But, this is way too frustrating to deal with and it seems the devs don't really care all that much.
I've been visiting this forum regularly since many years ago. Rarely or maybe no one ever reported it.
What do you mean? People are reporting problems with installing Lazarus to Ubuntu and related distros almost weekly.
dfergfla however barks up a wrong tree now. The complaints should go to devs of the problematic Linux distros, not to devs of Lazarus.
As I have written earlier, use Manjaro and the installation problems go away.
Rolling distributions are a clear step forward in the evolution. Manjaro is now the number one in the popularity list of DistroWatch, by a wide margin and for a reason.
I don't understand why dfergfla and others want to bang their heads with Ubuntu again and again after all those problems they face.
dfergfla, you even reinstalled the whole OS again! If you are ready to do that, why don't you install a better distro at the same go?
And yes, I agree with Marco's Rule 1: avoid .debs
If you must use Debian, Ubuntu or some of their derivatives, then install FPC using their simple install script which works always in any distro.
Then get Lazarus sources from Subversion and compile with "make".
Super easy and no hassle.
I am now seriously suggesting that we drop support for installing FPC/Lazarus on those problematic distros. I guess it means all distros related to Debian and Ubuntu.
There would be a sticky forum post telling to either use a better distro or then install by the script + compiling from SVN sources.
If somebody still wants to struggle with .deps, it is perfectly OK but he is on his own. He can go ask support from Ubuntu etc. sites but not from here.
The current situation is just silly. It does not benefit anybody. It only adds frustration and sucks energy. And for some reason Lazarus developers get the blame. WTF!
Now everybody who gives support for installing .dep packages, practically encourages using those poor distros making the situation worse.