Bug#312892: gnome-panel: Refuses to install, complains of incorrect dependencies

[Moshe Yudkowsky]

Package: gnome-panel
Version: 2.8.3-1
Severity: grave
Justification: renders package unusable


I just did an "apt-get dist-upgrade", and as a result I don't have access to any of the Gnome panels or applets any longer. The panels are not on the desktop.

When I tried to "apt-get install gnome-panel", on the theory that somehow apt-get had made an error, I got a list of complaints:

  gnome-panel: Depends: libbonoboui2-0 (>= 2.5.4) but it is not going to be installed
               Depends: libecal6 (>= 1.0.4) but it is not going to be installed
               Depends: libedataserver3 (>= 1.0.4) but it is not going to be installed
               Depends: libgnome-desktop-2 (>= 2.8.0) but it is not going to be installed
               Depends: libgnome2-0 (>= 2.8.0) but it is not going to be installed
               Depends: libgnomeui-0 (>= 2.8.0) but it is not going to be installed
               Depends: libgnomevfs2-0 (>= 2.8.3-7) but it is not going to be installed
               Depends: libpanel-applet2-0 (>= 2.8.3) but it is not going to be installed
               Depends: gnome-session (>= 2.8.1-4) but it is not going to be installed
               Depends: gnome-control-center (>= 1:2.8.1-3) but it is not going to be installed

And as can be seen from the system information, these dependencies are met but for some reason the package won't install.

Without the panels, the GUI is pretty hard to access -- minimized windows vanish from the desktop, for example, and can't be found again.

I admit that I don't know a lot about the internals of Gnome, and I further admit that I don't know how it's possible, even in theory, to have had a panel working and now to not even have gnome-panel installed (gnome-panel is "pn" according to dpgk). I will answer queries to the best of my ability.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (990, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.11-1-k7
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)

Versions of packages gnome-panel depends on:
ii  gnome-control-center     1:2.8.2-3       The GNOME Control Center for GNOME
ii  gnome-desktop-data       2.10.1-2        Common files for GNOME 2 desktop a
pn  gnome-panel-data                         Not found.
ii  gnome-session            2.10.0-4        The GNOME 2 Session Manager
ii  libart-2.0-2             2.3.17-1        Library of functions for 2D graphi
ii  libatk1.0-0              1.10.1-2        The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libbonobo2-0             2.8.1-2         Bonobo CORBA interfaces library
ii  libbonoboui2-0           2.8.1-2         The Bonobo UI library
ii  libc6                    2.3.2.ds1-22    GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libecal6                 1.0.4-1         Client library for evolution calen
ii  libedataserver3          1.0.4-1         Utily library for evolution data s
ii  libgconf2-4              2.10.0-2        GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libglade2-0              1:2.5.1-2       library to load .glade files at ru
ii  libglib2.0-0             2.6.4-1         The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgnome-desktop-2       2.10.1-2        Utility library for loading .deskt
ii  libgnome2-0              2.10.0-3        The GNOME 2 library - runtime file
ii  libgnomecanvas2-0        2.10.2-2        A powerful object-oriented display
ii  libgnomeui-0             2.10.0-2        The GNOME 2 libraries (User Interf
ii  libgnomevfs2-0           2.10.1-4        The GNOME virtual file-system libr
ii  libgtk2.0-0              2.6.7-2         The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libice6                  4.3.0.dfsg.1-14 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii  liborbit2                1:2.12.2-1      libraries for ORBit2 - a CORBA ORB
ii  libpanel-applet2-0       2.8.3-1         library for GNOME 2 panel applets
ii  libpango1.0-0            1.8.1-1         Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libpng12-0               1.2.8rel-1      PNG library - runtime
ii  libpopt0                 1.7-5           lib for parsing cmdline parameters
ii  libsm6                   4.3.0.dfsg.1-14 X Window System Session Management
ii  libstartup-notification0 0.8-1           library for program launch feedbac
ii  libwnck4                 2.8.1-3         Window Navigator Construction Kit 
ii  libx11-6                 4.3.0.dfsg.1-14 X Window System protocol client li
ii  libxext6                 4.3.0.dfsg.1-14 X Window System miscellaneous exte
ii  libxml2                  2.6.16-7        GNOME XML library
ii  xlibs                    4.3.0.dfsg.1-14 X Keyboard Extension (XKB) configu
ii  zlib1g                   1:1.2.2-4       compression library - runtime