Why don't you guys like synaptic?

[Jeff Spaleta]

On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 17:40:47 -0700, Kim Lux <lux at diesel-research.com> wrote:
> As far as I am concerned, if upgrading doesn't fix the bug, then then
> neither will installing fresh.  Thinking that installing fresh will fix
> a bug is ludicrous !  Either all the packages are the same on the
> install are they aren't.  It doesn't matter if they came from upgrade or
> fresh.

I think you are making some wildly false assumptions about which files
get updated and which files do not when you upgrade packages. Not all
files on the system are actually owned by a package. Take for a random
examples /etc/modprobe.conf and /etc/asound.state. These are not owned
by any package, but they can both certaintly affect whether you have
sound or not. These files are manipulated by scripts but are not own
by a package. Configuration files like these are not necessarily
'stateless' and the manipulation done on unmanaged configuration files
can very well depend on what the contents of the configuration file is
to begin with. Telling someone to reinstall during the testing phase
before a final release is a perfectly valid troubleshooting step, in
an effort to narrow down how the problem is developing. Historically
there have been a number of problems that occur for people who upgrade
but not for people who fresh install for a variety of reasons.

Please keep in mind that when someone tells you to do a fresh install,
they are not offering you a solution, they are asking you to do some
rough troubleshooting to determine where the problem lies so more
information can be gathered.

-jef"waiter, there's a bug in my code"spalete