[Gllug] Weird dependency problem in Debian Etch

[John Winters]

John Winters wrote:
> I've hit a dependency problem on a Debian Etch box and I don't 
> understand why it doesn't affect all my boxes.
> 
> A number of packages are involved, but to strip out just one chain of 
> dependencies:
> 
> debconf-i18n        depends on
> libtext-iconv-perl    which depends on
> perlapi-5.8.8        which doesn't exist
> 
> On one box I am getting the dependency problems which I would expect, 
> but on all my others I seem to have the first two packages installed 
> without the 3rd one (breaking the dependency rules) and nothing 
> complains.  Why?

I've made a bit of progress.  perlapi-5.8.8 isn't a real package; it's a 
virtual package provided by perl-base.  The odd thing is, the 3rd box 
(the one with a problem) has perl-base installed and yet the system 
complains that it doesn't have perlapi-5.8.8.  Like so:

slug:~# apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
You might want to run ‘apt-get -f install’ to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies.
   libcompress-zlib-perl: Depends: perlapi-5.8.8 but it is not installable
   libdbd-mysql-perl: Depends: perlapi-5.8.8 but it is not installable
   libdigest-sha1-perl: Depends: perlapi-5.8.8 but it is not installable
   libhtml-parser-perl: Depends: perlapi-5.8.8 but it is not installable
   libnet-dns-perl: Depends: perlapi-5.8.8 but it is not installable
   libsocket6-perl: Depends: perlapi-5.8.8 but it is not installable
   libtext-charwidth-perl: Depends: perlapi-5.8.8 but it is not installable
   libtext-iconv-perl: Depends: perlapi-5.8.8 but it is not installable
E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f.
slug:~#

If I try using -f then the system decides it wants to uninstall 
practically everything - including the kernel, which would not be good.

It seems the dpkg database is corrupt?  How does one fix it?

TIA,
John

P.S.  It's an NSLU2, in case that's relevant.
-------------- next part --------------
-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug