<snip>
> distro. I also found
> a program called "Fast OnlineUpdate for SuSE" which claims to be
> a command line
> replacement for YOU. Check it out: http://fou4s.gaugusch.at/
>
Well, this has certainly taken me one step closer to understanding the SuSE
mentality. Jesse, thanks for this link. It didn't work (the software
update, that is - the link worked fine and I got it installed), but fou4s
put out enough verbosity that it led me to what the problem is. Check out
this brilliance:
linux:~ # fou4s -i
New heimdal-lib 0.4e-207 (old 0.4e-204) [recommended, 162kB] [dl]
Getting rpm/i586/heimdal-lib-0.4e-207.i586.patch.rpm
New yast2-core 2.6.53-8 (old 2.6.53-0) [YaST2, 566kB] [dl]
Getting rpm/i586/yast2-core-2.6.53-8.i586.patch.rpm
New yast2-ncurses 2.6.21-0 (old 2.6.20-3) [YaST2, 453kB] [dl]
Getting rpm/i586/yast2-ncurses-2.6.21-0.i586.patch.rpm
New yast2-packagemanager 2.6.44-2 (old 2.6.44-0) [YaST2, 629kB] [dl]
Getting rpm/i586/yast2-packagemanager-2.6.44-2.i586.patch.rpm
Installing the following 4 package(s):
rpm/i586/heimdal-lib-0.4e-207.i586.patch.rpm
rpm/i586/yast2-core-2.6.53-8.i586.patch.rpm
rpm/i586/yast2-ncurses-2.6.21-0.i586.patch.rpm
rpm/i586/yast2-packagemanager-2.6.44-2.i586.patch.rpm
************************
* ERROR: Update failed *
************************
error: failed dependencies:
yast2-core = 2.6.42-4 | yast2-core = 2.6.47-5 | yast2-core =
2.6.47-7 | yast2-core = 2.6.47-9 is needed by yast2-core-2.6.53-8
yast2-ncurses = 2.6.18-3 | yast2-ncurses = 2.6.19-13 is needed by
yast2-ncurses-2.6.21-0
yast2-packagemanager = 2.6.26-0 | yast2-packagemanager = 2.6.36-1 |
yast2-packagemanager = 2.6.36-2 is needed by yast2-packagemanager-2.6.44-2
Please try option -a or --nodeps in case of dependency problems.
NONE OF THE ABOVE UPDATES HAVE BEEN INSTALLED!
And here we see where trying to make software smart seems to have utterly
failed for SuSE. It downloads patches, as has been brought up, not the
whole package. But the patches will only work against one or more older
versions of the given package. That makes sense, except look at how
interestingly this fails: My system has yast2-ncurses 2.6.20-3 installed,
as an example. We see that 2.6.21-0 is available. But the patch is only
good against previous versions 2.6.18-3 or 2.6.19-13. So, it won't install
the patch. Same happens with other packages. I'll bet the reason YOU isn't
autoselecting any of these packages is it's doing the same patch dependency
check, only it's not being explicit about its reasons for not selecting
certain things. fou4s, unfortunately, emulates everything about YOU,
including this bad design. Remember kids, don't try to make software too
smart, eventually it will just outsmart you. I wonder how many other people
are using SuSE and have no idea that their systems aren't up-to-date because
they trust YOU to do it for them, but SuSE doesn't make decent patches such
that YOU can do its job (you'd think they could do that, given it's all
their product under their control). So now a new question comes up - how do
you tell YOU "Stop trying to be so smart, get me the whole RPM, not just a
patch"? Hmmm, there seem to be no man pages installed for YaST2 or YOU in a
default install, the online help in YaST is hopeless, and the SuSE website
also appears to be useless. The digging continues (but I'm less and less
impressed that SuSE makes it this hard. Sigh. I guess I'm just being too
stubborn, wanting it to actually work.)
>
> Ya, I would stick with Linux as well. I think SuSE is a good
> distro, but there
> are many more out there. What about Debian or Gentoo?
>
It seems to me I had Potato all set up on the machine at one time, but then
Woody was officially released and I felt all out of date. :-) I might have
to revisit that one. Gentoo is out of the running, I think. The machine is
a 133, after all. I don't have my whole life to wait. ;-)
Ian
