Dear Group, Greetings. I've been using haskell for about a year now, though I will readily admit I still don't really know what I am doing when I get error messages. Today I decided to reset my haskell environment from scratch, avoiding the debian packages and going straight to the source. 1. Install ghc from http://www.haskell.org/ghc/download_ghc_6_12_3 Success!! ghc --version The Glorious Glasgow Haskell Compilation System, version 6.12.3 cabal update Downloading the latest package list from hackage.haskell.org 2. Next I downloaded the haskell platform and ran cabal install Problems!! cabal: Error: some packages failed to install: haskell-platform-2010.2.0.0 depends on stm-2.1.2.1 which failed to install. stm-2.1.2.1 failed during the building phase. The exception was: ExitFailure 1 3. So I tried installing stm manually, which for some unknown reason worked: runghc Setup.hs install Installing library in /usr/local/lib/stm-2.1.2.1/ghc-6.12.3 Registering stm-2.1.2.1... 4. back to the haskell-platform directory and try again: cabal install Resolving dependencies... Configuring haskell-platform-2010.2.0.0... setup: happy version ==1.18.5 is required but the version found at /usr/local/bin/happy is version 1.18.6 cabal: Error: some packages failed to install: haskell-platform-2010.2.0.0 failed during the configure step. The exception was: ExitFailure 1 5. Crap. Okay, maybe it will work with version 1.18.6 after all, so I edit the .cabal and change happy ==1.18.5 to happy >=1.18.5 -- Depending on programs does not work, they are not registered -- We list them to help distro packaging. build-tools: cabal-install ==0.8.2, alex ==2.3.3, happy >=1.18.5 -- haddock ==2.7.2 -- valid, but needs ghc-paths 6. Try again cabal install Resolving dependencies... Configuring haskell-platform-2010.2.0.0... Preprocessing library haskell-platform-2010.2.0.0... Building haskell-platform-2010.2.0.0... Registering haskell-platform-2010.2.0.0... Installing library in /usr/local/lib/haskell-platform-2010.2.0.0/ ghc-6.12.3 Registering haskell-platform-2010.2.0.0... 7. Success!! Now even though I'm not sure what I am doing, it looks like it may have worked. I'm worried, though, about the first time user who tries to go through this process. They will probably stop at the first error, when the haskell-platform fails to install. I know some of you will say use the debian packages. Well I did that, but when I tried to install snap, which is not included in the debian packages, I wound up with conflicting dependencies, and could not find a way out. I hope this dialog is helpful to whomever is in charge of the haskell platform, a wonderful resource by the way. Best wishes, Henry Laxen