Why don't you guys like synaptic?

Paul Iadonisi pri.rhl3 at iadonisi.to
Thu Nov 11 23:43:15 UTC 2004


On Thu, 2004-11-11 at 15:39 -0700, Kim Lux wrote:

[snip]

> The issue here IS that someone came on the list and told me the <sound>
> problem was the result of running an upgrade instead of installing
> fresh. (FC2 to FC3t3.)  I was guaranteed that installing fresh would fix
> the issue.  Instead the issue has stayed with us through 4 releases.  

  *sigh*  WHY do you keep mushing together different complaints?  Or
maybe you're not, but I think you are confusing what was recommended, or
not quoted enough of it below (please include links into the archives
when you cite what someone has posted if you can ... it helps
tremendously).

  If you do this (not saying you did, but...):

1) Install FC2 and get working sound
2) Upgrade your FC2 to FC3T3 and sound breaks
3) Upgrade to FC3RC3 and sound is still broken
4) Get told that sound problem was fixed in FC3RC3
5) Find that your sound is still broken in FC3RC3
6) Get told to install FC3RC3 fresh

  Then that is a perfectly reasonable thing to tell you to do because
when you upgraded FC2 to FC3T3, it broke your sound.  Upgrading from
FC3T3 to FC3RC3 did not fix it and probably will never be fixed because
upgrades from test->rc is not going to be supported.  So in reality, you
have two options to determine if the problem is fixed.  You're install
is in a broken state due to the upgrade from FC2->FC3T3 breaking it and
doing FC3T3->FC3RC3 didn't fix it.  So you can either 1) install FC2
fresh and upgrade to FC3RC3 to see if it works or 2) install FC3RC3
fresh to see if it works.
  You also note in the bugzilla entry that you did your blacklist
workaround after *upgrading* to FC3 final.  These seems to imply
(correct me if I'm wrong) that you upgraded from FC3RC3->FC3 which is
absolutely not supported.
  So the question is, did you ever do one of the following?  a) Upgrade
from a clean FC2 to FC3RC[3-5] without any intervening upgrades to FC3T
[1-3] or FC3RC[1-2] and confirm that the sound problem still exists or
b) Clean install FC3RC[3-5] or FC3 and confirm that the sound problem
still exists.  Because if you didn't do either, then the bug is not
confirmed.  The simple fact that your workaround actually works
indicates that (unless you did (a) or (b) above), that maybe the problem
*was* in fact resolved.  It's entirely possible that you had to
implement the workaround because of a broken upgrade path that is not
supported (FC2->FC3T3->FC3RC3->FC3).


> <See quotes below to substantiate this.>

  They don't, really.  See my comments.

> The sound issue never had anything to do with being the result of an
> upgrade.  The advice to upgrade was crap.  As far as I am concerned,
> issues resulting from upgrades should be taken just as seriously as
> issues from fresh installs.

  Possibly, but if you are expecting upgrades *from* any test releases
or release candidates to be taken seriously _if they cannot be or *are
not* reproduced with clean installs *or* upgrades from previous official
releases_, then absolutely not.
  I also think it behooves you to accept the fact that sometimes a
proper bugfix for an upgrade problem is simply to release-note it ...
explain to users what the problem is with upgrade and how to fix it ...
if it's a simple fix, but not so simple to fix in the installer (or
wasn't fixed due to lack of time).

> I am not demanding a fix for anything.  The ONLY point I wish to make is
> that the advice "Please reinstall fresh" NOT be given when someone has a
> problem.  In 95% of the cases whether the install was done as a fresh or
> upgrade makes no difference. 

  Agreed.  However, *during* a testing cycle your system just may get
b0rked by a rogue rpm (like my rpm-without-file-conflicts example) in a
test/rc release or a rawhide rpm at which point that may be the only
viable option.  If you can't accept that, then don't test.

> For those doubting my experience, here are a few quotes from threads on
> the topic:
> 
> "Upgrading to FC3t2 was not the best move now. I would suggest (to save
> you time) just reinstall (you don't want to upgrade from where youre)
> next week when FC3 final is released, you shouldn't have that
> problem anymore."   Oct 27.

  The first sentence here, I'm not sure about, but IIRC, FC3T2 was
seriously b0rked so in this specific case, it actually might have made
sense.  But the second part is clearly reiterating what I've said over
and over: you can't expect to upgrade *from* a test release and have
things be all hunky dory.  They might be, but consider yourself lucky if
that happens.

> "A problem similar to this happened in the middle of testing between ine
> test FC3 versions. If you read the archives for the Test list youill see
> 2 email posts about folks not being able to get sound output.
> This has been fixed. This sounds like the same issue. He might need to
> just upgrade his alsa libs and utils. But upgrading in FC3 is a mess ,
> esspecially starting from test 2. I would advise him to try one of the
> RC builds instead and then look into it."

  All I get from this is that upgrades were, in fact, broken for a while
in the FC3 testing cycle.  So in order to test *other* stuff, it was
better to just clean install and wait for the upgrade problems to be
fixed in the RC releases.  What this seems to say is that the sound
problem was fixed before the upgrade problems.  In other words it was
likely a anaconda bug, not really a sound a bug.

> "If you do a fresh install you will be fine. Try RC2."

See above.  This sometimes makes sense, especially when upgrades are
broken mid-test cycle.

> To summarize:
> 
> a) telling people they have a problem because they've upgraded rather
> than installed from fresh is probably crap.

  *FROM* test releases, it is absolutely not crap.

> b) reinstalling fresh probably won't fix a bug.

  You never know until you try, and unless others have corroborated the
problem you have by doing clean installs or upgrades from official
releases, then it's actually likely.

> c) overall I am very happy with FC3 and its level of bugs and the speed
> with which they are fixed.

  Good to hear.  Me too!  :-)

-- 
-Paul Iadonisi
 Senior System Administrator
 Red Hat Certified Engineer / Local Linux Lobbyist
 Ever see a penguin fly?  --  Try Linux.
 GPL all the way: Sell services, don't lease secrets




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