Package: tex-common Version: 0.21 Severity: normal
I did a routine dist-upgrade. tex-common asked what group should own the font cache, and I misspelled the group name. The first thing that happened was chown balking at the invalid group name, causing a fault in "post-installation". Retrying the dist-upgrade fails, as it tries to set up tex-common again without asking the questions. So I tried dpkg-reconfigure tex-common to fix it. I know the correct group name after all. But unfortunately, dpkg-reconfigure refuse to reconfigure a damaged/not fully installed package. :-( apt-get -f install also fails, it too blindly tries to set up tex-common using the bad group name. My next try, which I consider excessive: dpkg --force-depends --remove tex-common apt-get install tex-common And it _still_ tried to use the bad group without giving me a chance to fix it. Final attempt, fortunately tex-common doesn't have that many settings: dpkg --force-depends --purge tex-common apt-get install tex-common Still no questions asked, preconfiguring failed, but the package was installed anyway. So I could run dpkg-reconfigure tex-common and finally get the group name right. Now, the ideal fix would be a package system that offers the option of reconfiguring packages that fail post-installation. A nice fix for tex-common, would be to do minimal validation of the group name entered. For example, see if "getent groupname" works. Shellscript test: if getent group $GROUPNAME ; then echo ok ; else echo bad ; fi This works for me, of course you want to do better than "echo", i.e. bring up the group dialog box again on failure. -- System Information: Debian Release: testing/unstable APT prefers testing APT policy: (900, 'testing'), (800, 'unstable'), (800, 'stable'), (700, 'experimental') Architecture: i386 (i686) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash Kernel: Linux 2.6.17-rc3-mm1 Locale: LANG=nb_NO.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=nb_NO.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) Versions of packages tex-common depends on: ii debconf [debconf-2.0] 1.5.0 Debian configuration management sy ii ucf 2.009 Update Configuration File: preserv tex-common recommends no packages. Versions of packages tetex-base depends on: ii dpkg 1.13.18 package maintenance system for Deb ii ucf 2.009 Update Configuration File: preserv Versions of packages tetex-bin depends on: ii debconf [debconf-2.0] 1.5.0 Debian configuration management sy ii debianutils 2.15.7 Miscellaneous utilities specific t ii dialog 1.0-20060221-1 Displays user-friendly dialog boxe ii dpkg 1.13.18 package maintenance system for Deb ii ed 0.2-20 The classic unix line editor ii libc6 2.3.6-7 GNU C Library: Shared libraries ii libfontconfig1 2.3.2-5.1 generic font configuration library ii libfreetype6 2.1.10-3 FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib ii libgcc1 1:4.1.0-1+b1 GCC support library ii libice6 6.9.0.dfsg.1-6 Inter-Client Exchange library ii libjpeg62 6b-12 The Independent JPEG Group's JPEG ii libkpathsea4 3.0-16 path search library for teTeX (run ii libpaper1 1.1.14-7 Library for handling paper charact ii libpng12-0 1.2.8rel-5 PNG library - runtime ii libpoppler0c2 0.4.5-4 PDF rendering library ii libsm6 6.9.0.dfsg.1-6 X Window System Session Management ii libstdc++6 4.1.0-1+b1 The GNU Standard C++ Library v3 ii libt1-5 5.1.0-2 Type 1 font rasterizer library - r ii libx11-6 6.9.0.dfsg.1-6 X Window System protocol client li ii libxaw7 6.9.0.dfsg.1-6 X Athena widget set library ii libxext6 6.9.0.dfsg.1-6 X Window System miscellaneous exte ii libxmu6 6.9.0.dfsg.1-6 X Window System miscellaneous util ii libxp6 6.9.0.dfsg.1-6 X Window System printing extension ii libxpm4 6.9.0.dfsg.1-6 X pixmap library ii libxt6 6.9.0.dfsg.1-6 X Toolkit Intrinsics ii mime-support 3.36-1 MIME files 'mime.types' & 'mailcap ii perl 5.8.8-4 Larry Wall's Practical Extraction ii sed 4.1.4-7 The GNU sed stream editor ii tetex-base 3.0-17 Basic library files of teTeX ii ucf 2.009 Update Configuration File: preserv ii whiptail 0.51.6-31 Displays user-friendly dialog boxe ii zlib1g 1:1.2.3-11 compression library - runtime Versions of packages tetex-extra depends on: ii dpkg 1.13.18 package maintenance system for Deb ii tetex-base 3.0-17 Basic library files of teTeX ii tetex-bin 3.0-16 The teTeX binary files ii ucf 2.009 Update Configuration File: preserv -- debconf-show failed -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
