Hi, ext Steve Yelvington wrote: > The problem is not with Canola per se, but rather with the overall > sloppy condition of the Maemo repositories, both on maemo.org and on > other sites. > > Software often depends on other packages not in the same repository, and > that's not documented or handled in any graceful way. So long as you > stick to the three or four official Nokia applications, you're fine. As > soon as you try to install anything you find listed on maemo.org, you're > venturing into dangerous territory. > > Trying to install Doom will muck up your entire system, as Application > Manager will no longer be able to update repositories. > > I just reflashed, and the first app from maemo.org I tried to install > was the kagu media player. Can't do it. Application packages missing: > libsdl-ttf, libgdbm3, libcurses5, libreadline4. > > Where are they? No telling, but they're not in the repository specified > in the .install file (maemo extras). My bet is that they're in > maemo-hackers, but Application Manager can't figure that out. Nor should > it have to. Developer can check that with "apt-cache policy <packagename>". They can also check which packages are installed into which release by default (these change a bit) from the package lists at Maemo site. > This is particularly difficult for developers to handle because they're > developing on machines that are all tricked out with extra libraries and > -- here's the real problem -- they have to /know/ where those libraries > came from. The SDK rootstrap is a "problematic" because it's intended for building application. It can be used to do (some) testing also, but _real_ testing has to be done on the device (installation dependencies, memory usage and performance etc). I hope SDK offers at some point a complete PC emulation environment which has all and only the software packages available on the target device, but currently it offers only build environment and partial test environment. > None of the Linux application installation toolkits (on any platform) is > particularly good at helping you figure that stuff out. So when a > package gets built, critical details like these get dropped on the floor. > > The answer might be "more testing," but bugzilla isn't a warm and > friendly way to invite new users to submit issues. If my bugzilla > password ever arrives in email, I'll be long gone onto another project > and will have forgotten the bug I wanted to report. - Eero
