CrunchBang Linux Forums / Synaptic, Software Sources and Video

Re: Synaptic, Software Sources and Video

dummy@example.com (johnraff) — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 16:56:12 +0000

My guess is that the apps which crash when the Crunchbang /etc/lsb-release file is present are not looking at that file directly but reading the output of 'lsb_release', which in turn is checking for the presence of that file.

(/etc/lsb-release renamed)

john@computer:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:    Debian
Description:    Debian GNU/Linux testing (squeeze)
Release:    testing
Codename:    squeeze

(/etc/lsb-release present)

john@computer:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:    CrunchBang
Description:    CrunchBang 10 statler
Release:    10
Codename:    statler

Re: Synaptic, Software Sources and Video

dummy@example.com (johnraff) — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 03:24:42 +0000

http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/all/ … e/filelist
...no /etc/lsb-release in there.

It's not in any Ubuntu file search either.
My #! 9.04 has no such file, but the command 'lsb_release -a' returns the information.

Debian bug:
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=444678

(Other stuff:
http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Admin/release-files.html
http://www.computerbob.com/guests/how_t … _linux.php)

Anyway, corenominal, Clem from Mint and others will have to deal with this if they want to keep software sources in their setup.

Indeed.

btw The file is /etc/lsb-release not /etc/lsb_release. 'lsb_release' is the command associated with the package lsb-release.

Re: Synaptic, Software Sources and Video

dummy@example.com (wuy) — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 19:59:08 +0000

Maybe the app looks for the Ubuntu versions in /etc/lsb_release and gives an error if it finds something else.
Anyway, corenominal, Clem from Mint and others will have to deal with this if they want to keep software sources in their setup.

Re: Synaptic, Software Sources and Video

dummy@example.com (pvsage) — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 18:16:11 +0000

http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/lsb-release

I guess that, since the LSB Release refers to the Debian base, any /etc/lsb_release should report the parent Debian base and not the derived OS name?

Re: Synaptic, Software Sources and Video

dummy@example.com (wuy) — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 18:13:40 +0000

Now we're entering definitively the terrain of speculation..
But software-properties-gtk is a Debian/Ubuntu app. Maybe Ubuntu uses /etc/lsb_release ?

Re: Synaptic, Software Sources and Video

dummy@example.com (johnraff) — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 17:19:59 +0000

^my thoughts exactly.

Re: Synaptic, Software Sources and Video

dummy@example.com (anonymous) — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 16:56:27 +0000

If Debian doesn't use /etc/lsb_release, then Im curious why its presence would affect software-properties-gtk and update-manager?

If the file isn't used, then why doesn't the program ignore it?

Re: Synaptic, Software Sources and Video

dummy@example.com (johnraff) — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 16:47:13 +0000

^no. You can search for some file in Debian here.

Re: Synaptic, Software Sources and Video

dummy@example.com (anonymous) — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 16:35:14 +0000

wuy wrote:

Debian Squeeze does not have a file named /etc/lsb_release

Not even if a user installs the lsb-release package?

Re: Synaptic, Software Sources and Video

dummy@example.com (johnraff) — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 16:33:28 +0000

wuy wrote:

Debian Squeeze does not have a file named /etc/lsb_release

So it doesn't! That's very interesting - so why should any Debian Squeeze package even think of looking at /etc/lsb_release?

(There is however a package called lsb-release, which installs a file /usr/bin/lsb_release .)

Re: Synaptic, Software Sources and Video

dummy@example.com (wuy) — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 16:15:01 +0000

Ok, I'm not a programmer, but I'll say again in case someone didn't get it.
Debian Squeeze does not have a file named /etc/lsb_release

So if some derivative puts this file in there and that breaks a certain application, it really isn't an upstream issue.

Not that if that file is harmless then the app couldn't be tweaked to ignore it, but I don't know about that (who here knows?). And software-sources-gtk, in its unattended-upgrades feature is made (regarding Debian) to be compatible with Squeeze.

Re: Synaptic, Software Sources and Video

dummy@example.com (pvsage) — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 12:47:40 +0000

@wuy: Not so much a fix as a workaround; as johnraff pointed out, this makes the system identify itself as Debian Squeeze or Sid and not CrunchBang Statler. A true "fix" would be derivative-agnostic.

I hope they're working on this upstream; I'll check on it from time to time.

Re: Synaptic, Software Sources and Video

dummy@example.com (johnraff) — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 04:56:29 +0000

^That did it! Renamed /etc/lsb_release and software-properties-gtk and update-manager both work now.
It's a hack of course... it would be nice if they worked with the system correctly identifying itself as Crunchbang Statler.
Ah well, OK to be going on with, and thanks to wuy and pvsage

Re: Synaptic, Software Sources and Video

dummy@example.com (wuy) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:35:20 +0000

So this seems to be a "known issue" of #! 10 alpha2.
If /etc/lsb_release is not needed then the solution is to delete it.

Re: Synaptic, Software Sources and Video

dummy@example.com (pvsage) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 17:32:25 +0000

From the linuxmint forum link above...I changed the release and codename in /etc/lsb_release to unstable and sid...didn't fix, but renaming the file did...apparently. I never use Synaptic anyway; just wanted to either confirm or refute the error in Statler/Sid.