Ubuntu 21.04: libsdl2-dev screws up my whole system

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Impavidus

I use nl.archive.ubuntu.com (I'm on the other side or de border), but de.archive.ubuntu.com is usually reliable and all normal sources are listed.

I forgot to ask before, but did you install all available upgrades after installing Ubuntu, before attempting to install any additional software?

---

Thank you for your answer! No I did not upgrade my packages but I did so just now. And what can I say? libsdl2-dev will install properly now! No packages to be removed or something else!

But still, the question remains: why is that so? I mean, upgrading isn't really a must, isn't it (it is for installing that package obviously)? I never experienced such a weird issue with any other distribution but I guess I was just lucky. I almost never upgrade my packages since normally every package I want to install would upgrade its dependencies automatically if needed by apt. I expected that libsdl2-dev would act that way too but unfortunately it didn't.

However: problem solved! :)

When you install a new package, its dependencies may have to be upgraded. The dependencies of those dependencies may have to be upgraded too, and then the other packages depending on those upgraded dependencies may have to be upgraded too. I never tried to find out how apt handles this. Does it upgrade a whole bunch of packages or does it remove some? I don't know.

Anyway, those upgrades are created for a reason. I always install all of them. It never gave me serious issues. I've been using Ubuntu for 15 years. You can postpone upgrades to a convenient time, but better not ignore them.

Yeah, I know that. I was introduced to Linux (first with OpenSUSE in 2007/8 and later with Ubuntu (late 2008)) back in the days. apt never changed its scheme. To that day every distro I used downloaded it that way you described it. EVERY dependency got resolved, even if that meant downloading a newer version of a already installed package. That's why I am so curious about this specific case. Normally apt (Synaptic as well) would have updated the outdated packages before installing libsdl2-dev.

As you are here already, there's another question, since you also use 21.04: Will you switch/reinstall your Ubuntu version when the support runs out? As far as I know, 21.04 won't be supported anymore in the next year.

I think I'll upgrade to 21.10 in December. I normally upgrade in December and June, but about once every 4 releases (not exact) I do a fresh install instead. My current system was installed as 20.04 and has been upgraded twice.