Ted Harding wrote: [...]
So I start up Synaptic, search for mencoder (which comes up in the search list), and mark it for installation. First result: [...] No reasons are given as to why "it is not going to be installed" nor why "it is not installable", which leaves me clueless as to what to do about it! There is no visible "help" button in this situation.
Try the same installation selection from aptitude in a root shell? When aptitude can't install something, it should explain why in the bottom half of the screen, let you ask for the Next possible solution (the . key I think) or drill down and override it manually.
Is there any work-round for this situation? While I like Debian when using what can be installed on it, I find this situation very irritating, and I'm beggining to get fed up with it.
I suspect the irritation is more with synaptic than debian. I've not encountered similar problems on my debian test laptop to know how well/badly synaptic handles difficult dependencies. I could try installing mencoder, but I suspect our starting points differ and it wouldn't tell us much.
Enough to drive me to use Ubuntu! (Which I find too glitzy and "user-oriented" [yuk] for myh taste, but at least it seems to do this kind of thing effortlessly).
Comments?
Please don't use Ubuntu as a stick to beat Debian with. I've supported customers with both and Ubuntu occasionally gets similar things wrong too. I feel it depends which approach you like more than there being a signficant difference in quality.
Hope that helps,