Cannot install QGIS 2.18 from repository on Debian Stretch; package "gdal-abi-2-1-1" not installable

Question

I've been using QGIS from the repository (http://qgis.org/debian/ stretch main). I tried to do an update today (it had been a while) but it could not be updated because qgis : Depends: gdal-abi-2-1-1 but it is not installable.

I uninstalled QGIS, switched the repository to http://qgis.org/debian-nightly-release/, and tried to reinstall, but it gave me the same error.

 qgis : Depends: gdal-abi-2-1-1 but it is not installable
        Depends: libqgis-analysis2.18.0 but it is not going to be installed
        Depends: libqgis-app2.18.0 but it is not going to be installed
        Depends: python-qgis (= 1:2.18.0+git20161104+b23e29f+14stretch) but it is not going to be installed
        Recommends: qgis-plugin-globe but it is not going to be installed
        Recommends: qgis-plugin-grass but it is not going to be installed
        Recommends: qgis-provider-grass but it is not going to be installed

A bit of searching shows that this package is available in sid, but not stretch.

Answer 1

With gdal-abi-2-1-2 being just a virtual package of libgdal20, I circumvented the problem by creating a fake gdal-abi-2-1-2 package using equivs-build with the following control file:

Section: misc
Priority: optional
Standards-Version: 3.9.2

Package: gdal-abi-2-1-2
Version: 2.1.2
Depends: libgdal20
Description: fake package for qgis which needs a gdal-abi-2-1-2

Save the code above as gdal-abi.control, make a fake package with equivs-build gdal-abi.control , then install the resulting deb package.

Now, sudo apt install qgis qgis-plugin-grass should work.

Answer 2

Nice! I have ubuntu 14-04 and now I have a problem with the sama package in order to install the latest version of QGIS 2.18.14.

I solved installing equivs-build package

sudo apt-get install equivs

creating a text file (gdal_abi.txt) with the following text:

Section: misc
Priority: optional
Standards-Version: 3.9.2

Package: gdal-abi-2-1-0
Version: 2.1.0
Depends: libgdal20
Description: fake package for qgis which needs a gdal-abi-2-1-0

and finally I launch:

sudo equivs-build gdal_abi.txt

in order to create the fake deb. Then I install the fake deb file (e.g. dkpg -i ...) and then I can install the latest version of QGIS!

Answer 3

Debian testing and sid are always likely to have broken packages, because one software (qgis) is not packaged at the same time as another software (gdal).

GDAL has been updated from 2.1.1 to 2.1.2, but the QGIS packages at qgis.org/debian not yet. Most probably you have to wait until QGIS 2.18.1 is released.

Before updating, have a look at https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/qgis and https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gdal to see what is available. By now, GDAL 2.1.1 has been replaced for sid as well.

In the meantime, you can install QGIS 2.14.8 from the main debian repo (without any package from qgis.org/debian)

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UPDATE 2016-11-28

QGIS 2.18.1 is out now, and the qgis.org/debian stretch distro package is compiled against GDAL 2.1.2. So it should work now with the main debian repo.