[Lazarus] That pesky LazarusPackageIntf

[David Emerson]

I have had this problem on several different occasions now, and each time it 
seems to cost me an hour -- sometimes many -- of banging my head against a 
wall. Despite my repeated attempts to discover a consistent way to resolve it, 
it remains elusive. The problem is this:

/Docs/fpc/saralatools/Extras/sarala_tools.pas(1,1) Fatal: Can't find unit 
LazarusPackageIntf used by sarala_tools

The best part, of course, is that I don't think my sarala_tools package ought to 
be using "LazarusPackageIntf" at all. The fpgui_toolkit package does not list 
it as a requirement, and that package file works fine (in fact I use it as a 
requirement). So I go and delete LazarusPackageIntf from the "uses" list. But 
when I try to compile the package file, Lazarus PUTS THE REQUIREMENT BACK IN! 
And then it cannot find the thing it put in! Totally absurd!

Aside from the question of what did I do to make it want this requirement, my 
real question is how on earth can I consistently resolve this issue?

It seems to pop up at some point after upgrading lazarus (I upgraded to the 
0.9.29 fixes branch from the ubuntu repo roday). But the problem did not 
surface for a few hours after that. Then all of a sudden the problem appeared, 
and that means I cannot compile my project at all. Productive work grinds to a 
complete halt for an hour and a half, while I pull my hair out trying to figure 
out how to make the thing work again: by reinstalling, removing my ~/.lazarus 
folder, checking paths in /etc/fpc.cfg, whatever nonsense thing might somehow 
be related. And then, after I do something which I've already done 4 times 
before, seemingly by magic, it just starts working again.

Does anybody know what is behind this?

thanks -- sorry for being ranty -- hopefully it was at least a little bit fun to 
read!
~David.