Scheduled Maintenance: We are aware of an issue with Google, AOL, and Yahoo services as email providers which are blocking new registrations. We are trying to fix the issue and we have several internal and external support tickets in process to resolve the issue. Please see: viewtopic.php?t=158230

 

 

 

Is that normal?

New to Debian (Or Linux in general)? Ask your questions here!
Post Reply
Message
Author
DIM992
Posts: 1
Joined: 2021-02-18 16:59

Is that normal?

#1 Post by DIM992 »

Hello everybody. I am a Debian newb, I regulary use Ubuntu as distro for my job, but I wanted to try to switch from Ubuntu to Debian, since I prefered its concept, the ideal, and I think it is maybe more rational, so I installed Debian 10 i386 on an old PC without internet connection, as a test, but I am having some issues.

I wanted to install some basic software, so I tried to start FreeOffice that I already use with ubuntu and I am ok with.
So I downloaded the 32-bit .deb, and tried to install.

But I get

Code: Select all

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of softmaker-freeoffice-2018:
 softmaker-freeoffice-2018 depends on libcurl4 | libcurl3; however:
  Package libcurl4 is not installed.
  Package libcurl3 is not installed.
 softmaker-freeoffice-2018 depends on libgl1-mesa-glx; however:
  Package libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package softmaker-freeoffice-2018 (--install):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.23-4) ...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.62) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 softmaker-freeoffice-2018
So I tried to install the missing packages but I have other problems of dependency like

Code: Select all

error processing package libcurl3:i386 (--install):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.28-10) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 libcurl3:i386
and so on with all the packages I tried to install...

So I tried another way with "sudo apt-get install -f" but having no internet connection I get

Code: Select all

Media change: please insert the disc labeled
 'Debian GNU/Linux 10.7.0 _Buster_ - Official i386 xfce-CD Binary-1 20201205-12:47'
in the drive '/media/cdrom/' and press [Enter]
However I did not have installed from cdrom but from usb, and it wasn't immediate since the BIOS didn't support it being from '90s. Now perhaps to solve my issue I have to modify source.list but I am not sure how and even not sure if it is the good way to solve my troubles.

I wonder if having some issues even in installing basic software is the norm in Debian or if I am doing something wrong. I am sure that somebody more skilled than me could solve these problems easily, and also that trying to solve them could teach me a lot, I am ok with spending some time learning, but I am not a Linux wizard, I am not an informatician, and spending hours at work trying to install a basic software can be a big problem...and with Ubuntu I never met this kind of issues installing a very basic software like freeoffice...

:(

I would just have your opinion if my case is something strange or if it is normal with Debian, so until I have no time to study even being available to spend hours to install a software it would be better to me to continue to use Ubuntu at least at job..even if I would be quite sad about..thank you very much!!!!

User avatar
stevepusser
Posts: 12930
Joined: 2009-10-06 05:53
Has thanked: 41 times
Been thanked: 71 times

Re: Is that normal?

#2 Post by stevepusser »

Ubuntu would do the same thing if you had no net connection, those dependencies were not installed, and you tried installing a deb with with dpkg. We have maybe 42 bazillion posts on this forum recommending apt or various GUI front ends for installing debs that are going to be better than dpkg.

Anyway, you need those dependencies for FreeOffice. Download them with another connected machine and install them via sneakernet.
MX Linux packager and developer

arochester
Emeritus
Emeritus
Posts: 2435
Joined: 2010-12-07 19:55
Has thanked: 14 times
Been thanked: 54 times

Re: Is that normal?

#3 Post by arochester »

There's a program called Sushi-huh? that may be worth looking at.
Sushi, huh? is a program that allows downloading all the packages needed to install the programs you want on GNU/Linux without an Internet connection on your own computer.
Sushi, huh? is designed for people, which for example can not afford monthly Internet connection.
As installing software on GNU/Linux is a hard and complex process for those newcomers to the world of GNU/Linux, which itself does not have an Internet connection, Sushi, huh? simplifies this task, making it as automatically as possible.
http://sushi-huh.sourceforge.net/

User avatar
Head_on_a_Stick
Posts: 14114
Joined: 2014-06-01 17:46
Location: London, England
Has thanked: 81 times
Been thanked: 132 times

Re: Is that normal?

#4 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

DIM992 wrote:So I tried another way with "sudo apt-get install -f" but having no internet connection I get

Code: Select all

Media change: please insert the disc labeled
 'Debian GNU/Linux 10.7.0 _Buster_ - Official i386 xfce-CD Binary-1 20201205-12:47'
in the drive '/media/cdrom/' and press [Enter]
However I did not have installed from cdrom but from usb, and it wasn't immediate since the BIOS didn't support it being from '90s. Now perhaps to solve my issue I have to modify source.list but I am not sure how and even not sure if it is the good way to solve my troubles.
Is this to be an offline installation? If so then the best solution is probably to use the ISO image as your source.

If you don't have the ISO image file any more then you can copy it back from the USB stick like this (replace X with the letter assigned to the USB stick but *do not* add a partition number):

Code: Select all

# cp /dev/sdX debian.img ; sync
Once you have the image file (henceforth referred to as "debian.img", mutatis mutandis) you can create a mountpoint for it, mount the image, add an entry to /etc/fstab to make this permanent then add the source and update the package database:

Code: Select all

# mkdir /image
# mount debian.img /image
# grep image /proc/self/mounts >> /etc/fstab
# tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list <<<'deb file:/image buster main contrib non-free'
# sed -e '/cdrom/d' -i /etc/apt/sources.list
# apt update
If the system is going to be connected to the internet then just delete the "cdrom" line in /etc/apt/sources.list (the sed command in the above code block does that) and add some online sources instead. See the Debian wiki page about /etc/apt/sources.list for an example that you can use.

Once you have some working sources then the `apt install -f` command should be able to pull in the required dependencies.

EDIT: Debian's DVD images contain a very large subset of the entire repositories (ordered according to popcon) so you can use those as well, just create new directories under which to mount them and follow the same technique for each.
deadbang

Post Reply