GNUStep terminal.app conflicts with xfce4-terminal
I wanted to try out the latest GNUStep and then possibly etoile which looks quite interesting. However trying to install GNUStep I encountered a conflict I couldn't resolve so far.
Unpacking terminal.app (from .../terminal.app_0.9.4+cvs20051125-2_i386.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/terminal.app_0.9.4+cvs20051125-2_i386.deb (--install):
trying to overwrite `/usr/bin/Terminal', which is also in package xfce4-terminal
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/terminal.app_0.9.4+cvs20051125-2_i386.debThis terminal.app is one of GNUStep's dependencies and xfce4-terminal is apparently one of xfce dependencies because in Ubuntu the xfce-desktop meta package seems to depend on everything it installs.
I tried removing xfce4-terminal, but due to above it wants to remove the whole xfce-desktop. I also deleted the /usr/bin/Terminal (since it's actually just a link), but that didn't help. I suppose dpkg still sees it in the xfce4-terminal package itself and doesn't let it slip through anyhow.
I tried the apt-get -f install but that isn't of much help either.
It's not like GNUStep is the most important thing in the world right now, but since others may have this problem and it'd be nice to actually be able to install something when you want to without hitting these sorts of snags, it'd be nice to resolve this.
Any ideas?
I tried removing xfce4-terminal, but due to above it wants to remove the whole xfce-desktop.
"The whole xfce-desktop" should be basically nothing, just a bare package with no content. go through all packages that would be removed if you remove the terminal and check if
dpkg -l PACKAGEoutputs anything at all for one of them. I wouldn't think so.Well this is what I get when I do
apt-get remove xfce4-terminal:daniel@libernode:~$ sudo apt-get remove xfce4-terminalReading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
xfprint4 libchewing3-data libgoffice-gtk-0-3 libgoffice-0-common anthy libots0 xfce4-xkb-plugin scim-chewing xfce4-verve-plugin xfce4-panel system-config-printer
libaiksaurusgtk-1.2-0c2a abiword-common xfce4-taskmanager abiword xfce4-mailwatch-plugin libaiksaurus-1.2-0c2a scim-hangul xfce4-notes-plugin gnumeric-common orage
xubuntu-artwork-usplash python-exo xfce4-appfinder gnumeric-gtk xfce4-battery-plugin libchewing3 libexo-0.3-0 xfce4-weather-plugin libwpd-stream8c2a xfce4-netload-plugin
thunar-archive-plugin libt1-5 libaiksaurus-1.2-data thunar xfce4-icon-theme libgdome2-0 xfce4-screenshooter-plugin xfce4-systemload-plugin thunar-media-tags-plugin mousepad
xfce4-dict-plugin xubuntu-desktop xfce4-fsguard-plugin xfce4-cpugraph-plugin xfce4-smartbookmark-plugin xfdesktop4 libgdome2-cpp-smart0c2a python-cups gtk2-engines-xfce
libanthy0 xfce4-quicklauncher-plugin vim-runtime scim-pinyin scim-anthy xfce4-utils xubuntu-docs xfce4-mixer-alsa libgtkmathview0c2a xfce4-terminal gqview abiword-plugins
xfce4-mount-plugin xfburn xfce4-session xfce4-mixer xfce4-clipman-plugin xarchiver libthunar-vfs-1-2
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
xfce4-terminal xubuntu-desktop
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives.
After unpacking 2875kB disk space will be freed.
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So it wouldn't actually remove all those packages (only xubuntu-desktop shill package in addition to xfce4-terminal), but it would mark them all as basically orphan, not needed, and removable via
apt-get autoremoveand I don't like that. It misrepresents the real situation, which is that I indeed do need all of those packages except one, xfce4-terminal (supposedly), and I'm also sure they're *not* all required for xfce4-terminal to run properly.But I guess that's just a flaw of apt-get, something LFS fans and "trust-the-source" kind of guys have been alluding to for long. All the complexity of the mighty dpkg/apt system sometimes slaps you in the face with inflexibility.
it's not a flaw, it's something that comes from using no-content mass-dep meta-packages.
I guess the better way to call it is a "con". The "pro" is that such meta packages make it easier for some people to install "complete systems" of some sort, like complete xfce desktop (xubuntu).
The solution would be to create your own metapackage similar to xubuntu-desktop, only without the dependency on xfce4-terminal. I don't know how to do that, though...