An example follows. The boot-floppies package (not an example for
beginners, I know, but it was chosen because it has a lot of
dependencies) depends on these packages:
◼ libc6-pic
◼ slang1-pic
◼ sysutils
◼ makedev
◼ newt0.25
◼ newt0.25-dev
◼ popt
◼ zlib1g
◼ zlib1g-dev
◼ recode
The person maintaining boot-floppies also thinks that the following
packages should be installed. These are not, however, essential:
◼ lynx
◼ debiandoc-sgml
◼ unzip
When you select boot-floppies, dselect brings up the conflict
resolution screen. You’ll notice that all the required packages have
been selected.
Pressing the R key puts things back to the starting point.
EIOM Pri Section Package Description
__ Opt admin boot-floppie Scripts to create the Debian
__ Opt devel newt0.25-dev Developer’s toolkit for newt
__ Opt devel slang1-dev The S-Lang programming library
__ Opt devel slang1-pic The S-Lang programming library
If you decide now that you don’t want boot-floppies, just press
Enter.
Pressing the D key puts things the way I selected them in the first
place:
EIOM Pri Section Package Description
_* Opt admin boot-floppie Scripts to create the Debian
__ Opt devel newt0.25-dev Developer’s toolkit for newt
__ Opt devel slang1-dev The S-Lang programming library
__ Opt devel slang1-pic The S-Lang programming library
Pressing the U key restores dselect’s selections:
EIOM Pri Section Package Description
_* Opt admin boot-floppie Scripts to create the Debian
installation
_* Opt devel newt0.25-dev Developer’s toolkit for newt
_* Opt devel slang1-dev The S-Lang programming library
_* Opt devel slang1-pic The S-Lang programming library
I suggest running with the defaults for now; you will have ample
opportunities to add more later.
Whatever you decide, press Enter to accept and return to the main
screen. If this results in unresolved problems, you will be bounced
right back to another problem resolution screen.
The R, U, and D keys are very useful in “what if” situations. You
can experiment at will and then restore everything and start again.
_Don’t_ look on them as being in a glass box labeled “Break in Case
of Emergency.”
After making your selections in the Select screen, press I to give
you a big window, press t to take you to the beginning, and then use
the Page Down key to look quickly through the settings. This way you
can check the results of your work and spot glaring errors. Some
people have deselected whole groups of packages by mistake and not
noticed the error until too late. dselect is a _very_ powerful tool;
don’t misuse it.
You should now have the situation shown in Table 3.3.
Table 3.3: Expected Package Category States
+--------------------------------------+
| Package category | Status |
|------------------+-------------------|
| Required | all selected |
|------------------+-------------------|
| Important | all selected |
|------------------+-------------------|
| Standard | mostly selected |
|------------------+-------------------|
| Optional | mostly deselected |
|------------------+-------------------|
| Extra | mostly deselected |
+--------------------------------------+
Happy? Press Enter to exit the Select process. You can come back and
run Select again if you wish.