welcome to the forum!

firstly your debian repo links to stable, which is lenny. you need to change it to etch.

deb ftp://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian etch main contrib non-free

here's what apt shows me

 apt-cache policy vlc
vlc:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 0.8.6-svn20061012.debian-5
  Version table:
     0.8.6-svn20061012.debian-5.1+etch2 0
        500 ftp://ftp.uk.debian.org etch/main Packages
     0.8.6-svn20061012.debian-5 0
        850 http://xnv4.xandros.com etch/main Packages

apt-cache policy libwxgtk2.6-0
libwxgtk2.6-0:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 2.6.3.2.1.5
  Version table:
     2.6.3.2.1.5 0
        850 http://xnv4.xandros.com etch/main Packages
        500 ftp://ftp.uk.debian.org etch/main Packages

if you have a standard 701, then you don't want the 1.6 repos enabled, unless you are sourcing something specific.
edit, sudo apt-get update, then post the output of

apt-cache policy vlc

sudo apt-get -s install vlc

apt-cache policy libwxgtk2.6-0

Last edited by BL00 (2009-10-25 7:58:57 pm)

Hi tawalker

Before you'll try to install something new, you should delete all
broken packages. Until you don't do that you can't install anything. 
You can check and delete it by synaptic.
Click "status" and if you see a line "broken dependencies" in the left
window then click this line.
Now you can see in the right window the broken package(s).
Delete it (or them).

Greetings gringo

Hi again

Sorry for not being able to post yesterday as I planned to (various things got in the way...). Here's an update on where I got to with these items:

@gringo: I checked in Synaptic, and it reports that there are no broken packages, which I suppose counts for something - thanks for the suggestion, though.

@plodr: I disabled all the other repos in Synaptic and reloaded, then tried installing VLC again, but it still "fell over", asking for libwxgtk2.6.0. It was worth a try

@BL00: Here's the output of the commands you suggested, after making the repo changes:

apt-cache policy vlc
vlc:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 0.8.6-svn20061012.debian-5
  Version table:
     0.8.6-svn20061012.debian-5.1+etch2 0
        500 ftp://ftp.uk.debian.org etch/main Packages
     0.8.6-svn20061012.debian-5 0
        850 http://xnv4.xandros.com etch/main Packages

sudo apt-get -s install vlc
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.

Since you only requested a single operation it is extremely likely that
the package is simply not installable and a bug report against
that package should be filed.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  vlc: Depends: libwxgtk2.6-0 (>= 2.6.3.2.1.5) but it is not going to be installed
E: Broken packages

apt-cache policy libwxgtk2.6-0
libwxgtk2.6-0:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 2.6.3.2.1.5
  Version table:
     2.6.3.2.1.5 0
        850 http://xnv4.xandros.com etch/main Packages
        500 ftp://ftp.uk.debian.org etch/main Packages

I also followed the wiki advice on 'pinning' repositories, but I have never done that before so I may not have understood 100% what I was doing

When I went to install libwxgtk2.6-0 via Synaptic, it gave me a long list of packages which would have to be removed first, and many of them looked like core KDE and other system packages, so I decided to play safe.

Any thoughts on where to go from here, greatly appreciated - many thanks for all your help so far

Tim

wondering, especially as you had the 1.6 repos enabled, whether this could be libc6 related. post the output of

apt-cache policy libc6 firefox-upgrade

post your sources and prefs with

sudo kwrite /etc/apt/sources.list

sudo kwrite /etc/apt/preferences

i'm sure you'll have done it ok but then we can check your gut feeling

your pinning and repos are fine. the problem is indeed libc6. when you enabled the 1.6 repos and upgraded firefox the asus way, this method upgrades libc6 to an interim version, that is incompatible with vlc under etch. it also means you will have issues installing build-essential, which will only ever be an issue if you are going to build your own packages. there are a few options here, depending on how you feel.

updating firefox via yurenju's script avoids the libc6 issue, and means vlc can be installed ok. albkwan has investigated the issue here clicky where he mentions that

albkwan wrote:

This upgrade is incompatible with vlc and libwxgtk2.6-0. They will be removed during the installation process and cannot be re-installed (broken package). Please note that without libwxgtk2.6-0, you won't be able to install some softwares including xchm, amule, etc.

the obvious and probably way overkill method is to f9 and start again. not always a bad option. erases all personal data too. but it's drastic. instead you would need to look into 'downgrading' & uninstalling the problematic items. take out firefox, libc6, & possibly the asus provided gtk. then reinstall the necessary packages again, & use yurenju's method. it is not as hard as it might sound (i think!) but would need time to check what is installed, & therefore needs uninstalling.

the other option is to pursue moving forward with your mixed system, which would be more experimental i tried some experiments briefly with lazyfai's xepc install & installed lenny vlc & build-essential successfully. that would mean enabling the lenny repo that you changed and sourcing the packages from there. with your pinning set now, it is a possibility. but this could start more dependency problems for the other programs you mentioned. there's the possibility those programs are in the 1.6 repos?

choices eh? sorry there's no easy answer. you'll know which answer will suit you best, and then take it from there!

Last edited by BL00 (2009-10-27 8:28:36 pm)

horses for courses depending on what you like doing. i always think, if you're pondering doing an f9 anyways, you might as well take the interesting option, on the basis that if it goes wrong, you were going to f9 it in the 1st place! that way you get to play, learn something, and feel that sense of achievement/frustrastion/satisfaction. but like i said, you'll know yourself what feels like the best option. gut feelings are always the way to go.

it's a relatively small download. that's interesting, didn't realise that 701's came with 1.6 repos open. hmmmm, didn't know that, always learning . there's loads of stuff that works fine from the 1.6 repos. unfortunately the firefox 3/libc6 is the one that causes issues to some users! many people will never realise it, until they try to install something such as vlc or build essential.

your repos were fine minus the etch issue that you changed, and if it came with 1.6 repos enabled, you can leave them open. apart from the libc6 issue, i don't think there's any other problems. the pinning was fine too, and will avoid most such similar issues. my 701 has the 1.6 repos open, because i play around on that machine more. which exact model is it?

keep up the blogging too

Good news: I've used the install_firefox script, and now have Firefox 3.0.1... and VLC Thanks for getting me through the tough stuff!

I just have Miro to go - it's still giving me the "unmet dependency" error with scim-gtk2-immodule. Running apt-cache policy gives me this:

apt-cache policy scim-gtk2-immodule
scim-gtk2-immodule:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 1.4.4-7asus6
  Version table:
     1.4.4-7asus6 0
        950 http://update.eeepc.asus.com p701/main Packages
     1.4.4-7 0
        850 http://xnv4.xandros.com etch/main Packages

Trying to install this would involve the removal of quite a few packages, including VLC I can live without Miro if I have to (as long as there's another good video podcast catcher out there), but I'd be really pleased if it's possible to get around this problem.

In the meantime, thanks once again for all your help - you've been lifesavers here

Tim