Ok, I will admit it, Im a Redhat guy - I understand it, it makes sense to me. However Id like to think I know my way around a Debian based system, but it seems I dont

Here is the scenario - I have a Debian box running on an Intel Xeon 64bit server (with VT support). I decide Id like to see how VirtualBox runs on there. So I go over to the VirtualBox site and find that there are debs for Debian. Great! Ok, I have two choices - i386 deb or AMD64 deb. So I think, well my processor is not AMD, I shall get the i386 deb

Here is the output

# dpkg -i virtualbox-3.1_3.1.0-55467_Debian_lenny_i386.deb dpkg: error processing virtualbox-3.1_3.1.0-55467_Debian_lenny_i386.deb (--install):  package architecture (i386) does not match system (amd64) Errors were encountered while processing:  virtualbox-3.1_3.1.0-55467_Debian_lenny_i386.deb

Hmmm, seems Debian must consider all 64bit processors to be AMD - ok, no big deal, I will grab the other deb and install that

# dpkg -i virtualbox-3.1_3.1.0-55467_Debian_lenny_amd64.deb Selecting previously deselected package virtualbox-3.1. (Reading database ... 29878 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking virtualbox-3.1 (from virtualbox-3.1_3.1.0-55467_Debian_lenny_amd64.deb) ... dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of virtualbox-3.1:  virtualbox-3.1 depends on libcurl3 (>= 7.16.2-1); however:  Package libcurl3 is not installed.  virtualbox-3.1 depends on libgl1-mesa-glx | libgl1; however:  Package libgl1-mesa-glx is not installed.  Package libgl1 is not installed.  virtualbox-3.1 depends on libqt4-network (>= 4.4.3); however:  Package libqt4-network is not installed.  virtualbox-3.1 depends on libqt4-opengl (>= 4.4.3); however:  Package libqt4-opengl is not installed.  virtualbox-3.1 depends on libqtcore4 (>= 4.4.3); however:  Package libqtcore4 is not installed.  virtualbox-3.1 depends on libqtgui4 (>= 4.4.3); however:  Package libqtgui4 is not installed. dpkg: error processing virtualbox-3.1 (--install):  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured Errors were encountered while processing:  virtualbox-3.1

Hmmm, that was less than successful. Now Redhat based systems have got some stick in the past for "dependency hell" - I fail to see how the above isn't exactly the same

Still, Im not beat, the heart of a Debian system is "apt-get" Everyone tells me just how freakin amazing it is, so lets see

apt-get install libcurl3 libgl1-mesa-glx libqt4-network libqt4-opengl libqtcore4 libqtgui4 Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done You might want to run `apt-get -f install' to correct these: The following packages have unmet dependencies:  libcurl3: Depends: libssh2-1 but it is not going to be installed  Depends: ca-certificates but it is not going to be installed  libgl1-mesa-glx: Depends: libdrm2 (>= 2.3.1) but it is not going to be installed  Depends: libxdamage1 (>= 1:1.1) but it is not going to be installed  Depends: libxxf86vm1 but it is not going to be installed  libqtcore4: Depends: libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.12.0) but it is not going to be installed  libqtgui4: Depends: libaudio2 but it is not going to be installed  Depends: libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.12.0) but it is not going to be installed  Depends: libmng1 (>= 1.0.3-1) but it is not going to be installed  Depends: libtiff4 but it is not going to be installed  Depends: libxi6 but it is not going to be installed  Depends: libxrandr2 but it is not going to be installed  Depends: fontconfig but it is not going to be installed  Recommends: qt4-qtconfig but it is not going to be installed E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

You know what, screw this - /me reaches for his Centos disk