[gentoo-user] Still not feeling familiar with emerge

[gentoo-user] Still not feeling familiar with emerge

[hkml]

Dear group,

I'm using gentoo for more than three years now and using the gentoo packaging system
in general is exactly what I expect from a packaging system. You just open a shell
somewhere on your virtual desktop, start a process and the rest is done automatically
(in general).

But, when it comes to packages blocking each other I simply have to guess, what to do next
and sometimes I fail in guessing the right things I once removed the wrong package,
which left me with a system without working packaging system - a very bad experience. In fact
I could only solve this problem by copying a dynamic library from another linux installation
to reanimate emerge.

So some weeks ago I was too busy to take care of some conflicts caused by the end of support
for KDE 3.5). I stopped updating, because I didn't have the time to switch to newer KDE
version and wanted to do that later on.

Now I want to upgrade, but I would like to better understand the messages telling me the
conflicting packets. A current call to 'emerge --update --deep --ask world' gives me the
following conflicts:


 * Error: The above package list contains packages which cannot be
 * installed at the same time on the same system.

  ('installed', '/', 'sys-fs/device-mapper-1.02.24-r1', 'nomerge') pulled in by
    >=sys-fs/device-mapper-1.00.07-r1 required by ('installed', '/', 'sys-fs/cryptsetup-1.0.6-r2', 'nomerge')

  ('ebuild', '/', 'kde-base/kdebase-data-4.3.3', 'merge') pulled in by
    >=kde-base/kdebase-data-4.3.3[-kdeprefix] required by ('ebuild', '/', 'kde-base/kdelibs-4.3.3-r1', 'merge')
    >=kde-base/kdebase-data-4.3.3[-kdeprefix] required by ('ebuild', '/', 'kde-base/kdebase-meta-4.3.3', 'merge')

  ('installed', '/', 'app-arch/lzma-utils-4.32.7', 'nomerge') pulled in by
    app-arch/lzma-utils required by ('ebuild', '/', 'dev-libs/mpfr-2.4.1_p5', 'merge')
    app-arch/lzma-utils required by ('ebuild', '/', 'dev-texlive/texlive-basic-2008-r1', 'merge')
    app-arch/lzma-utils required by ('ebuild', '/', 'dev-texlive/texlive-latex-2008-r2', 'merge')
    (and 5 more)

  ('installed', '/', 'kde-base/akregator-3.5.10', 'nomerge') pulled in by
    >=kde-base/akregator-3.5.10:3.5 required by ('installed', '/', 'kde-base/konqueror-akregator-3.5.10', 'nomerge')

  ('ebuild', '/', 'sys-fs/udev-146-r1', 'merge') pulled in by
    virtual/dev-manager required by world
    >=sys-fs/udev-103 required by ('ebuild', '/', 'media-gfx/iscan-2.21.0', 'merge')
    >=sys-fs/udev-124 required by ('installed', '/', 'sys-fs/cryptsetup-1.0.6-r2', 'nomerge')
    (and 3 more)

  ('ebuild', '/', 'net-wireless/bluez-4.39-r2', 'merge') pulled in by
    net-wireless/bluez required by ('ebuild', '/', 'gnome-base/gvfs-1.2.3', 'merge')
    net-wireless/bluez required by ('ebuild', '/', 'kde-base/solid-4.3.3', 'merge')

  ('ebuild', '/', 'kde-base/akregator-4.3.3', 'merge') pulled in by
    >=kde-base/akregator-4.3.3[-kdeprefix] required by ('ebuild', '/', 'kde-base/kdepim-meta-4.3.3', 'merge')

  ('ebuild', '/', 'app-arch/xz-utils-4.999.9_beta', 'merge') pulled in by
    app-arch/xz-utils required by ('ebuild', '/', 'app-arch/libarchive-2.7.1-r1', 'merge')

  ('installed', '/', 'net-wireless/bluez-libs-3.36', 'nomerge') pulled in by
    net-wireless/bluez-libs required by ('installed', '/', 'net-libs/libpcap-1.0.0-r2', 'nomerge')

  ('installed', '/', 'kde-base/kdebase-data-3.5.10', 'nomerge') pulled in by
    >=kde-base/kdebase-data-3.5.10:3.5 required by ('installed', '/', 'kde-base/kcontrol-3.5.10', 'nomerge')
    >=kde-base/kdebase-data-3.5.10:3.5 required by ('installed', '/', 'kde-base/kicker-3.5.10-r1', 'nomerge')


For me some of the messages are mysterious. What is e.g. the exact meaning of
the four components in
 ('ebuild', '/', 'net-wireless/bluez-4.39-r2', 'merge') or
 ('installed', '/', 'kde-base/akregator-3.5.10', 'nomerge')

How should I resolve the conflict
  net-libs/libpcap-1.0.0-r2 versus gnome-base/gvfs-1.2.3 and kde-base/solid-4.3.3
I don't even have any bluetooth device in my computer. Should I fiddle with the USE flags of
KDE and Gnome or libpcap to avoid they pull in net-wireless/bluez?

Which packets are causing the device-mapper conflict?

What is the most secure way to switch to KDE 4? Should I remove the packages konqueror-akregator,
kcontrol and kicker, then update to KDE 4 and then reinstall those packets?

Maybe someone can explain how to proceed best. Are there some things I can check using
equery or whatsoever to support my decisions? I'm feeling unsure how to handle these
problems keeping the risk to leave my system (partially) unusable as small as possible.
Maybe someone can give me a hint, where to find more information about how to handle conflicts
in the packaging system.

Sorry for the long mail.

Cheers, Heinz

Re: [gentoo-user] Still not feeling familiar with emerge

[Alan McKinnon]

On Friday 15 January 2010 00:36:16 hkml@dfki.uni-kl.de wrote:
> Dear group,
> 
> I'm using gentoo for more than three years now and using the gentoo
>  packaging system in general is exactly what I expect from a packaging
>  system. You just open a shell somewhere on your virtual desktop, start a
>  process and the rest is done automatically (in general).
> 
> But, when it comes to packages blocking each other I simply have to guess,
>  what to do next and sometimes I fail in guessing the right things I once
>  removed the wrong package, which left me with a system without working
>  packaging system - a very bad experience. In fact I could only solve this
>  problem by copying a dynamic library from another linux installation to
>  reanimate emerge.
> 
> So some weeks ago I was too busy to take care of some conflicts caused by
>  the end of support for KDE 3.5). I stopped updating, because I didn't have
>  the time to switch to newer KDE version and wanted to do that later on.

Everything above this line is fascinating but completely unrelated to your 
post. Please omit such in future

> Now I want to upgrade, but I would like to better understand the messages
>  telling me the conflicting packets. A current call to 'emerge --update
>  --deep --ask world' gives me the following conflicts:
> 
> 
>  * Error: The above package list contains packages which cannot be
>  * installed at the same time on the same system.
> 
>   ('installed', '/', 'sys-fs/device-mapper-1.02.24-r1', 'nomerge') pulled
>  in by
> 
>     >=sys-fs/device-mapper-1.00.07-r1 required by ('installed', '/',
>     > 'sys-fs/cryptsetup-1.0.6-r2', 'nomerge')

Read it backwards from the bottom up. It means that cryptsetup requires 
device-mapper (a version greater than 1.00.07-r1) and portage has chosen  
device-mapper-1.02.24-r1

>   ('ebuild', '/', 'kde-base/kdebase-data-4.3.3', 'merge') pulled in by
> 
>     >=kde-base/kdebase-data-4.3.3[-kdeprefix] required by ('ebuild', '/',
>     > 'kde-base/kdelibs-4.3.3-r1', 'merge')
>     > =kde-base/kdebase-data-4.3.3[-kdeprefix] required by ('ebuild', '/',
>     > 'kde-base/kdebase-meta-4.3.3', 'merge')

Same as above, except that both kdelibs and kdebase-meta have pulled in 
kdebase-data. Sometimes the list of package that pull in other gets very long 
and the list might be truncated with a message something like "plus 33 
others..."

>   ('installed', '/', 'app-arch/lzma-utils-4.32.7', 'nomerge') pulled in by
>     app-arch/lzma-utils required by ('ebuild', '/',
>  'dev-libs/mpfr-2.4.1_p5', 'merge') app-arch/lzma-utils required by
>  ('ebuild', '/', 'dev-texlive/texlive-basic-2008-r1', 'merge')
>  app-arch/lzma-utils required by ('ebuild', '/',
>  'dev-texlive/texlive-latex-2008-r2', 'merge') (and 5 more)
> 
>   ('installed', '/', 'kde-base/akregator-3.5.10', 'nomerge') pulled in by
> 
>     >=kde-base/akregator-3.5.10:3.5 required by ('installed', '/',
>     > 'kde-base/konqueror-akregator-3.5.10', 'nomerge')
> 
>   ('ebuild', '/', 'sys-fs/udev-146-r1', 'merge') pulled in by
>     virtual/dev-manager required by world
> 
>     >=sys-fs/udev-103 required by ('ebuild', '/', 'media-gfx/iscan-2.21.0',
>     > 'merge') =sys-fs/udev-124 required by ('installed', '/',
>     > 'sys-fs/cryptsetup-1.0.6-r2', 'nomerge')
> 
>     (and 3 more)
> 
>   ('ebuild', '/', 'net-wireless/bluez-4.39-r2', 'merge') pulled in by
>     net-wireless/bluez required by ('ebuild', '/', 'gnome-base/gvfs-1.2.3',
>  'merge') net-wireless/bluez required by ('ebuild', '/',
>  'kde-base/solid-4.3.3', 'merge')
> 
>   ('ebuild', '/', 'kde-base/akregator-4.3.3', 'merge') pulled in by
> 
>     >=kde-base/akregator-4.3.3[-kdeprefix] required by ('ebuild', '/',
>     > 'kde-base/kdepim-meta-4.3.3', 'merge')
> 
>   ('ebuild', '/', 'app-arch/xz-utils-4.999.9_beta', 'merge') pulled in by
>     app-arch/xz-utils required by ('ebuild', '/',
>  'app-arch/libarchive-2.7.1-r1', 'merge')
> 
>   ('installed', '/', 'net-wireless/bluez-libs-3.36', 'nomerge') pulled in
>  by net-wireless/bluez-libs required by ('installed', '/',
>  'net-libs/libpcap-1.0.0-r2', 'nomerge')
> 
>   ('installed', '/', 'kde-base/kdebase-data-3.5.10', 'nomerge') pulled in
>  by
> 
>     >=kde-base/kdebase-data-3.5.10:3.5 required by ('installed', '/',
>     > 'kde-base/kcontrol-3.5.10', 'nomerge')
>     > =kde-base/kdebase-data-3.5.10:3.5 required by ('installed', '/',
>     > 'kde-base/kicker-3.5.10-r1', 'nomerge')
> 
> For me some of the messages are mysterious. What is e.g. the exact meaning
>  of the four components in
>  ('ebuild', '/', 'net-wireless/bluez-4.39-r2', 'merge') or
>  ('installed', '/', 'kde-base/akregator-3.5.10', 'nomerge')

It's just a statement that something will be merged, followed by the packages 
that caused it to be merged. It's all usually of the form

"exact package" pulled in by
"package spec from an ebuild"
pulled in by
"something else"

Apparently you have konqueror-akregator in world (nothing else is pulling it 
in) which causes akregator to be merged. You must remove konqueror-akregator 
manually using

emerge -C konqueror-akregator

> How should I resolve the conflict
>   net-libs/libpcap-1.0.0-r2 versus gnome-base/gvfs-1.2.3 and
>  kde-base/solid-4.3.3 I don't even have any bluetooth device in my
>  computer. Should I fiddle with the USE flags of KDE and Gnome or libpcap
>  to avoid they pull in net-wireless/bluez?

You don't have a conflict per the above.

Actually, you removed the relevant part of the output and didn't post it, so 
now we can't help you.

Please repost the full output.

When you identify the blocker, you have to ask yourself some intelligent 
questions, like:

portage wants to merge packages A and B, but the ebuilds say that A and B 
cannot be installed together. What is pulling in A and what is pulling in B, 
and why? It might be a hard dependency, it might be a USE flag issue, it might 
be that the package is in world. Also learn how to read ebuilds

> Which packets are causing the device-mapper conflict?

Not the foggiest idea - you removed the info that tells me that :-)

> What is the most secure way to switch to KDE 4? Should I remove the
>  packages konqueror-akregator, kcontrol and kicker, then update to KDE 4
>  and then reinstall those packets?

First get rid of KDE-3.5 completely, then install KDE-4:

Inspect you world file and unmerge everything related the KDE-3.5. Then run a 
--depclean o remove dependencies not in world, then run emerge -uND world and 
double check that nothing kde-3.5 related is pulled in. Rinse and repeat till 
this is true.

Then merge KDE-4 as usual

> Maybe someone can explain how to proceed best. Are there some things I can
>  check using equery or whatsoever to support my decisions? I'm feeling
>  unsure how to handle these problems keeping the risk to leave my system
>  (partially) unusable as small as possible. Maybe someone can give me a
>  hint, where to find more information about how to handle conflicts in the
>  packaging system.

Before anyone explains to you how to drive gentoo, you should help yourself 
first:

1. Re-read the install document. All of it. Maybe read it three times.

2. Read the man pages, all of them, several times. You can find this list 
with"equery files portage" and looking for files under "/usr/share/man"


There is no easy way through this, you have to understand how portage and it's 
builds work and that involves study on your part.

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Re: [gentoo-user] Still not feeling familiar with emerge

[hkml]

Hi Alan,

thanks for your reply and sorry for the late response (I was kind of offline).

> Everything above this line is fascinating but completely unrelated to your 
> post. Please omit such in future
I just wanted to motivate that I didn't just install gentoo and then ask my
questions immediately without trying to solve them by myself. But okay: no
social 1.0 here^C

>> For me some of the messages are mysterious. What is e.g. the exact meaning
>>  of the four components in
>>  ('ebuild', '/', 'net-wireless/bluez-4.39-r2', 'merge') or
>>  ('installed', '/', 'kde-base/akregator-3.5.10', 'nomerge')
> 
> It's just a statement that something will be merged, followed by the packages 
> that caused it to be merged. It's all usually of the form
> 
> "exact package" pulled in by
> "package spec from an ebuild"
> pulled in by
> "something else"
Okay, but what does e.g. the second component '/' in the above messages mean?
The first component probably denotes, if the packet is already installed or
about to be installed, but what is the 'merge' vs. 'nomerge' thing?

>> How should I resolve the conflict...
> Actually, you removed the relevant part of the output and didn't post it, so 
> now we can't help you.
Yes, sorry for that.

> Please repost the full output.
Thanks for the offer, but the full output was extremely long. I was in a fatal
mood last weekend and decided to backup my gentoo system and then to cleanup
like you proposed. It took till today.

> When you identify the blocker, you have to ask yourself some intelligent 
> questions, like:
> 
> portage wants to merge packages A and B, but the ebuilds say that A and B 
> cannot be installed together. What is pulling in A and what is pulling in B, 
> and why? It might be a hard dependency, it might be a USE flag issue, it might 
> be that the package is in world. Also learn how to read ebuilds
Well, just to give you an example: when solving the blocking states last weekend,
emerge told me about a conflict between e2fsck and whatsoever other package. So I
again tried to solve that by trying to uninstall e2fsck, see what happens and
then reinstall again before the next boot process. And that's exactly what I did
the last time, when I left my system unusable. After uninstalling you can't emerge,
scp or mount anything because of missing dynamic library libcom_err.so.2. Emerge gives you a
warning, when you try to unmerge, but it doesn't say that it's simply committing suicide.

> Inspect you world file and unmerge everything related the KDE-3.5. Then run a 
> --depclean o remove dependencies not in world, then run emerge -uND world and 
> double check that nothing kde-3.5 related is pulled in. Rinse and repeat till 
> this is true.
I tried the --depclean/-uND world stuff and later on several packets failed building
because they were missing my kernel tree. I had to copy it from the backup. Strange.

>> Maybe someone can explain how to proceed best. Are there some things I can
>>  check using equery or whatsoever to support my decisions? I'm feeling
>>  unsure how to handle these problems keeping the risk to leave my system
>>  (partially) unusable as small as possible. Maybe someone can give me a
>>  hint, where to find more information about how to handle conflicts in the
>>  packaging system.
> 
> Before anyone explains to you how to drive gentoo, you should help yourself 
> first:
> 
> 1. Re-read the install document. All of it. Maybe read it three times.
> 
> 2. Read the man pages, all of them, several times. You can find this list 
> with"equery files portage" and looking for files under "/usr/share/man"
> 
> 
> There is no easy way through this, you have to understand how portage and it's 
> builds work and that involves study on your part.
Well, I didn't ask for getting explained how to drive gentoo. It's running for
several years now, but I'm aware that I'm simply using emerge without understanding
some details. I asked for some info (e.g. best practices or examples) or some
hints where I can find more than in the man pages. I want to understand better
how portage works, but I don't find it easy to get the knowledge from reading the
manpages (how often soever).

Cheers, Heinz