Debian package problems

[Rich Lafferty]

Below are excerpts from an email conversation I've had with someone
who encountered some interesting interactions with the Debian IMP
packages. He says he'll be contacting Ola directly, but FYI:

(I'm going to add it to the FAQ as soon as I have a moment to
understand it. If someone with commit access to the web tree
*does* use Debian and understands the stuff below right away, feel
free to fix up 5.3.8 in the admin FAQ :-)

   -Rich

----- Forwarded message from jose@iteso.mx -----
From: jose@iteso.mx
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 16:54:49 -0600 (CST)
To: faq@horde.org
Subject: admin faq sec. 5.3.8

  There is an issue with debian 2.2 (potato, espy klecker), when
  installed from the packages and configured with debconf (sort of the
  default behavior).

  If certain changes are made to /etc/imp/defaults.php3.in and
  update-imp is run, various values are taken from the original
  debconf'ed and it may trigger the 'logging out of users as they log
  in for no apparent reason' nag covered in the administrators FAQ in
  section 5.3.8, and in numerous unanswered messages in the archived
  imp lists.

  One workaround I've found is to issue 'dpkg-reconfigure imp' and
  reenter the correct values in the dialogs presented by debconf, then
  fine tune directly (if necessary) /etc/imp/defaults.php3, and
  avoiding defaults.php3.in and update-imp (debconf is messing the
  configuration big time somewhere).

  Btw, it is stated on the debconf imp dialogs that it is not a
  'perfect' or 'foolproof' installation method yet, it just tries hard
  :^), and you can always do it by hand and be 100% sure of its
  configuration.

  It would be cool if you'd add this to the faq, it would save some
  gray hair growing on debian/imp managers out there (it took me
  several hours, a php4 deinstall a php3 install, an imp reinstall and
  until I broke the backup imp system with the same 'bug', next day I
  was wake enough to fiddle with dpkg-reconfigure :).

  Jose

----- End forwarded message -----

----- Forwarded message from jose@iteso.mx -----

> Yipes. Do you know which changes get clobbered? (Keeping in mind that
> I don't use Debian.)

   I don't know exactly what it does, I'm digging in the scripts now,
but update-imp does restore the variables dbserver and dbpassword
originally configured with debconf.

   The problem reemerged on our primary imp server, even after the
dpkg-reconfigure, although on the secondary it seems to work so far,
so this 'bug' may be lurking even deeper.

   It seems the connection times out immediately (~4 seconds as the
IMP logs state), as if the session cookies were horked when
interpreted back by imp.

----- End forwarded message -----

----- Forwarded message from jose@iteso.mx -----

   I think I've kind of stumbled with the fix: the imp and horde
packages do not depend (or even suggest) on phplib. It is not
installed as part of a normal debian installation, I just installed
the phplib package and it now seems to be behaving...  go figure.

   I'll have to rewrite my bug report or at least turn it into a
direct mail to Ola (I haven't send it yet) :).

----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
------------------------------ Rich Lafferty ---------------------------
 Sysadmin/Programmer, Instructional and Information Technology Services
   Concordia University, Montreal, QC                 (514) 848-7625
------------------------- rich@alcor.concordia.ca ----------------------