2

I would like to do some GIS in ubuntu. When I use the repo:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntugis/ubuntugis-unstable

Update manager asks me to do a partial upgrade. The packages it wants to install are:

cgi-mapserver
grass
libxml2
libxml2-dev
libxml2:i386
mapserver-bin
php5-mapscript
python-libxml2
python-mapscript

I use my machine for many purposes besides just GIS. So, I'd rather not go messing anything up---in particular, other python projects. (Also, I have a 64-bit machine---libxml2:i386 looks 32-bit maybe? Problem?)

Trying to be more conservative, I notice that when I use the repo:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntugis/ubuntugis-stable

It says the repo does not exist.

Cannot access PPA (https://launchpad.net/api/1.0/~ubuntugis/+archive/ubuntugis-stable) to get PPA information, please check your internet connection.

UPDATE

I learned that the second PPA I had for the stable version is wrong. It's:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntugis/ppa

However, even this stable version asks me to perform a partial upgrade. So, the greater question stands: is this partial upgrade safe?!

3
  • Please, could you explain what you mean with "safe"? Perhaps, are you worried about packages being low quality? Jan 7, 2013 at 22:11
  • Sorry, by safe I mean only that I've previously had bad experiences with 'partial upgrades'---and have been told to avoid them where possible. They've previously resulted in my system getting into an indeterminate state of package dependency hell, where many things mysteriously break and I'm stuck reformatting. What reason would this have for requiring an otherwise up-to-date 12.04 LTS installation to partially upgrade, versus say, just installing some new packages without an "upgrade?" Which of these packages is forcing an upgrade?---and can I be sure this will not disable my system? Jan 7, 2013 at 22:14
  • A partial upgrade differs from a normal upgrade in that in addition to install newer packages it will also remove others. To tell you if it's safe we need to know what is it going to remove. Jan 8, 2013 at 8:06

0

You must log in to answer this question.

Browse other questions tagged .