cannot install libgl1-mesa-dev via apt-get

[Iporem]

When I tried to install it, I got the following error:

root@Microknoppix:/wine-git# apt-get install libgl1-mesa-dev
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 libgl1-mesa-dev : Depends: libgl1-mesa-glx (= 7.7.1-4) but 7.9+repack-2 is to be installed
E: Broken packages

I have no clues why it happens.

[Capricorny]

When I tried to install it, I got the following error:

root@Microknoppix:/wine-git# apt-get install libgl1-mesa-dev
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree 
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:
 
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
libgl1-mesa-dev : Depends: libgl1-mesa-glx (= 7.7.1-4) but 7.9+repack-2 is to be installed
E: Broken packages

I have no clues why it happens.

Did you really read the error message?

 
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
libgl1-mesa-dev : Depends: libgl1-mesa-glx (= 7.7.1-4) but 7.9+repack-2 is to be installed
E: Broken packages

Which tells about a version conflict. You may have to look up repositories to get compatible package versions, and in some cases, you're simply stuck. You should always check actual versions before installing - which is why tools like synaptic may be handy.

[Iporem]

OK, I decided to downgrade mesa via aptitiude:

root@Microknoppix:/# aptitude install libgl1-mesa-glx=7.7.1-4
The following packages will be DOWNGRADED:
   libgl1-mesa-glx
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 downgraded, 0 to remove and 221 not upgraded.
Need to get 154 kB of archives. After unpacking 4096 B will be freed.
Get:1 http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ stable/main libgl1-mesa-glx i386 7.7.1-4 [154 kB]
Fetched 154 kB in 1s (130 kB/s)
dpkg: warning: downgrading libgl1-mesa-glx from 7.9+repack-2 to 7.7.1-4.
(Reading database ... 86002 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace libgl1-mesa-glx 7.9+repack-2 (using .../libgl1-mesa-glx_7.7.1-4_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libgl1-mesa-glx ...
dpkg: ../../src/archives.c:823: tarobject: Assertion `r == stab.st_size' failed.
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg exited unexpectedly
A package failed to install.  Trying to recover:

Then I had an attempt to install synaptic:

root@Microknoppix:/# aptitude install synaptic
No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 222 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 0 B will be used.
E: I wasn't able to locate file for the libgl1-mesa-glx package. This might mean you need to manually fix this package.
E: I wasn't able to locate file for the libgl1-mesa-glx package. This might mean you need to manually fix this package.
E: Internal error: couldn't generate list of packages to download

[Capricorny]

But synaptic is already installed on Knoppix 6.X. Look under Main menu, Preferences.

It can be tricky to downgrade. Therefore, going out on a hunt for the needed package versions may therefore be worthwhile. Downgrading a supporting package feels a bit unnatural, but sometimes, we have to do it. With synaptic, it is easy to add alternative repositories, where the wanted versions may often be found.

With the error message you got on your downgrade attempt, I would have asked some aptitude specialists what best to do next. (After having done a comprehensive hunt for the right new version, that is.) It's not a Knoppix-specific question. Googling "libgl1-mesa-glx...."etc could give some good hints - both for solutions and where best to ask.

[Iporem]

The problem is that libgl1-mesa-glx seems to be broken in some ways in vanilla Knoppix:

apt-get install --reinstall libgl1-mesa-glx
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 libgl1-mesa-glx : PreDepends: multiarch-support but it is not going to be installed
E: Broken packages

I keep looking for a solution.
I hope the next Knoppix version will have this problem solved.

[kl522]

The problem is that libgl1-mesa-glx seems to be broken in some ways in vanilla Knoppix

Try to do a 'apt-get update' prior to doing anything else. It's not uncommon that your locally stored index files get out of sync with the remote repositories.

[Capricorny]

The problem is that libgl1-mesa-glx seems to be broken in some ways in vanilla Knoppix:

apt-get install --reinstall libgl1-mesa-glx
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree 
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
libgl1-mesa-glx : PreDepends: multiarch-support but it is not going to be installed
E: Broken packages

I keep looking for a solution.
I hope the next Knoppix version will have this problem solved.

I don't think you have shown this to be a Knoppix-specific problem. Which it would be if Knoppix, for example, relied on some older packages, and could not easily be upgraded without breaking. On the contrary, you started out with a version conflict among packages to be installed.

Maybe this seems like nit-picking for you - you have a Knoppix that does not perform as it should, so there is obviously something broken in Knoppix, isn't it? Needs not be at all. If it belongs to kernel development, it should be fixed there, if it belongs to Debian development, it should be fixed there. Dependency problems among installed packages will be resolved in the next release, but there is no guarantee that non-installed packages will be conflict-free. Klaus K can't postpone a release until all problems with all possible-to-install packages are solved.. or rather, maybe he can, but we don't want him to - we can't wait indefinitely.

And if the problem comes from package development/restructuring, which I think may be the case here, the simplest solution may be to find somebody who has got this working, and copy that setup.