Apt-Get Install Unmet Dependencies

Question

My debian computer will not install the new kernel. It says I have unmet dependencies, and those dependencies say they have unmet dependencies. Many of these dependencies are already installed however. Running apt-get update, apt-get upgrade, and apt-get install -f do not fix the problem. My sources list is as follows:

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ squeeze-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ squeeze-updates main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib non-free

# Debian Squeeze Backports
deb http://backports.debian.org/debian-backports squeeze-backports main contrib non-free
deb-src http://backports.debian.org/debian-backports squeeze-backports main contrib non-free

I've tried installing from the sqeeze-backports and still no luck. Do you guys know what might be going on?

Thanks for the help :)

Answer 1

If you want to install from squeeze-backports, you should tell it to apt-get with the -t parameter, and specify the version of the package you want, i.e.:

apt-get install -t squeeze-backports <package-name>=<version>

In order to know which version is provided by a given repository, you can use the apt-cache show command, and look for the info of the package in that repository.

In your case, the command should be:

apt-get install -t squeeze-backports linux-image-2.6-amd64=3.2+45~bpo60+1

for an linux amd64 kernel.

Of course, you may have to run the usual apt-get update first, and if a new kernel package has been uploaded, you might have to replace 3.2+45~bpo60+1 with the new package version.

If you want to install the 3.2 kernel, then the command is:

apt-get install -t squeeze-backports linux-image-3.2.0-0.bpo.3-amd64=3.2.23-1~bpo60+2

but you might omit the version number if you don't have any other repository hosting that kernel in your source list (ie, you don't have testing or unstable).