Install MATE Desktop Environment for Debian on the pine64

pine64-install-mate-debian.sh

#!/bin/bash

set -e

DISTRO=""
if hash apt-get 2>/dev/null; then
	DISTRO=debian
fi

if [ -z "$DISTRO" ]; then
	echo "This script requires a Debian based Linux distribution."
	exit 1
fi

if [ "$(id -u)" -ne "0" ]; then
	echo "This script requires root."
	exit 1
fi

# Packages to install
PACKAGES=(
	xserver-xorg-video-fbturbo
	xserver-xorg-video-armsoc-sunxi
	libmali-sunxi-utgard0-r6p0
	mesa-utils-extra
	glmark2-es2
	libvdpau-sunxi1
	vdpauinfo
	aisleriot
	geany
	gnomine
	gnome-sudoku
	mplayer
	scratch
	smplayer
	smplayer-themes
	smtube
	chromium-browser
	mate-desktop-environment-core
	lightdm
)

# Install.
apt -y update
apt -y --no-install-recommends install ${PACKAGES[@]}

# Kill parport module loading, not available on arm64.
if [ -e "/etc/modules-load.d/cups-filters.conf" ]; then
	echo "" >/etc/modules-load.d/cups-filters.conf
fi

# Disable Pulseaudio timer scheduling which does not work with sndhdmi driver.
if [ -e "/etc/pulse/default.pa" ]; then
	sed -i 's/load-module module-udev-detect$/& tsched=0/g' /etc/pulse/default.pa
fi

systemctl set-default graphical.target

echo
echo "Done - Mate installed - you should reboot now."

So running revision 1 of this script on stretch-minimal-pine64-bspkernel-0.7.19-118.img.xz results in three dependency errors - chromium-browser, gnomine and glmark2-es2.

Package chromium-browser is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

Package gnomine is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
However the following packages replace it:
  gnome-mines

Package glmark2-es2 is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Package 'glmark2-es2' has no installation candidate
E: Package 'gnomine' has no installation candidate
E: Package 'chromium-browser' has no installation candidate

gnomine has been renamed to gnome-mine, and who needs a gnome minesweeper game anyway?
chromium-browser can be sorted out later, and glmark2 is just a openGL benchmark tool.

So we ignore those packages for now, and then you get this:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 xserver-xorg-video-armsoc-sunxi : Depends: xorg-video-abi-20 but it is not installable
 xserver-xorg-video-fbturbo : Depends: xorg-video-abi-20 but it is not installable
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

xserver-xorg-video-armsoc-sunxi is the dealbreaker. both it and xserver-xorg-video-fbturbo have a dependency on xorg-video-abi-20, which is a virtual packaged provided by xserver-xorg-core on ubuntu. Now, if the guys compiling the deb had specified that as the dependency, we might be be fine... but unfortunately they didn't...

jessie-minimal-pine64-0.7.19-118.img.xz appears no different, and enabling backports and testing repos doesn't doing anything useful either. It seems that xorg-video-abi-20 was a virtual package provided by a specific version of xserver-xorg-core, and the debian repos skipped that particular version. i.e xorg-video-abi was 18 in jessie, is 23 in stretch and is 18, 23 and 24 in sid. So debian skipped the magic xorg-video-abi-20 that is needed to resolve the package dependency issues.