[UNMETDEPS] libboost-mpi-dev has unmet dependencies in Lucid

I can confirm.

$ sudo apt-get install libboost-mpi-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:
   libboost-mpi-dev: Depends : libboost-mpi1.40-dev but it is not installable
E: Broken packages

Can I reflag that libboost-mpi1.41-dev is missing as well even though it is not depended on by another package. Lucid is going out with Boost 1.40 as the default but Boost 1.41 is included as well. It would be good to ensure a nice consistent set of Boost packages.

Thanks.

Still an issue with Lucid final.

I can confirm that this is an issue as well.

Here is the debdiff that deletes the mpi packages.
It also updates the liboost-all-dev packages.

As I understand it, this means that the fix is going to be to remove the mpi libraries.

In 10.10 and higher will they be included?

The fix proposed by Fabrice at #5 deletes the Boost MPI material from the distribution, which has to be the wrong solution to the problem. The correct solution is surely to add the missing packages and correct the dependency in the specification?

Ubuntu 10.10 should include a full Boost 1.43 or 1.44 if that comes out with good time for testing. I appreciate Debian only has 1.42 just now but if Ubuntu only moved up to that it would be better than the current 1.40/1.41 situation.

Hi Russel,

My patch only delete packages in boost-defaults that will always be impossible to install, as the mpi packages in boost1.40 or boost1.42 has been dropped, as stated in the changelog:
boost1.40 (1.40.0-4ubuntu1) lucid; urgency=low

  * Merge from debian testing. Remaining changes:
  * Drop libboost-mpi from the package: nothing uses this, and we don't want
    to pull all of the mpi packages into main.
...
 -- Scott Kitterman <email address hidden> Wed, 09 Dec 2009 23:55:29 -0500

My patch only put in sync boost-default with boost-1.42.

If you want the packages libboost-mpi-* to be back, please open a bug against boost1.42 package.

In the actual state, my patch is a good solution: it fixes FTBFS with packages that depends on libboost1.40-all-dev.

Fabrice

Fabrice,

Hummm... I guess I am totally confused and talking from a weak position of deep ignorance of the overall packaging.

I can happily see that the MPI stuff should not be in the default set of Boost things drawn in: Boost MPI is a specialist thing and so should be individually brought in on an as need basis. However what I thought I saw and reported was that there is an inconsistency with the packages libboost*mpi*, i.e. the packages that are specifically labelled as MPI related, in Ubuntu.

From what I can see libboost-mpi-dev is in Debian Sid and points to libboost-mpi1.42-dev.

It may be that this is just miscommunication and there is no conflict. Lucid I guess is now history and cannot be changed. Looking forward to Maverick, having libboost-mpi-dev must be considered essential referring to libboost-mpi1.42-dev or (preferably) later.

I believe that I have done what Fabrice suggested correctly. I have filed Bug #582420 against boost1.42 to include the mpi packages.

Casey,

Thanks. I guess we all switch our attention to that issue now :-)

@Russel: Ubuntu has decided to drop the MPI related packages. That's why there is no libboost-mpi1.42-dev, and that's also why libboost-mpi-dev cannot be installed in Lucid (nor in Maverick). By the way, Squeeze will be released with boost 1.42.

@casey: yes: sounds good.

Thanks,
Fabrice

fixing distribution (Maverick instead of Lucid)

Fabrice,

Ubuntu dropping MPI is a wrong decision (*) in today's increasingly multicore and parallel world. Even though Actor Model, Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP) and Dataflow are far superior models for structuring parallel applications, and there are the new partitioned global address space (PGAS) languages Chapel, X10 and Fortress, the current de facto standard in the C, C++ and Fortran worlds is MPI and OpenMP. OpenMP is supported as standard in GCC and Boost.MPI is the de facto standard for C++ use of MPI. To drop MPI means that everyone currently using Ubuntu and MPI will have to switch to Debian. If switching from Ubuntu to Debian is what the Ubuntu decision makers want Ubuntu users to do, then this is a good contributing decision.

(*) I orginally wrote "Ubuntu dropping MPI is an insanely stupid move" but that seemed like a serious understatement!

Because of the way Boost packages are built, there is not a good way to build the MPI packages in Ubuntu without pulling all of the MPI stack into Main and no one is willing to do that. The default boost version has, AFAIK, never supported MPI for this reason.

If someone can come up with a way to build the MPI and related boost binaries with the MPI build-dependencies in Universe, I'm willing to consider it (this would require a separate build as the default boost that's in main can't use them).

Hummm . . . I see that Boost 1.42 MPI appearsto be part of the Maverick PowerPC and Sparc configurations,
cf. https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/maverick/powerpc/libboost-mpi-dev/1.42.0.1 https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/maverick/sparc/libboost-mpi-python-dev/1.42.0.1 or am I misunderstanding the significance of these webpages?

Also https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/maverick/amd64?text=mpi indicates that MPI is still in the game. Is the implication that they are all going to be removed?

Hi,

there is not MPI packages from boost1.42 nor boost1.40: the packages you're seeing are just wrappers from boost-default that don't contains anything: they depends on 'non-existing' boost1.42 mpi packages.
As I said before, the mpi packages has been dropped in December from the main Boost packages.

My debdiff only put in phase boost-defaults with boost1.42. If you want to discuss the lack of mpi support in Ubuntu, bug #585420 is the right place.

Thanks,
Fabrice

OK, sorry for ranting here rather than there :-)

Would it be approrpiate to cut and paste my mini-rant and Scott's reasoned response across so that they are in the right place or is that sort of cross-posting frowned upon?

In case people get confused by the reference to Bug 585240 in #17 above, it should be Bug 582420.

Right: I misspelled the patch number.
And I think it's ok to reference this bug in the other one, with a direct link to Scottk comment: this would give an explanation why boost-mpi* package are not built.

This bug was fixed in the package boost-defaults - 1.42.0.1ubuntu1

---------------
boost-defaults (1.42.0.1ubuntu1) maverick; urgency=low

  * debian/control:
    - liboost-all-dev: deleted dependency on the libboost-mpi-dev,
      libboost-mpi-python-dev and libboost-graph-parallel-dev. This packages has
      been deleted from Ubuntu.
    - Deleted libboost-mpi-dev package to be consistent with Ubuntu boost
      package as it has been deleted from there (LP: #531973)
    - Deleted libboost-mpi-python-dev package to be consistent with Ubuntu boost
      package as it has been deleted from there.
    - Deleted libboost-graph-parallel-dev package to be consistent with Ubuntu
      boost package as it has been deleted from there.
 -- Fabrice Coutadeur <email address hidden> Tue, 18 May 2010 06:43:52 +0200