OpenSuse Updater 11.1 Problem

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1

No doubt I’ve managed to hose some libraries, but for the life of me, I can’t figure it out.

I’m running 11.1 with KDE 3.5 (I loathe the KDE 4 that shipped with 11.1 – well discussed elsewhere, no need to get into that again here.) A few weeks ago, I decided to install KDevelop to write some gadgets for work.

Not only did KDevelop not work (a problem with libtools, apparently, best I could determine from a Web search), the process automatically installed KDE 4 without my consent. I then deleted KDevelop (since it wouldn’t work) and set my system to default to KDE 3.5, which is what I want.

Since then, the sound doesn’t work when playing Flash in Firefox, but I can live with that. What’s more bothersome is that online updates seem to have disappeared. There was no icon in the tray.

I did a few Web searches and added back the kde4-kupdateapplet-zypp and the kde4 base libraries. The tray icon reappeared, but now every time I restart, I get a message box that says, “unable to find a backend applet.”

A search here in the forum shows that this has happened to some others, and normally, reinstalling the zypp stuff should fix it. It didn’t work for me. When I right-click on the Updater tray icon and select “configure applet,” the drop-down for “backend” is blank. There are no choices.

I’ve also tried removing the update sources, then adding them back. I’ve tried “configure online update” from scratch. No luck.

When I run zypper list-updates at a root command prompt, it says, “no updates available,” which doesn’t sound right. My laptop, which also runs 11.1 with KDE 3.5 (same basic config) has installed several updates in the past couple of weeks.

Any ideas? I have no doubt that I’ve hosed a library that the updater wants, but I don’t know which one.

2

A good idea would be to post result of:

zypper lr --details

Also check in Yast - Software Management - Filter by Repo
Select ‘System’
Scroll the list and see how many RED packages you have

3

Thanks for the response!


linux-txhc:/home/stephen # zypper lr --details
# | Alias                  | Name                   | Enabled | Refresh | Priority | Type   | URI                                                                               | Service
--+------------------------+------------------------+---------+---------+----------+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------
1 | NVIDIA Repository      | NVIDIA Repository      | Yes     | Yes     |   99     | rpm-md | http://download.nvidia.com/opensuse/11.1                                          |
2 | home:rwooninck:updates | home:rwooninck:updates | Yes     | Yes     |   99     | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/rwooninck:/updates/openSUSE_11.1/ |
3 | openSUSE 11.1-0        | openSUSE 11.1-0        | Yes     | Yes     |   99     | yast2  | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.1/repo/oss/                          |
4 | openSUSE-11.1-Updates  | openSUSE-11.1-Updates  | Yes     | Yes     |   99     | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/update/11.1                                          |
5 | repo-debug             | openSUSE-11.1-Debug    | No      | Yes     |  100     | NONE   | http://download.opensuse.org/debug/distribution/11.1/repo/oss/                    |
6 | repo-non-oss           | openSUSE-11.1-Non-Oss  | Yes     | Yes     |  100     | yast2  | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.1/repo/non-oss/                      |
7 | repo-source            | openSUSE-11.1-Source   | No      | Yes     |  100     | NONE   | http://download.opensuse.org/source/distribution/11.1/repo/oss/                   |
8 | repo-update            | openSUSE-11.1-Update   | Yes     | Yes     |   20     | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/update/11.1/

I assume you meant, Yast->Software Management, then select “filter:repositories.” I clicked on “@system.”

None of the installed packages are red.

Thanks again for the help.

4

Well, for curiosity’s sake, I went ahead and checked all of the others. The only “red” (taboo) package in the entire list is “ghostprint-omni,” but I assume that’s because it conflicted with my hplip/hplib printer kit. (I vaguely recall a complaint about that when I installed it.)

(And just for the record, that’s the reason for the “rwooninck” repository in the list; that’s where I got the HP printer drivers from.)

5

Nice to see a sensible repo list.

So it installed the kde4 from the OOS repo 4.1.3
Yuck
You could try and remove it
Check what was installed in /var/log/zypp/history
You could manually check to remove everything that was added. Switch off the dependency check whilst you mark them, but check before applying!
You can always abort and start again remember.

Or
Update kde4 to 4.2.* (4) currently
KDE4.2.* (How To Add) Guide. - openSUSE Forums

Probably not on your idea of fun. But I have kde3 and am running Factory Beta 4.3

6

I think I’ll just reinstall.

That’ll actually be quicker.

By the way … when I removed KDevelop, I removed all of the stuff (that I could determine) that KDevelop had installed with it, including KDE 4. What’s interesting is that, once the removal was done, I had a GNOME desktop(!).

I then went back in and installed KDE 3.5 and deleted Gnome. So, my zypp history file is not only very, very large, it’s very difficult to follow. That’s why I say I have no doubt that something got hosed amidst all of this.

Sad about KDevelop. I’m debating whether to use 11.0. No point in using 10.3, not when it EOL’s in a few months.

7

An update on the updater problem:

I logged in as a different user in KDE 3.5 and noticed that the updater seemed to be working fine. I could right click on the tray icon, I could look at (and set) the respositories, I could select the backend.

So … the problem had something to do with my home directory. Don’t know what, and it doesn’t matter. I basically solved it by creating a completely new user and deleting the old one.

One other interesting thing is that Celestia, one of my favorite programs, was taking up to 1 minute to close when I was logged in under the old username. Under the new username, it closes normally now.

Therefore, I can only conclude that installing that broken KDevelop stuff, then deleting it, somehow hosed something in the config settings in my old home/stephen directory. Don’t know what. I don’t know enough to post a bug report. But at any rate, the issue has apparently been resolved. :slight_smile: