Today I "rescued" my laptop (temporary measure as it needs the hard
disk replaced) by installing Ubuntu Hoary over what was SuSE 9.3.<br>
<br>
1. Yes, I know I could get breezy. It would take &lt;5 minutes to download on my connection here (Yay for 40 megabits).<br>
2. SuSE 10 will be going on the new hard drive, anyway. [That DVD ISO took around 2 hours]<br>
<br>
Here's why I'm a bit frustrated at the moment with Ubuntu:<br>
<br>
I wanted to install Skype. Skype is a KDE app, (and it looks ugly in
Gnome - there are workarounds, but aside from that). It requires
libqt3-xxxxxxxx.<br>
<br>
Firstly, I was trying to install it from the .deb package distributed on <a href="http://skype.com">skype.com</a> (skype_1.2.0.18-1_i386). <br>
<br>
Err, no - turns out I needed libqt3c102-mt_3.3.4-3_i386. So I download
it. I read that I can use libqt3-mt_3.3.5-1_i386 instead, which is
supposed to be a better way... <br>
<br>
I thought hrm... I should only need this package and maybe one other...
but no. Next, it tells me that I need (insert several GCC-related
libraries and supporting packages * 6)<br>
<br>
Why is none of this mentioned on any of the forums I ended up going to?<br>
<br>
Long story short: Here is what I ended up downloading and installing
with dpkg (and for some parts I used Synaptic, but I couldn't make a
local repository? What about apt-get? Would that have made life
easier?):<br>
cpp-4.0_4.0-0pre6ubuntu7_i386<br>
gcc-4.0_4.0-0pre6ubuntu7_i386<br>
gcc-4.0-base_4.0.2-3_i386<br>
initrd-tools_0.1.81.1_i386<br>
[and Ubuntu versions of initrd-tools 0.1.77 and 0.1.78; however they wouldn't work with libc6]<br>
libc6_2.3.5-6_i386<br>
libfontconfig1_2.3.2-1_i386<br>
libgcc1_4.0.2-2_i386<br>
libqt3c102-mt_3.3.4-3_i386 [which was replaced with libqt3-mt_3.3.5-1_i386]<br>
libqt3-mt_3.3.5-1_i386<br>
libstdc++6_4.0.2-3_i386<br>
libxrender1_0.9.0-2_i386<br>
nscd_2.3.2.ds1-20ubuntu14_i386<br>
and of course<br>
skype_1.2.0.18-1_i386<br>
<br>
Not only did I have to get the required versions of these files from
<a href="http://ftp.fi.debian.org/">ftp.fi.debian.org/</a>, but the Ubuntu versions were &quot;outdated&quot; in terms of
version numbering. According to most of what I read, I should have just
needed to resolve 1 or 2 things (ended up downloading the repackaged
skype .deb from a link posted on the Ubuntu Forums).<br>
<br>
Now, aside from all that, when I went to install libc6_2.3.5-6_i386, I
found it conflicted with initrd-tools. Which is a vital part of the OS,
if I am not mistaken. However at some stage over the several hours I
was installing and figuring all this out, it installed. <br>
<br>
At some stage Synaptic decided that it would be a good idea (well, it
asked, and there didn't appear to be any &quot;argh! don't do that!&quot; option)
to remove most of the base system because I no longer had initrd-tools.
<br>
<br>
So I downloaded initrd-tools 0.1.81, installed that, but now I want to
install things like locale, but it won't because it needs a whole lot
of other things. I think if I reboot this machine it... well... won't.<br>
<br>
Perhaps I will download and install Breezy and give the same task a go.
As I mentioned originally, installing Ubuntu on this hard-drive was
just a temporary measure so that I could at least browse the net.<br>
<br>
I like Ubuntu, but I felt that I really had to stuff around to get this
app installed (and even then it doesn't seem to quite work correctly). Did I just have a bad experience (that perhaps I
shouldn't have?) <br>
<br>
Maybe I have been somewhat spoiled by SuSE, and I don't use
Debian-based Distros that often, so I'm not as used to them, but has
anyone else experienced similar problems? This is the part where you
all go: you didn't need to do all that, you should have .... :-)<br>
<br>-- <br>Regards<br><br>Mathew Carley<br>HostENZ Data Services<br>A Carley Network Media Ltd. (NZ) Company<br><a href="http://www.hostenz.co.nz">http://www.hostenz.co.nz</a><br><a href="mailto:mathewc@hostenz.co.nz">mathewc@hostenz.co.nz
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