Category: Patch

LIBLDAP2 Not Installable

Unable to find a solution related apt-get failing on Ubuntu while trying to upgrade packages depending on the libldap2 (>= 2.1.17-1) package, I figured out what was causing the problem… additional repositories in my /etc/apt/sources.list file. Here’s what I did to finally be able to upgrade cleanly.

Warning this is a very geeky entry aimed at apt-get users of Ubuntu, readers seeking humorous content should skip this post. Remember, this is a technical blog.

If you’re still with me, then I suspect you’ve just been plagued by the message:

Depends: libldap2 (>= 2.1.17-1) but it is not installable

I’m using Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Server Hardy Heron, specifically on a 64-bit AMD system.

Normally, when I do an $ sudo apt-get update things go very smoothly, but not today. Here’s what I got.

The following packages have been kept back:
alpine dovecot-common dovecot-imapd dovecot-pop3d libpq5 postgresql-8.3 texlive-base-bin trac

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
alpine: Depends: libldap2 (>= 2.1.17-1) but it is not installable
dovecot-common: Depends: libldap2 (>= 2.1.17-1) but it is not installable
Depends: libpq4 (>= 8.1.4) but it is not installable
libpq5: Depends: libldap2 (>= 2.1.17-1) but it is not installable
postgresql-8.3: Depends: libldap2 (>= 2.1.17-1) but it is not installable
texlive-base-bin: Depends: libpoppler0c2 (>= 0.4.2) but it is not installable
trac: Depends: python-genshi (>= 0.5) but it is not going to be installed
E: Broken packages

Unfortunately, where ever I went, I didn’t find a solution. [1] [2] [3]

The ‘recommended’ solution is: $ sudo apt-get -f install
This did not work for me, nor others.

Neither did: $ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

At this point, I went on an apt-get remove and apt-get autoremove binge. This didn’t help either.

This got me into a horrible loop, where packages sysvinit-utils, sysvinit, and initscripts needed to be installed, but could not because:
Unpacking sysvinit-utils (from …/sysvinit-utils_2.86.ds1-47~bpo40+1_amd64.deb) …

dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/sysvinit-utils_2.86.ds1-47~bpo40+1_amd64.deb (–unpack):
trying to overwrite `/usr/share/man/man1/mesg.1.gz’, which is also in package sysvutils

I even tried manually installing packages one at a time. Didn’t work. I was even so desperate as to move the file mesg.1.gz elsewhere. That didn’t work.

Then I tried the following and things got a little better:

$ sudo apt-get clean
$ sudo apt-get autoclean
$ sudo apt-get check
$ sudo apt-get purge
$ apt-get -f upgrade

But I now had a problem where packages, specifically alpine, depended on on libdlap2, and it was telling me that it couldn’t install it, so upgrading wasn’t possible.

I made the mistake of $ sudo apt-get remove alpine, which would not let me undo that mistake by reinstalling.

My hunt brought me to libldap2-dev, but while this installed, it didn’t help alpine’s dependencies.

Even with the super-duper do-everything command, nothing helped:

$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -y

Then it dawned on me, perhaps some of the repositories that I added to /etc/apt/sources.list were giving conflicting dependencies. Luckily, I annotated heavily what I had ever added to this file.

There were only two things: Subversion, and Mono. Here they are. You want to comment out these lines:

## Subversion obtained from https://edge.launchpad.net/~clazzes.org/+archive
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/clazzes.org/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/clazzes.org/ubuntu hardy main

## Mono added by request of FogBugz installation
## http://www.fogcreek.com/FogBugz/docs/60/topics/setup/UnixGettingYourServerRead.html#deb
deb http://www.backports.org/debian etch-backports main contrib non-free

Then, I did a $ sudo apt-get updatee, followed by a $ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade, then a $ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade.

All of my problems were solved. No package dependency problems what-so-ever, and I was able to install alpine, and all the others, bringing me up to the latest and greatest.

Finally, I uncommented my sources.list file back to the way it was and tried the upgrade again. No errors. Everything was fine.

The solution was that something, and I don’t know which one, was causing conflicts. Reverting back to the virgin sources.list file state was enough to get Ubuntu happy to do the upgrades.

Unfortunately, since re-commenting the lines didn’t reintroduce the problem, I’m unable to tell you which repository caused the problem in the first place.

Macbook Pro: Network connectivity just disappears

Interesting problem on the Macbook Pro: after several hours of use, the all the applications act as if the network connection is gone. Problem is, I still have full strength signal and other devices can get to the internet. Toggling the AirPort brings things back. I’m trying to figure out why. Notes, tips, and code fragments.

Shortly after the 10.4.9 update, and even though I’m running 10.4.10, I’ve noticed an odd behavior with my wireless network connectivity. While using my machine, often for hours at a time without incident, my applications will all suddenly act as though there’s no internet, and indeed, looking at the routing tables, by all appearances it is gone.

The odd part is that my signal strength is at full. And, even more confounding, if I turn off the wireless and turn it back on, I suddenly get connectivity again and the applications recover. Meanwhile, other devices connected wirelessly don’t see the drop, so I know it’s local to the Macbook Pro.

Is anyone else out there experiencing a similar problem where the machine just drops internet awareness?

The only clue I ever seem to get in my console.log file is the message:
mDNSResponder: SetupAddr invalid sa_family 0
mDNSResponder: getifaddrs ifa_netmask for fw0(7) Flags 8863 Family 2 169.254.59.71 has different family: 0
mDNSResponder: Repeated transitions for interface en1 (FE80:0000:0000:0000:0216:CBFF:FEB6:AD8C); delaying packets by 5 seconds

According to websites with source code for the operating system, the file dDNS.c contain codes that looks like this:

mStatus dDNS_SetupAddr(mDNSAddr *ip, const struct sockaddr *const sa)
	{
	if (!sa) 
                { 
                LogMsg("SetupAddr ERROR: NULL sockaddr"); 
                return(mStatus_Invalid); 
                }

	if (sa->sa_family == AF_INET)
		{
		struct sockaddr_in *ifa_addr = (struct sockaddr_in *)sa;
		ip->type = mDNSAddrType_IPv4;
		ip->ip.v4.NotAnInteger = ifa_addr->sin_addr.s_addr;
		return(mStatus_NoError);
		}

	if (sa->sa_family == AF_INET6)
		{
		struct sockaddr_in6 *ifa_addr = (struct sockaddr_in6 *)sa;
		ip->type = mDNSAddrType_IPv6;
#if !defined(_WIN32)
		if (IN6_IS_ADDR_LINKLOCAL(&ifa_addr->sin6_addr)) 
                    ifa_addr->sin6_addr.__u6_addr.__u6_addr16[1] = 0;
#else
		if (IN6_IS_ADDR_LINKLOCAL(&ifa_addr->sin6_addr))
                    ifa_addr->sin6_addr.u.Word[1] = 0;
#endif 		
		ip->ip.v6 = *(mDNSv6Addr*)&ifa_addr->sin6_addr;
		return(mStatus_NoError);
		}

	LogMsg("SetupAddr invalid sa_family %d", sa->sa_family);
	return(mStatus_Invalid);
	}

It appears that the software can’t figure out whether IP4 or IP6 is in use, so it reports it has no idea how to set up the socket. It’s interesting to note that the socket isn’t null, so something’s going on.

But what is mDNSResponder? Well, for one, it contains Apple’s Bonjor services that allow zero-configuration networking.


mDNSResponder is a multi-cast DNS deamon. And, what’s even cooler, is that you can force it to emit its status and dump tons of info in the console.log by sending it a gentle signal:
sudo killall -INFO mDNSResponder

Even FreeBSD has mDNSResponder in its ports collection.

And, even while Apple has a way to disable Bonjour, I’m not sure that I want to, nor am I 100% convinced this is the problem, but is more likely a symptom. Afterall, Apple has had network problems before. Plus, they appear to be actively working on Bonjour.

As my friend Phil points out, the IP addresses in the 169.254 range are in the zero-configuration range for peer-to-peer communication.

Like I said, I’m curious to know if I’m alone in this, or even better, if someone’s solved the problem, what was it…?

UPDATE 1-Aug-2007: It appears that the AirPort Extreme Update 2007-004 fixes this problem. And, while you’re at it, get the Security Update 2007-007 as well.