More Failing Enable APT

Forum: Apt-get
Topic: More Failing Enable APT
started by: JohnJohn

Posted by JohnJohn on Mar. 28 2006,15:02

Sorry another newbie trying to lern Linux.
I did a Frugal install to my HD. I have a small machine P166 w 32M RAM a 2G HD as hda (and hda5 w 1.8G for home and opt) and an old 450M (yes Megs) HD as hdb (configured as 128M Swap and the rest as a Linux partition). I cannot seem to get Enable APT OR Synaptic to work .
ENable APT
1. WHen I click Enable APT a dialogue opens and downloads dpkg.dsl with out any problem. I get an OK.
2. It then goes to install and all I get a a very long list or error messages most of which are ramdisk/... no space available or something like that. It seems as if it is trying to install to the ramdisk.
3. I thought maybe I needed to login as su in Emefm. I tried but was told I had to do MyDSL from dsl not root.

Synaptic
1. WHen I try to download Synaptic it almost finises downloading when I get an ALERT message. Nothing in the box just teh words ALERT.

I was thinking that maybe I need to go back and do a hd-install instead of Frugal??? ANd then try again. But shouldn't a Fruga;l install also be able to d/l pkgs?

Sorry if these are silly newbie questions/issues, but after 30 yrs with DOS/Windows it is a little struggle to get my head around Linux, but I am determined.

Thansk for any suggestions you can offer.

Posted by doobit on Mar. 28 2006,15:27

A frugal install loads most of the operating system in memory, at least as much as it can given the size of your memory. The rest uses your swap space as if it were memory. When you open a mydsl package with a Frugal install, it creates simulated links to the appropriate directories needed to run the application, but they are temporary, in the ramdisk, or swap file. The operating system and included apps in Frugal is a compressed image on a non-writeable file system, just like on the liveCD, so you don't compile stuff into the kernel the same way you would with a Debian style install (that's where you need apt and Synaptic). The myDSL packages, for the most part, are created with Frugal in mind, to run by unpacking on-the-fly as they are needed, in memory or on the swap file. You need to make sure you have enough memory and swap space to unpack them into and enough left over to run them. I think I am correct in this, and if not, then someone correct me.

Posted by JohnJohn on Mar. 28 2006,15:49

That was a great explanation. Thanks!

I am still not sure what to do about the problem. Are you saying that it should work with a Frugal install OR would it be better to do a hd-install?

Posted by doobit on Mar. 28 2006,17:37

What I'm saying is that I think you need more RAM and/or a bigger swap file. The .dsl package needs space to both unpack and to run. You don't seem to have enough available space.

Posted by cbagger01 on Mar. 28 2006,18:34

With only 32MB of RAM, I recommend doing a full HD install instead of a frugal install.

Posted by JohnJohn on Mar. 29 2006,22:57

BINGO[B] - Finally got Synaptic etc working. I followed the advice of doing a hard install and that seemed to do the trick. Just could not get it working with the Frugal install and suspect as suggested that it is an insuffuicient RAM problem - my measly 32M.

I do have a question about the Synaptic install. I was trying to follow the screen as things went by. I noticed Linuz tried to install version 0.5.13 or somthing like that but along the way notified me that it was downgrading to 0.5.4 again something liket that.

What is this downgrading thing?

?

Again thanks to both of you for your valueable help!!!

BTW Synaptic works great!!

JJ

Posted by cbagger01 on Mar. 30 2006,18:19

The older version of Synaptic that is used in DSL will not work with the newer version of apt, so the installation script will downgrade the apt version in order to get everyone to play nice together.

Posted by martinko on April 26 2006,10:10

i seem to have same problem, error 28 no space left on device when trying to work with /var/lib/dpkg/lock file, then unable to lock that dir.

48mb ram, 128mb swap, when doing this operation ram usage 56%, swap usage 11% (there s a firefox in the bushes on workspace 1). well, i'm but a noob, but this doesn't look as a ram jam to me.

just an idea - if read only, any disk can say no more free space left in me. if made writable, the /var/lib/ could surrender, couldn't it?

or am i completely wrong and should fullinstall on this old crap o'mine?

thx & sorry for wasting ur time.

m.

Posted by cbagger01 on April 26 2006,17:05

Do a full hard disk installation of DSL and then try and install Synaptic.