[NCLUG] Re: [lug] can't install KDE on my Debian machine due to libasound1 - help!

[J. Wayde Allen]

On Wed, 15 Aug 2001, Nate Duehr wrote:

> One other thought.  Try using dselect instead of apt-get -- apt-get
> screws up "suggests" and other dependency issues from time to time.  It
> was never truly meant to be the "official" way to handle package
> management on a Debian system, but people whine and complain about
> dselect's user interface (without providing patches).  :-)

Guess I'm kind of strange.  I actually LIKE dselect, and can't say I've
really understood the problem with it.

It is psuedo-graphical in that it provides you a list of package names.  
To install the package you highlight it with the arrow keys and press "+"
to uninstall you press "-".  Seems fairly straight forward to me.  Even
better it will give you a description in the bottom half of the screen
when you highlight the package name.  This is the default behavior, and
I've found that to be a nice way to learn what some of these packages
actually do.

However, I do find that the split screen display is kind of hard to read.  
It gives you too much information on a single screen.  The solution to
this is turning off the pacakage info, split screen display (shift-i).  
The shift-i is a toggle of the display info mode, and will turn it on,
off, and cycle between detailed and summary info.  Also, dselect isn't
really designed as an X-display, so running it in a text terminal window
also makes the most sense.

I don't have a good answer for the original poster.  It sounds like a
broken package.  I've seen that happen several times.  Trying the dselect
approach would certainly be worth a shot.

- Wayde
  (wallen at lug.boulder.co.us)