visible but not as "safe", uncheck dist-upgrade in mintUpdate and stay away from apt-get upgrade, apt-get dist-upgrade or their equivalent in Synaptic. I have to tell you the truth, when there are broken packages it's usually a problem with the repositories themselves, so I'm glad you found that out and reported it... now having said that if you don't want to be the guinea-pigs the next time something like this happens, take your precautions and be selective with level 3 updates... especially if they come with new dependencies (dist-upgrade)

Let me know if you're still facing problems after "apt update; apt install firefox firefox-3.0".

Clem.

[darco]

You da man Clem!....Fixed before the Wife got home
I will follow your advice, did not know that I had the dist-upgrade checked....
My faith has returned!!!

darco

[red-e-made]

Excellent work, Clem. And in record time!

[Lantesh]

I posted up in another thread about this, but didn't go into too many details. I borked my system on Tuesday night, and exactly like clem said I had dist-upgrade checked in MintUpdate. Just like everyone else here Firefox 3 was gone, and I could not install it in Synaptic Package Manager or with the CLI using apt-get due to "broken packages". I did however find that using aptitude in the CLI did the trick. Aptitude offered to downgrade the packages that were interfering (broken) with my reinstall of Firefox 3. Here is the command I used.

Code: Select all

sudo aptitude install firefox-3.0

Apparently aptitude is a lot more powerful than apt-get.

[Rob Brill]

Hi,
Linux Mint Gnome Main Edition 5 Elyssa
Perhaps i don't know the real cause what are you talking about

I arrive from outdoor here in Brazil. July/25/2008 - 04:20am

I did 8 updates through mintUpdate. Firefox 3.0.1 and mozilla thunderbird
2.0.0.16 among others. Firefox and thunderbird are running right.
Everything is ok with my system.

Regards
Roberto