Re: Apt error (tried other mailing list & Google), please help!

Not being a programmer limits my ability to fix many things that I
normally would. =) Glad others are there to lend a hand.

> Things usually work because this check is by default done on /bin/rpm.
> Depending on how you look at it, it's either a configuration or
> packaging error (a missing dependency) in the apt package you're using.
> Somewhere in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d files "Dir::Bin::rpm" config item is
> set to "/usr/bin/aptrpm" - delete that setting and it should start
> working. Or alternatively install the package providing /usr/bin/aptrpm,
> Richard can help with this...

I found this in apt.conf, which is what I assume is meant by "Dir::Bin::rpm"

Dir
{
  bin
  {
    rpm "/usr/bin/aptrpm";
  };

};

I removed it from the conf file, saved, then tried again. Bingo! Now
it's working just like was before (though giving me the same 404
errors.) Greatly appreciate the troubleshooting Panu. =) Richard has
already solved the 404 errors for me, which I was able to fix
following his advice.

For anyone else reading that may have the same problem, I had my
sources.list line as this:

rpm ftp://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/Linux/MIRROR.suse/apt/SuSE/9.1-i386
base updates security suser-rbos kde3-stable wine usr-local-bin
suse-projects

The problem I keep having is apt-get was adding an additional "/base/"
when looking. It results in a bunch of errors like this:

Err ftp://ftp.uni-erlangen.de base/update pkglist
  Unable to fetch file, server said 'Can't open
/pub/Linux/MIRROR.suse/apt/SuSE/9.1-i386/base/base/pkglist.updates.bz2:
No such file or directory  '

I could see the problem... the file it's after is located at
"SuSE/9.1-i386/base/pkglist.updates.bz2" - not the
"SuSE/9.1-i386/base/base/" directory. Richard had mentioned a fix for
this (which I was now able to try to implement) wherebouts I add a
space just before the SuSE directory, then remove the forward slash
"/" after apt. Now it looks like this:

rpm ftp://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/Linux/MIRROR.suse/apt SuSE/9.1-i386
base updates security suser-rbos kde3-stable wine usr-local-bin
suse-projects

It worked like a charm. Here's the entire output:

linux-box:/home/guidoz # apt-get update
Get:1 ftp://ftp.uni-erlangen.de SuSE/9.1-i386 release [3013B]
Fetched 3013B in 2s (1038B/s)
Hit ftp://ftp.uni-erlangen.de SuSE/9.1-i386/base pkglist
Hit ftp://ftp.uni-erlangen.de SuSE/9.1-i386/base release
Hit ftp://ftp.uni-erlangen.de SuSE/9.1-i386/updates pkglist
Hit ftp://ftp.uni-erlangen.de SuSE/9.1-i386/updates release
Hit ftp://ftp.uni-erlangen.de SuSE/9.1-i386/security pkglist
Hit ftp://ftp.uni-erlangen.de SuSE/9.1-i386/security release
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done

This was actually after I did it initially after finally getting it
working. (The first time it grabbed a fair amount of updates and
installed them.)

Now I just want to get the additional components working:
 - suser-rbos
 - kde3-stable
 - wine
 - usr-local-bin
 - suse-projects

I assume I just have to find a repository that has these packages
available, as a browser peek at my only current one doesn't show them
anywhere (hence the errors I was receiving before). I'll hunt around
for this myself, unless someone has a suggestion off the top of their
head.

Panu, both you and richard have been an awesome help. I sincerely
thank you. =) Take care all.

--
Peace. ~G


On Thu, 23 Sep 2004 20:02:40 +0300, Panu Matilainen <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Thu, 2004-09-23 at 19:40, GuidoZ wrote:
> > Thanks so much. =)
> >
> > > It's perfectly normal for the Packages file to change - in fact it'd be
> > > very worrisome if it didn't after updating some packages since that's the
> > > rpm database! :)
> >
> > Well that makes sense. Good to hear it's not completely fubar. =P
> >
> > >Please run 'strace -estat64 apt-get update' and post the entire output of that
> >
> > Certainly. This does show some likely culprits...
> 
> Indeed.
> 
> [...]
> > stat64("%{_dbpath}/packages.rpm", 0xbfffecfc) = -1 ENOENT (No such
> > file or directory)
> 
> This is where things start going fubar, it's an actual bug (and
> relatively old one) in apt I noticed today when looking at this same
> strace output on my box, already fixed in the development tree. If it
> weren't for this bug it'd actually work just fine for you despite the
> other issue below.
> 
> > stat64("/usr/bin/aptrpm", 0xbfffecfc)   = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
> 
> Things usually work because this check is by default done on /bin/rpm.
> Depending on how you look at it, it's either a configuration or
> packaging error (a missing dependency) in the apt package you're using.
> Somewhere in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d files "Dir::Bin::rpm" config item is
> set to "/usr/bin/aptrpm" - delete that setting and it should start
> working. Or alternatively install the package providing /usr/bin/aptrpm,
> Richard can help with this...
> 
> 
> > E: Unable to determine a suitable system type
> >
> > Hmm. Well that's interesting. The first "No such file or directory" is
> > true. The file it's looking for (which is finds later on I see, plus
> > errors on again) is at "/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/apt.conf".
> 
> Yep, but missing /etc/apt/apt.conf is not fatal, it's just
> *traditionally* the main configuration file.
> 
> >
> > The next time it shows trouble is when it's looking for
> > "packages.rpm". I was unable to find this file when searching the
> > drive. (Note that nothing else seems to be broken, just apt.)
> > Lastly, where it's looking for "aptrpm" at the end, here's all there
> > is to do with apt there:
> 
> See above for the packages.rpm thing, "aptrpm" doesn't come with apt-rpm
> (even if the name might so indicate :) nor does apt-rpm require such a
> thing.
> 
> >
> > linux-box:/usr/bin # ls -l apt*
> > -rwxr-xr-x  1 root root  10034 2004-08-20 03:32 apt   **(note: this is
> > a shell script)**
> > -rwxr-xr-x  1 root root  81550 2004-08-20 03:32 apt-cache
> > -rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 112124 2004-08-20 03:32 apt-cdrom
> > -rwxr-xr-x  1 root root  18919 2004-08-20 03:32 apt-config
> > -rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 225741 2004-08-20 03:32 apt-get
> > -rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 242579 2004-08-20 03:32 apt-shell
> >
> > I've always used apt-get and didn't have a problem until that night.
> > There were some errors running it, but that's be cause I had every
> > components for every server. (It simply said it couldn't find some
> > components at some servers.) After checking with a web browser, this
> > held true. Also, Richard helped me fix a small typo in my sources list
> > that might of caused this error as well. (I had missed a space before
> > the SuSE directory.)
> >
> > > Nah, this aint a reason for reinstall, it's just some silly glitch in
> > > configuration someplace. We'll find it out ...
> >
> > I'm more of a problem solver myself (rather then a reinstaller). I'll
> > wait for another reply to hear what's next. =)
> 
> That's the spirit :)
> 
>         - Panu -