I tried installing debian testing, Sarge, and I used tasksel to choose some packages during the initial installation process. I kept getting errors when trying to install saying that there was a problem with a package, continuing to install may resolve it or further the install, something to that end.

I then deleted all the .deb files in the /var/cache/apt/archives directory and tried again. At this point I didn't know what file was causing the error and I thought if I got rid of the .deb files, getting the corrupt file as well, I could then continue to redownload all the files for the install and proceed from there. I got the same error after getting all the packages again.

I finally found the package that was causeing it, console-common. This was after it gave me an error 8 to 10 times of retrying and I finally was able to see the name of the package, the screen goes by very fast and does not tell you what package had the problem, just that there was one. I then ran apt-get remove console-common, it took a few other things with it, I didn't get the names, and the rest of the packages not yet installed began to install. When that process finished I then did apt-get install console-common and it worked as well.

Does this sound like something I need to be worried about? Or does it sound like I handled it correctly and it's installed correctly now? I don't want to run with this install if there is something wrong that will cause problems down the road.

Once I got rid of the problem package the rest installed and then the problem package installed fine on it's own afterwards. Anyone else have this problem with the testing version? I had this problem before installing Sarge but when I retried the install just once it worked the 2nd time. This install kept giving me errors.

I just want some more experienced users opinions. Does it sound good and I should run with it? Or should I reinstall to make sure there are no problems?

Thanks.

i don't have console-common on my sys at all. i don't think you should worry about that :-)

sl mritch.

I installled again on another harddrive just as a test and it had the same error. Console-common is a package that gets installed when apt-get does an update. I was worried that is was some package that filled a dependancy but it seems like it is an update since I first downloaded my sarge image. I'm going to run with this install since it seems like there is no problem after I did some testing on another hard drive.

For anyone else with the same problem this is how I got around it on the 2nd install since I knew it was coming.

When installing DO NOT select packages with tasksel. Just skip that part of the installation. Finish the install and get to the prompt. Use aptitude instead. In aptitude there is a section for packages that are upgrades, select them all except for:

console-common
console-tools
console-data

These are the ones that were removed but apt-get once I figured out console-common was the problem. Then run the update minus these packages and all should go as planned. Afterwards you can use apt-get or aptitude to get the console-common packages. This gets the updates installed and doesn't give the errors that I was experiencing. After that install whatever packages you want. If you like tasksel you can go back to it and use it to install your packages there, but the first part of the install, the update runs much smoother if you use aptitude or do it manually with apt-get. As mritch said in his post, he doesn't even have these on his system at all. So they are obviously not needed packages, but for those who like to keep everything on their system or keep all things updated this is a way around the errors if they are having them also. The description is a little vague about what they are so I'm going to look into them a little and if they are nothing that I'll ever use I'm going to remove them from my system also.

That's a little info for anyone else that may be experiencing the same problem when installing and updating sarge.

i used tasksel and dselect only once and it was enough. I did have few problems with few packages, so i only use apt whenever i have to install debian on a new machine : minimum install, apt-setup, apt-get update ,etc....

i hadn't any probs with dselect yet. yeah, forget about tasksel, but dselect is quite nice for cruisin' through your packets. even on bare systems since it's console. like it. faster is apt-get, ..sure ;-)