"apt-listbugs" package of Debian derived distros

Hi All,

I don't know how many of you have faced problems when you have performed a dist-upgrade or even many times a simple package upgrade -- which completely breaks down your system into pieces...

One worst example to give: What if you upgraded your X server and the moment you start you system next time - you get no display at all???  I have faced this and many other types of similar problems many times....

So dont we have a pre step where the package manager or the apt tells that - Boss you are trying to upgrade to a new version - through which I will break your system???

Thanks.. And yes we do have a package like that.. Called the apt-listbugs

Installation of this package:

Issue the command apt-get install apt-listbugs or use synaptic.

From there on - any time you go for upgrading your package / or a complete dist upgrade... This particular software tells you - that there exists some bugs - with the bug numbers and the associated problems with it and the severity of the bug.

It would also ask you a question in the end as to - Do you still want to proceed Yes or No and ?

At this stage - you always have an option to decide your future system. But as long as the bugs are critical or severe - its advised not to go for an upgrade and simply type n and quit out of synaptic or Unmark the selected packages....

Also there is one more package called apt-listchanges which would note you the changes wrt apt or a particular deb file..

Access the man pages for both the commands to learn more about them...

Tc,
Ananth S Gouri

Fixing the rtl_nic firmware missing warning(s) in Debian

Hi All,

I was curious to use the new Linux kernel 2.6.38 and also since I had some free time yday after a long time - I tried to install it...

I upgraded my repositories to include the sid repos and gave the apt-get update command.

Next it was a normal way of installing the kernel - as I made use of Synaptic package manager...

The installation went fine - but every other time I installed any new software I used to get some warnings about a Realtek NIC card firmware missing. This was pretty irritating - as it would not quit the synaptic happily...

I tried googling out and I got different sites with different answers. But I could fix the problem after I installed the package firmware-realtek

I installed it through Synaptic and I did not get any warnings from there on...

Hope this helped some of you..
Ananth S Gouri

Moovida

Hi All,

This post explains about a nice player called Moovida...

Its a "Moovida is much more than a simple media player... it is a cutting edge media center bringing the best of the internet to your TV screen"

Ok -- How to install it onto your Debian. I use Squeeze (Debian 6)

If you search for Moovida in http://packages.debian.org site, you can see that the pkg is available from squeeze till testing..

Enable the proper repositories in your sources.list file and issue the apt-get update command..

Then you can install Moovida using apt-get install moovida or by making use of Synaptic package manger....

Happy media enjoyment... :)
Ananth S Gouri 

Gnome 3 Desktop

Hi All,

The much awaited Gnome 3 Desktop was released on April 6th, 2011.

You can install it using Ubuntu's PPA (Personal package archives).

But its a warning that you could break your system as the Gnome 3 team build is still not stable.

Also please think twice if you are planning to install Gnome 3 Desktop onto your Debian by using the Ubuntu PPA. Mixing Ubuntu and Debian repositories will create an unstable system.

Follow this below Digitizor link for installation:
http://digitizor.com/2011/04/07/install-gnome3-desktop-ubuntu/

Also adding the ppa repository to a Debian system has to be done manually as there is no "apt-add-repository" command in Debian.

Manually add the debian http / src line with its ppa onto the sources.list file.

Mail me for any problems.

Take care All,
Ananth S Gouri

Iceweasel 4.0

Hi All,

Its been long long time since me posting. Have been kinda busy with my college stuff and some cool Android work behind... ;)

Right, this post explains how to install Iceweasel 4 (Mozilla Firefox rebranded by Debian Project) onto your Squeeze.

Add this below line to your sources.list file
deb http://mozilla.debian.net/ squeeze-backports iceweasel-4.0

Issue these below commands:
As root:

apt-get update
apt-get install -t squeeze-backports iceweasel

This should install your Iceweasel 4. Restart your browser if its up and running.

Enjoy my first post of the month of April 11,
Ananth S Gouri