[vox-tech] e2fsprogs

[Troy Arnold]

On Sat, Sep 24, 2005 at 04:09:21PM -0700, Chris Jenks wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 23 Sep 2005, Richard Harke wrote:
> 
> >I thought it might be a good idea to update firefox. So I did:
> >apt-get update
> >apt-get -s install mozilla-firefox
> >
> >I get a rather long list of packages to be updated, installed
> >and even removed. But also I get the message;
> >E: This installation run will require temporarily removing the
> >essential package e2fsprogs due to a Conflicts/Pre-Depends loop. This is 
> >often bad, but if you really want to do it, activate the 
> >APT::Force-LoopBreak option.
> >E: Internal Error, Could not early remove e2fsprogs
> >
> >I have done a lot of googling and all the sites I have found agree
> >that this can cause "bad things to happen" But nothing more specific
> >or any other way to proceed. My only ext2 file system is /boot so maybe
> >my odds are better?? But one site indicated that this message is the
> >result of a bug in the dependencies. If that was so, maybe I could just 
> >wait until it is fixed at Debian.
> >
> >Does anybody understand this and can guide me?
> >
> >Richard Harke
> 
>   I got the same message just a few days ago when I tried to update a 
> system running Testing. I hadn't updated it since February, and it wanted 
> hundreds of packages, but I got this error whether I used apt-get upgrade, 
> apt-get dist-upgrade, aptitude upgrade or aptitude dist-upgrade. I decided 
> to wait and hope the error goes away.
>   The system probably has firefox installed.

Back in February, your friendly neighborhood Debian repository would
have "Testing" pointed at Sarge.  In June Sarge became "Stable" while the
current "Testing" points at Etch.  You're basically trying to upgrade to
a new major release.  I'd suggest changing your /etc/apt/sources.list to
from "Testing" to "Sarge", and running apt-get update; apt-get upgrade.
At that point, if you wish to stay at the testing level, switch your
sources to either "Testing" or "Etch" and apt-get update; apt-get
dist-upgrade.

Rick Moen's explanation of the Debian release cycle is as good as I've
seen:
http://zgp.org/pipermail/linux-elitists/2003-December/008297.html

-troy