[Solved] Problems installing packages of another Distro

[Mich-C]

Hello everyone.
I installed the openbox windows manager alongside xfce on my laptop.
Right after the installation Openbox is pretty spartan, so I decided to install themes from SalentOS.
SalentOS is an italian linux distro based on Debian Stretch and a fully customized openbox experience (themes+ softwares to configure openbox etc)

So I added the official repo of this distro to my configuration.
I don't know why but from the graphical MX package manager shows 4 entries for the same package and it warns me that it couldn't authenticate packages... anywyay I can install them.

I'm facing some problems, for example the MX package manager doesn't allow me to install "numix-openbox-salentos-themes" since

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it tryes to overwrite "/usr/share/themes/Numix/xfce-notify-4.0/gtkrc" also present in the numix-gtk-theme 2.6.6-1 package

When I try to install other packages instead, the MX package manager says that it can't find the packages to fullfill dependecies.

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 Depends: libvte-2.90-9  but it is not installable
 Depends: libvte-dev, but it's not going to be installed (or something like that since I use MX in italian)
 Depends: tk
.... and so on

As far I've understood:
1)these dependencies seem not present in the default MX repos, so I should probably get them from a Debian Stretch Repo
2)some of this dependency-packages are already installed but maybe I must match the versions (libvte-2.91 is installed on my system but the Salentos theme requires libvte-2.90-9)

I asking for your help to avoid mistakes.
Thank you in advance!

[JayM]

So I added the official repo of this distro to my configuration.

There's your problem. MX isn't Salient even if they're both based on Stretch, so Salient's packages don't work in MX. You should instead ask if those Openbox themes can be ported to MX for you.

To request new or updated software packages be added to the MX Repositories, please read these instructions. then post your request here.

Meanwhile, remove that Salient repo you added then run

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sudo apt update

and

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sudo apt autoremove --purge

in a terminal. If you're lucky and can do this before anything was updated you may be able to save your MX installation from having to be restored from backups or reinstalled from scratch.

[gosia]

You don't need a foreign package for Openbox themes. With

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obconf

you can set themes and import new themes from https://www.box-look.org/browse/cat/140/ as well.
Or you can do it manually in the file ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml
http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Configuration#Theme

[manyroads]

You are following a path to disaster...
Mixing repos will crash unless you have a full understanding of dependencies and inter-relationships. It's not a question of if you'll have a disaster, just a question of when.

Themes are almost always trivial to install by simply copying files...

[Stevo]

1)these dependencies seem not present in the default MX repos, so I should probably get them from a Debian Stretch Repo

The default Debian repos are enabled in MX 17/18, so that's not the problem at all. If

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apt policy <package>

doesn't show it as available, then something beyond the ordinary is going on with their version.

[Mich-C]

There's your problem. MX isn't Salent even if they're both based on Stretch, so Salent's packages don't work in MX.

Meanwhile, remove that Salient repo you added

If you're lucky and can do this before anything was updated you may be able to save your MX installation from having to be restored from backups or reinstalled from scratch.

You are following a path to disaster...
Mixing repos will crash unless you have a full understanding of dependencies and inter-relationships. It's not a question of if you'll have a disaster, just a question of when.

Than you Jay and manyroads!
Have you checked the SalentOS repo? (http://repository.salentos.it) it just contain an openbox theme and some tools to customize it. I can be wrong but I don't think they can break my system...

As we said SalentOS and MX are both based on Debian Stretch: I believe some SalentOS packages can't work on MX because the location or the name of some configuration files can be different between the 2 distro. Is it correct?

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apt policy <package>

doesn't show it as available, then something beyond the ordinary is going on with their version.

I'll use this command and let you know, I'm curious

You should instead ask if those Openbox themes can be ported to MX for you.

To request new or updated software packages be added to the MX Repositories, please read these instructions. then post your request here.

I didn't tought about it! Yes, I'll request these packages!
Anyway i would like to learn how to port them to MX! Can I learn this in some way?? (Probably in the future I'll want to add packages from other sources too)

You don't need a foreign package for Openbox themes. With obconf you can set themes and import new themes from https://www.box-look.org/browse/cat/140/ as well.

Thanks, I'll try it

[Stevo]

Themes are pretty simple to port because they don't need to be compiled.

For compiled packages, we recommend a pbuilder deal that is a little tricky to set up, but is really neat and flexible once you do have it working. Some packages won't build on pbuilder, but will on sbuild, like Pale Moon, so I have to use that for those builds. Sbuilder is easier to set up, but a little tricker to use. And a few packages won't build on either, and I have to use virtual machine installs for those.

[JayM]

There's your problem. MX isn't Salent even if they're both based on Stretch, so Salent's packages don't work in MX.

Meanwhile, remove that Salient repo you added

If you're lucky and can do this before anything was updated you may be able to save your MX installation from having to be restored from backups or reinstalled from scratch.

You are following a path to disaster...
Mixing repos will crash unless you have a full understanding of dependencies and inter-relationships. It's not a question of if you'll have a disaster, just a question of when.

Than you Jay and manyroads!
Have you checked the SalentOS repo? (http://repository.salentos.it) it just contain an openbox theme and some tools to customize it. I can be wrong but I don't think they can break my system...

If that's all that was in Salent's repo it wouldn't have broken apt on your system as it did.

Maybe you could just identify the particular themes that you like then do a web search for them and download them as archives (.zip, .tar.gz, etc.) and install them into the .themes directory in your home directory instead of trying to install their .deb packages or adding Salent's repository like a PPA (Remember the default forum avatar? "NO PPAS!")

[Stevo]

I get the feeling you may have added the older Ubuntu-compatible Salent OS repository. Can you show us the exact instructions you used to add the repo, or what "inxi -r" reported when it's added to your system?

[asqwerth]

Ah ha, now I recall that Salent used to be Ubuntu based.

Stevo may have hit on the issue.