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{SOLVED] Am I stuck with Jessie

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ticojohn
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{SOLVED] Am I stuck with Jessie

#1 Post by ticojohn »

I am having issues with Stretch i386 and am trying to avoid creating a FrankenDebian. The issue I am trying to deal with is my older Canon iP1900 printer.

When I upgraded from Wheezy to Jessie I had a couple of issues with the printer driver but was able to get around them by make a minor change in the driver dependencies and then a symlink for libtiff4. Knowing that there might be issues when upgrading to Stretch I decided to install Stretch on a second drive and then tried to install the printer drivers, making the same changes that got it working in Jessie. Big problems. There are many unmet dependencies. Every time I try to fix one dependency issue another crops up. It would appear that the only way to fix all of them, and frankly I don't know how many there might be, I might have to add the Wheezy repository to my sources list. NOT GOING TO DO THAT because I don't want to create a monster.

So short of buying a new printer I am kind of at a loss. Is there any way I can create a dependency tree to show what all might be necessary to get this printer working? I was using gdebi to try and install the drivers so each time there was a failure I could see what specific dependency was missing. Is there any way for gdebi to show a tree of missing dependencies?

By the way, I tried this with the following results:

Code: Select all

john@JohnBoy:~/Downloads$ apt-get -s build-dep cnijfilter-ip1900series_3.00-1_i386.deb
NOTE: This is only a simulation!
      apt-get needs root privileges for real execution.
      Keep also in mind that locking is deactivated,
      so don't depend on the relevance to the real current situation!
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to find a source package for cnijfilter-ip1900series_3.00-1_i386.deb
What might I be doing wrong other than being ignorant?
Last edited by ticojohn on 2017-05-23 02:14, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Am I stuck with Jessie

#2 Post by arochester »

Does this help at all? http://tutorialforlinux.com/2016/05/01/ ... t-install/

Point 6 says that you need to change directory to get cnijfilter

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Re: Am I stuck with Jessie

#3 Post by stevepusser »

Have you tried extracting the deb with an archive manager, then extracting the "control" archive inside that, and looking in the
control file for the deb's dependencies?

If you still have a Jessie system with a package installed, you could could just use

Code: Select all

apt show <package>
to get a look at its dependencies.

Code: Select all

john@JohnBoy:~/Downloads$ apt-get -s build-dep cnijfilter-ip1900series_3.00-1_i386.deb
That command would only work if the repository with that package is in your sources, it contains debianized source files, and you have a "deb-src" entry for that repo in your sources.list.

There is an Ubuntu PPA that worked around the libtiff4 issue for Ubuntu 14.04 and 14.10, but since they haven't updated it for any newer Ubuntu releases, I feel those other dependencies might have defeated them.

You might be able to run the printer from a Wheezy or Jessie virtual machine in Stretch, though..maybe even a chroot, but I don't know very much about chroots.
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Re: Am I stuck with Jessie

#4 Post by ticojohn »

stevepusser wrote:Have you tried extracting the deb with an archive manager, then extracting the "control" archive inside that, and looking in the
control file for the deb's dependencies?
Thanks for that feedback. Yes, I have looked at the control files. There are actually two control files, one in a "common" directory and the other in a "ip1900" directory. The problem I see is that with several of the dependencies in the ip1900 directory there appear to be further dependencies and so on. Don't know how deep they go. Probably the safest way to go would be to just buy an HP printer as they generally have the best support in Linux.

Everything works fine in Jessie. I was doing this as an experiment with Stretch on a separate drive just to see what kind of issues I would have if I upgraded Jessie to Stretch. Glad I did the experiment before just blindly upgrading. So, I will just keep Jessie on the SSD. If I decide to buy a printer, and can get it working on Stretch, then I may consider upgrading Jessie. No hurries. Jessie should be supported for at least two more years.

Again, thanks a lot Steve.
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Re: Am I stuck with Jessie

#5 Post by ticojohn »

stevepusser wrote: If you still have a Jessie system with a package installed, you could could just use

Code: Select all

apt show <package>
to get a look at its dependencies.
Okay. I think I figured out what you are telling me with that statement. Let's say that I go through all of the dependencies in the control file and find all of the missing dependencies. And further let's say that those dependencies are only found in Jessie and/or Wheezy. How many problems would I be creating by pulling them in from an older distribution? I am guessing that it is probably a pretty bad idea. But, if it's not a HUGELY bad idea, could I not just add either Wheezy or Jessie to my sources list, do an update (but not upgrade), install the printer driver, and then remove the addition to the sources list? Or would those packages go away the next time I did an upgrade unless I retained the entry in the sources list.

Actually, it's probably not a good idea to do all that. I can see a monster being born. Probably better and safer to just buy a new printer. But, if you think I could do all that without fear of creating a monster then let me know. Otherwise tell me "DON'T BEAK DEBIAN". I know what one member here is going to say! :lol:
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Re: Am I stuck with Jessie

#6 Post by ruffwoof »

A couple of things spring to mind ... 1. Jessie will still be updated until 2020, maybe the printer wont last that long. 2. If your hardware requires that you upgrade to Stretch then Jessie purely for printing purposes might be run within a Virtual session (for instance I have a cut down Jessie that is 200MB in size). KMS/QEMU virtualisation can integrate near seamlessly.

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Re: Am I stuck with Jessie

#7 Post by stevepusser »

It's a better idea to see if those older packages could be built on your current base. Assuming that the openSUSE Build Service will eventually let all users build upon Stretch, and that the older libraries will build on Stretch and won't break anything, I could set up a repo there that would contain the older libraries. Right now, for regular users, it only offers Wheezy and Jessie build platforms.
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Re: Am I stuck with Jessie

#8 Post by ticojohn »

stevepusser wrote:It's a better idea to see if those older packages could be built on your current base. Assuming that the openSUSE Build Service will eventually let all users build upon Stretch, and that the older libraries will build on Stretch and won't break anything, I could set up a repo there that would contain the older libraries. Right now, for regular users, it only offers Wheezy and Jessie build platforms.
Thanks Steve. I kind of like the comments made by the previous poster (ruffwoof). I'm really not in a hurry to upgrade. Just wanted to see want might happen if I did upgrade. I think the answer is that it would be unsatisfactory. And to do what you suggest would probably be a lot of work and beyond my skills and patience. :roll: Maybe I would be better off just installing (maybe clone using dd) Jessie on the second drive to have as a backup. I think this post should be marked solved so I can forget about my craziness for awhile. :lol: Thanks for all the suggestions. And I haven't gotten chewed out yet. Surprise!
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Re: {SOLVED] Am I stuck with Jessie

#9 Post by deborah-and-ian »

>Just wanted to see want might happen if I did upgrade.

What is happening right now might not happen when you upgrade from Jessie to a stable Stretch. That being said, you should pay attention to the following when upgrading:

* Before upgrading, remove all packages and other non-packaged programmes that are not from Jessie (Backports, self-compiled, legitimate but self-contained repos like Google Chrome, Spotify, etc.). If you've upgraded complex packages like kernel, mesa or other drivers from Backports, then a clean install might be easier.
* Upgrade
* Then reinstall things that are missing from Debian.
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Re: {SOLVED] Am I stuck with Jessie

#10 Post by ticojohn »

deborah-and-ian wrote:
What is happening right now might not happen when you upgrade from Jessie to a stable Stretch.
Thanks for that feedback. As far as I know, the only non-Debian item I have installed is the iP1900 printer driver. The main concern with an update would be that all of the older packages required for the printer would be deleted or upgraded with the upgrade to Stretch. My biggest problem is trying to determine what all of those packages are so that I could maybe PIN them and thus prevent their deletion.

I might try cloning Jessie to my HDD (currently run from an SSD) and then see what an upgrade might entail. That way I would still have my working Jessie installation on the SSD.
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Re: {SOLVED] Am I stuck with Jessie

#11 Post by stevepusser »

Now that I have a reasonable idea of basic use of the OBS for building Debian and Ubuntu packages, it wouldn't be very much work at all for me to set up and populate one with those older libraries in Stretch---if they will build with a newer gcc and without any other issues. i know how to get them to build with the older gcc-4.9 in Stretch, instead of gcc-6, if that becomes necessary, though--a lesson learned with my Pale Moon repo on the OBS.
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Re: {SOLVED] Am I stuck with Jessie

#12 Post by ticojohn »

stevepusser wrote:Now that I have a reasonable idea of basic use of the OBS for building Debian and Ubuntu packages, it wouldn't be very much work at all for me to set up and populate one with those older libraries in Stretch---if they will build with a newer gcc and without any other issues. i know how to get them to build with the older gcc-4.9 in Stretch, instead of gcc-6, if that becomes necessary, though--a lesson learned with my Pale Moon repo on the OBS.
Thanks Steve. I will keep that in mind. I may be going at things the wrong way, but I am still thinking about installing Jessie on my HDD, install the printer there and see what happens if I upgrade to Stretch. It's possible, though I doubt it, that everything will be good. Depends if the upgrade removes the printers' dependencies. If that method doesn't work then I have two options: get you to help out or buy a new printer. If the upgrade works on the HDD then I would have some confidence that it would work on the SSD (current Jessie install). In any case, I can always have a way to install Jessie on the HDD and have access to the printer. It would be a pain having to boot to a different system just to print but better than not having access to the printer.
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Re: {SOLVED] Am I stuck with Jessie

#13 Post by stevepusser »

Well, yes, currently the OBS doesn't offer me a Stretch platform--probably not until the release. Eventually I'll have Stretch-based build platforms in Virtual Box--antiX 17 lets me install one very quickly compared to the standard Debian installer, and the packages are the same. Maybe the Sparky Linux installer (Calameras?) is also quick--don't know.

I have another option set up with QEMU and pbuilder, but it's rather technical and more difficult to use for packages that depend on another package you've built. Gives me a headache.

I could try building any older dependencies for your Canon driver on a Ubuntu 17.04 platform on the OBS, though. That should expose any possible issues, since it's quite similar to Stretch in base libraries.
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Re: {SOLVED] Am I stuck with Jessie

#14 Post by ticojohn »

Wanted to update this for anybody interested. I never did get the Canon iP1900 driver working on Stretch so I installed Jessie on my second drive (500 GB HDD, sdb, was previously Stretch). Then I tried installing the driver on the new Jessie install. Problems Problems Problems. Could not get it working and, dummy me, I did not keep good notes on what I had previously done to get it working on Jessie. However, after several hours of futzing around I finally did get it working on the HDD (had to install two older library packages: I know, not a best practice). So now I plan to use the HDD install of Jessie for my upgrade to Stretch experiment platform. If all goes well then I will have more confidence in upgrading my Jessie installation on my primary drive (250 GB SSD, sda). I will post later to give results.
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Re: {SOLVED] Am I stuck with Jessie

#15 Post by ticojohn »

Upgrade to Stretch went well, except had internet speed issues. Printer works fine after upgrade. YAY!
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Re: {SOLVED] Am I stuck with Jessie

#16 Post by Bulkley »

Good stuff. With Linux there is almost always a way around problems if one persists. I'm glad to see you got it working.

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Re: {SOLVED] Am I stuck with Jessie

#17 Post by ticojohn »

Bulkley wrote:Good stuff. With Linux there is almost always a way around problems if one persists. I'm glad to see you got it working.
Thanks. However, I did have to do something that is contrary to best practices. The iP1900 driver required libtiff4 which had a dependency of libjpeg8. Both of those are only available in Wheezy so I downloaded and installed those packages. Not exactly the best thing to do if one wants to not break Debian. What puzzles me, is that on my original Jessie installation (on the SSD) I was able to just make a symbolic link for libtiff4 to libtiff5 and I did not have to install libjpeg8. Strange.

When Stretch is released I plan to upgrade Jessie on the SSD. Hopefully the printer will work without installing those packages from Wheezy. But if necessary I know what to do.

Thanks for your feedback.
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