Hello all, I've decided to install exim using Ubuntu's Synaptic Package Manager. When selecting some of the packages, some unexpected packages are marked for removal (see below). Marked for installation: exim4, exim4-config ==> automatically marked for removal: postfix, postfix-lts, ubuntu-base, anacron, at, lsb, mailx, mutt Can anyone explain why these are marked to be removed? Thanks, Ivan
On Tue, 2005-09-27 at 22:29 +1200, Ivan Potgieter wrote:
Marked for installation: exim4, exim4-config ==> automatically marked for removal: postfix, postfix-lts, ubuntu-base, anacron, at, lsb, mailx, mutt
Can anyone explain why these are marked to be removed?
You can only really have one MTA installed at a time as the MTA will try to bind to port 25. In technical terms they are marked to remove because the maintainers of the Exim or Postfix packages have specified that the conflict with each other and should never be installed at the same time. Regards -- Matt Brown matt(a)mattb.net.nz Mob +64 275 611 544 www.mattb.net.nz
* Matt Brown <matt(a)mattb.net.nz> [2005-09-27 12:35]:
In technical terms they are marked to remove because the maintainers of the Exim or Postfix packages have specified that the conflict with each other and should never be installed at the same time.
That’s the obvious explanation for `postfix` and `postfix-tls`. But what about `mutt` and `mailx`? And once those are explained, how does it manage to conclude that `ubuntu-base`, `anacron`, `at` and `lsb` have to be uninstalled? Regards, -- Aristotle Pagaltzis // <http://plasmasturm.org/>
On Tue, 2005-09-27 at 17:02 +0200, A. Pagaltzis wrote:
* Matt Brown <matt(a)mattb.net.nz> [2005-09-27 12:35]:
In technical terms they are marked to remove because the maintainers of the Exim or Postfix packages have specified that the conflict with each other and should never be installed at the same time.
That’s the obvious explanation for `postfix` and `postfix-tls`.
Indeed, exim4-config conflicts with postfix.
But what about `mutt` and `mailx`?
And once those are explained, how does it manage to conclude that `ubuntu-base`, `anacron`, `at` and `lsb` have to be uninstalled?
A good question, I must confess my eyes failed me and I didn't see that line of the output when I went to reply. Looking at the package database on Ubuntu Breezy I cannot see any package relationships that would cause that situation to occur if the command apt-get install exim4 exim4-config had been run on an otherwise clean system. (I'm leaving synaptic out of the equation here for a moment). My suspicion is that your system was probably in an unclean state before you started synaptic and that breakage has just carried through to occur in the same operation as the exim install. What version of Ubuntu are you running Ivan? Do you know if the package system was clean before you tried to install Exim? My suggestion on how to fix this would be to drop to the command line, run apt-get install (no arguments). This will handle any packages that are not in a clean state. Once you can run apt-get install (no arguments) and have it return without doing anything, then try apt-get install exim4 exim4-config (or use synaptic if you prefer). Personally I still don't trust all these fancy newfangled package managers like synaptic and aptitude. apt-get forever! HTH. -- Matt Brown matt(a)mattb.net.nz Mob +64 275 611 544 www.mattb.net.nz
On 9/28/05, Matt Brown <matt(a)mattb.net.nz> wrote:
Looking at the package database on Ubuntu Breezy I cannot see any package relationships that would cause that situation to occur if the command apt-get install exim4 exim4-config had been run on an otherwise clean system. (I'm leaving synaptic out of the equation here for a moment).
My suspicion is that your system was probably in an unclean state before you started synaptic and that breakage has just carried through to occur in the same operation as the exim install.
On a fresh install of Hoary, I've hit the exact same problem using apt-get. I ended up sticking with Postfix, not wanting to lose relatively important packages.
On a fresh install of Hoary, I've hit the exact same problem using apt-get. I ended up sticking with Postfix, not wanting to lose relatively important packages.
Meh. Worst reason ever! :) You can install the packages again immediately afterwards if you need to. I suspect in Breezy this won't be a problem. I think Ubuntu using Postfix instead of Exim is my biggest complaint about it :) Craig
That’s the obvious explanation for `postfix` and `postfix-tls`.
But what about `mutt` and `mailx`?
If you don't have an MTA installed, those tools are useless.
And once those are explained, how does it manage to conclude that `ubuntu-base`, `anacron`, `at` and `lsb` have to be uninstalled?
These tools require an MTA. This seems like a bug in synaptic. Or perhaps a bug in the package itself. You hit similar problems in stock debian, but they usually don't end up in removing half of the OS. I could work through it myself quite easily, but I don't have an Ubuntu box in front of me to assist the OP.
A. Pagaltzis wrote:
* Matt Brown <matt(a)mattb.net.nz> [2005-09-27 12:35]:
In technical terms they are marked to remove because the maintainers of the Exim or Postfix packages have specified that the conflict with each other and should never be installed at the same time.
That’s the obvious explanation for `postfix` and `postfix-tls`.
But what about `mutt` and `mailx`?
mutt depends "exim4 | mail-transport-agent", so postfix, sendmail or exim etc will satisfy it as postfix provides mail-transport-agent. Depending on the package manager you use, to install exim4, the first thing you must do is remove postfix. At the time it is removed, you no longer have either exim4 or mail-transport-agent installed, so it queues mutt and mailx for removal. When you install exim4 later in the same opreation, the dependencies are again met and I assume the programs stay installed.
And once those are explained, how does it manage to conclude that `ubuntu-base`, `anacron`, `at` and `lsb` have to be uninstalled?
ubuntu-base is a metapackage that depends on all the packages that a standard Ubuntu install comes with. This means you can type 'apt-get install ubuntu-base' and get the ubuntu base system, which includes postfix. If you remove any of the base components, the dependencies for ubuntu-base are no longer on the system, so it removes the package - it doesn't actually -do- anything. I run Ubuntu with Exim on dozens of machines and have no problems whatsoever. Craig
* Craig Box <craig(a)dubculture.co.nz> [2005-09-27 23:05]:
I run Ubuntu with Exim on dozens of machines and have no problems whatsoever.
Good points (yours and everyone else’s). That explains what’s going on. If I were an Ubuntu user, I’d look to file a bug at this point. A list like that is not only shocking to the uninitiated, it is misleading regardless of competence level, because it conceals which packages will stay installed and which will actually be removed. When the information required to work this out is available, such behaviour is inexcusable. Regards, -- Aristotle Pagaltzis // <http://plasmasturm.org/>
participants (6)
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A. Pagaltzis -
Craig Box -
Daniel Lawson -
Ed Linklater -
Ivan Potgieter -
Matt Brown