Isuues with Debian and Xemacs

Hi group,

Newly installed Debian system from years with Fedora.
Ran system update and system got hosed, booted but no Gnome.
Got Gnome back after MANY 'aptitude upgrade's.
Xemacs disappeared! Along with other things I installed.
Tried to install Xemacs but it is broken and will not install,
complains about dpkg TOO current(?).
So downloaded Xemacs for Xemacs.org and compiled source, installed.
Now when I start Xemacs is does not run in an X window but runs emacs
in a terminal window. If I run it from a script, it complains about
'not in tty window'.
My env show:

    TERM=xterm
    DISPLAY=:0.0

I need help with any of these problems:

1. The Xemacs install on Debian ( Bug written )
2. Install and configuration of Xemacs from source.
3. A better understanding of the Debian upgrade process.

Thanks for your time and understanding.

First are you using debian stable (Lenny) Testing or unstable? The issue you are having sound like you are running a testing or unstable branch of the distro. These issues tend to happen with those, I have never heard of issues with the stable branch.

The upgrade process in debian can be one of two types more or less.

An in branch upgrade (Security, bug fixes, etc.) usually called by apt-get upgrade.

A branch upgrade apt-get distupgrade For updating a system to all new like stable to testing or stable to new stable (Where testing has become stable)

Then there is a mixed bag, Where you run a system with a mix of software from two or three of the Debian branches, this can make a system very unstable. My recommendation if you need some newer software for a stable Debian distro is to leave all your sources as stable and add backports, if backports doesn't have it, compile it yourself, or lastly as an option use the testing or unstable branch of Debian.

But let us know first which branch of Debian you are trying to use that will answer a lot of questions in itself. If possible also post your apt sources.list file.

Originally Posted by scheidel21 First are you using debian stable (Lenny) Testing or unstable? The issue you are having sound like you are running a testing or unstable branch of the distro. These issues tend to happen with those, I have never heard of issues with the stable branch. The upgrade process in debian can be one of two types more or less. An in branch upgrade (Security, bug fixes, etc.) usually called by apt-get upgrade. A branch upgrade apt-get distupgrade For updating a system to all new like stable to testing or stable to new stable (Where testing has become stable) Then there is a mixed bag, Where you run a system with a mix of software from two or three of the Debian branches, this can make a system very unstable. My recommendation if you need some newer software for a stable Debian distro is to leave all your sources as stable and add backports, if backports doesn't have it, compile it yourself, or lastly as an option use the testing or unstable branch of Debian. But let us know first which branch of Debian you are trying to use that will answer a lot of questions in itself. If possible also post your apt sources.list file.

I installed from the Lenny CD, which work more or less OK. Had a Grub problem when installing on a USB stick. I booted the CD in rescue mode and fix that.
Ran for a day ofr two and then got tired of the annoying message about updates and told Lenny to update what he wanted to. Big mistake! He tried to install 1246 upodates at one time. The Udev update would not install with the current kernel. Don't know why he didn't just install the new kernel? Anyway, the update process purged Gnome, X and other things. I tried to let Lenny fix the problems but running 'aptitude update' over and over again until the new kernel was installed. Then I reinstalled Gnome, X, etc. All went OK ( or so ), until I got to Xemacs.
This is what I get:

# aptitude install xemacs21
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information      
Initializing package states... Done
Reading task descriptions... Done  
The following packages are BROKEN:
  dpkg 
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  xemacs21 xemacs21-bin{a} xemacs21-mule{a} xemacs21-support{a} 
0 packages upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 79 not upgraded.
Need to get 7,129kB of archives. After unpacking 19.7MB will be used.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  dpkg: Breaks: xemacs21-support (< 21.4.22-2) but 21.4.21-4 is to be installed.
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

Downgrade the following packages:
dpkg [1.15.5.6 (testing, now) -> 1.14.28 (stable)]

Score is 80

Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] q
Abandoning all efforts to resolve these dependencies.
Abort.

All in all, it is pretty messed up!

It sounds like you have a messed up sources.list file try posting your /etc/apt/sources.list here so we can take a look at it, the issue you are having looks like a mixed bag issue like testing/stable together. On another note let me try to install xemacs when I get a sec on my lenny system and see what happens.

Originally Posted by scheidel21 It sounds like you have a messed up sources.list file try posting your /etc/apt/sources.list here so we can take a look at it, the issue you are having looks like a mixed bag issue like testing/stable together. On another note let me try to install xemacs when I get a sec on my lenny system and see what happens.

Thanks for your time. I think you are right about mixing sources. I had to add these to get my WiFi working:

# Debian Lenny/5.0
deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian lenny main contrib non-free

deb ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian testing main

I wish I understood the process better! It there a way to install special code without modifying the source list?

I'm going to reinstall for the 4th time and try to add WiFi support a different way.

FYI, here is my sources.list:

cat /etc/apt/sources.list
# 
# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 5.0.3 _Lenny_ - Official i386 NETINST Binary-1 20090906-12:06]/ lenny main

#deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 5.0.3 _Lenny_ - Official i386 NETINST Binary-1 20090906-12:06]/ lenny main

#deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ lenny main
deb-src http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ lenny main

deb http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main

deb http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile main
deb-src http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile main

# Debian Lenny/5.0
deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian lenny main contrib non-free

deb ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian testing main

Thanks again for your time.

You are mixing here is your culprit

deb ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian testing main

You are not doing any apt pinning either so it is trying to update all your packages to testing, did you look to see if backports had the needed items to get your wifi working? And lacking that maybe do some searching on apt-pinning, this will let you get specific packages from say testing without trying to upgrade your entire system to testing.
Here is the backports website with information how to add them to your sources.list file.

Unfortunately you will likely have to reinstall your system to fix it, well in my view that would be the quickest way to do it.

Hello,

I have a fresh LMDE on my laptop.
I downloaded the xemacs sources from xemacs.org, and built them (./configure, make, make install).
And I have the same problem as below: I can only run xemacs in the terminal, not with a GUI.
But why?

Kind regards,
Jürgen

Originally Posted by MrUmunhum Hi group, Newly installed Debian system from years with Fedora. Ran system update and system got hosed, booted but no Gnome. Got Gnome back after MANY 'aptitude upgrade's. Xemacs disappeared! Along with other things I installed. Tried to install Xemacs but it is broken and will not install, complains about dpkg TOO current(?). So downloaded Xemacs for Xemacs.org and compiled source, installed. Now when I start Xemacs is does not run in an X window but runs emacs in a terminal window. If I run it from a script, it complains about 'not in tty window'. My env show: TERM=xterm DISPLAY=:0.0 I need help with any of these problems: The Xemacs install on Debian ( Bug written ) Install and configuration of Xemacs from source. A better understanding of the Debian upgrade process. Thanks for your time and understanding.

Just as a footnote, the current Debian stable is v. 6.x, Squeeze, as of about two years ago.

By using Debian stable I could install XEmacs the good way, and now it works.
As an experiment, I moved the /usr/lib/xemacs*, and then only terminal xemacs was available, so I guess that was the reason.

Issue closed.

Originally Posted by Jürgen Lambrecht By using Debian stable I could install XEmacs the good way, and now it works. As an experiment, I moved the /usr/lib/xemacs*, and then only terminal xemacs was available, so I guess that was the reason. Issue closed.

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Thanks,
jdk

edit: whoops you're not the OP so you can't do that.