Re: Debian Problems

[Sudhakar Chandrasekharan <thaths@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Ravikant K. Rao" proclaimed:
>   I've spent the last couple days doing a Debian 2.1 -> Debian 2.2 upgrade ,
> and I had initially started the upgrade before potato had gone into freeze
> and I wonder if the mixup of running apt before _and_ after the code freeze
> with a not well defined sources.list would have messed up some
> stuff.

The before and after potato freeze should not be the problem.

>   0] My apt-get complains as is shown below. Is it okay/advisable to force
> the LoopBreak? What should I do, next?

First make sure that your sources.list is current.  Are you doing the
upgrade through the net (ftp/http)?  In that case here is my sources.list
for potato:


deb http://ftp1.us.debian.org/debian potato main contrib non-free
deb http://pandora.debian.org/debian-non-US potato non-US/main
non-US/contrib no

> ======
> pronto:/home/ravi# apt-get upgrade
> Reading Package Lists... Done
> Building Dependency Tree... Done

<snip>

> 0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 83 not upgraded.

Looks like you already have the latest version of the software you need
(except for the ones being kept back).

> pronto:/home/ravi#
> 
> pronto:/home/ravi# apt-get dist-upgrade
> Reading Package Lists... Done
> Building Dependency Tree... Done
> Calculating Upgrade... Done

<snip>

> 76 packages upgraded, 67 newly installed, 9 to remove and 5 not upgraded.
> Need to get 0B/74.8MB of archives. After unpacking 62.1MB will be used.
> Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
> E: This installation run will require temporarily removing the essential
> package libpam0g due to a Conflicts/Pre-Depends loop. This is often bad, but
> if you really want to do it, activate the APT::Force-LoopBreak option.
> E: Internal Error, Could not early remove libpam0g

Why don't you try 'apt-get dselect-upgrade'.  Also try using the
--fix-missing option.

> ======
> 
>   1] I can't play my mp3's anymore.It complains something about my /dev/dsp
> - I checked if the speakers were okay, and Yes, I could play the same mp3's
> fine on Win98. (It's a laptop)

Was sound ever enabled in the kernel?  You can do this by either
recompiling the kernel with sound support or installing the sound module
for your card after installing the latest kernel-image package.  'cat
/dev/sndstat' should list the sound device.

% cat /dev/sndstat
OSS/Linux 3.9.2x (C) 4Front Technologies 1996-1999

License serial number: N02644648
Options: APCI
This copy of OSS is licensed to Sudhakar Chandra

Build: 2.2.13-SMP

Card config: 
Ensoniq AudioPCI 97 at 0xf4c0 irq 5

Audio devices:
0: Ensoniq AudioPCI97 (DUPLEX)
1: Ensoniq AudioPCI97 (playback only)

Synth devices:

Midi devices:
0: AudioPCI97

Timers:
0: System clock

Mixers:
0: AudioPCI 97 (TR28023)


> ====
> pronto:/cdrom/Songs/Padayappa# mpg123 KIKKU\ ERUTHE.mp3
> High Performance MPEG 1.0/2.0/2.5 Audio Player for Layer 1, 2 and 3.
> Version 0.59q (1999/Jan/26). Written and copyrights by Michael Hipp.
> Uses code from various people. See 'README' for more!
> THIS SOFTWARE COMES WITH ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY! USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!
> Can't open /dev/dsp!
> pronto:/cdrom/Songs/Padayappa# ls -la /dev | grep dsp
> crwxrwxrwx    1 root     audio     14,   3 Jan  3 00:46 dsp
> crw-rw----    1 root     audio     14,  19 Jan  3 00:46 dsp1

The mere existence of these devices under /dev does not mean anything.

> ====
> 
>   2] I would like to load AfterStep everytime I go into X - I edited my
> ~/.xinitrc to read "exec afterstep" but it didn't work. How would I load
> whichever wm that I wanted? 

Each line in ~/.xinitrc should be the path to an app that you want during
started up.  Background ('&') every task except for the window manager. 
Also make sure that your ~/.xinitrc has exec permissions set.

% cat ~/.xinitrc
/usr/X11R6/bin/xterm -ls&
/usr/X11R6/fvwm2

> As for themes, I saw a couple that I liked at
> themes.org - how would I "install" 'em, once I download them? 

Depends on how you want it installed?  System-wide install requires placing
the theme files someplace under /usr/share (I forget the exact location).

> I also liked
> the screenshots of blackboxwm , and I have it downloaded, ... but I dont
> know how to go about using it... Even pointers to the /right/ documentation
> would be greatly appreciated. [ I've read the READMEs ... ]

Why don't you just install the blackbox debian package.

>   3] Another interesting phenomenon is that if I keep the external PS/2
> mouse connected during boot-up, _only_ the external mouse works after
> boot-up, but if I were to connect the mouse _after_ boot-up, I can use both
> the touchpad and the external mouse ... It _is_ a touch friendlier if I had
> the services of both things,... How would I fix this problem?

Isn't this a BIOS setting?

>   4] Are there any Power Monitor utils under Linux (specifically, Debian)
> toward monitoring my Battery/AC Power status as in Windows? I'd like it to
> force a shutdown if the Battery Status dipped below 2% or some such - I
> remember it would make a "beep!" thingie if the power dipped below some
> level - what level, I do not know.

Look into the apm debian module.

>   5] I would like suggestions/recommendations for a choice of a front end
> for mpg123 toward adjusting Volume and a mock Graphic Equaliser thingie - I
> did a search on 'mpg123' on fm, and boy, It turned up _way_ too many
> options, ... so I _do_ know that there _are_ nifty frontends available...
> only the options available are too many... so I'd just like the names of the
> better packages which I could search on fm and install...

I don't know if mpg123 is the same as mp3.  If it is, then use xmms.

Thaths
-- 
"See that ship over there?  They're broadcasting Major League Baseball
       with implied oral conesnt, not express written conesent."
                     -- Homer J. Simpson
Sudhakar C13n http://people.netscape.com/thaths/ Lead Indentured Slave
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