install yesod with stackage failed

environment:

ubuntu14.04

haskell platform 2014 2.0.0 (ghc 7.8.3,cabal 1.18.13)

stackage:Stackage build for GHC 7.8 + Haskell Platform, 2014-09-24, exclusive

according to http://www.yesodweb.com/page/quickstart , I ran:

dsu@dsu-G41MT-D3:~$ cabal install alex happy yesod-bin
Resolving dependencies...
Configuring ansi-terminal-0.6.1.1...
Configuring alex-3.1.3...
Downloading unix-time-0.3.4...
Failed to install ansi-terminal-0.6.1.1
Last 10 lines of the build log ( /home/dsu/.cabal/logs/ansi-terminal-0.6.1.1.log ):
Configuring asn1-types-0.2.3...
Configuring auto-update-0.1.1.3...
Failed to install alex-3.1.3
Last 10 lines of the build log ( /home/dsu/.cabal/logs/alex-3.1.3.log ):
Failed to install asn1-types-0.2.3
Configuring base-unicode-symbols-0.2.2.4...
Last 10 lines of the build log ( /home/dsu/.cabal/logs/asn1-types-0.2.3.log ):
Failed to install auto-update-0.1.1.3
Last 10 lines of the build log ( /home/dsu/.cabal/logs/auto-update-0.1.1.3.log ):
Configuring base64-bytestring-1.0.0.1...
Configuring blaze-builder-0.3.3.4...
Failed to install base-unicode-symbols-0.2.2.4
Last 10 lines of the build log ( /home/dsu/.cabal/logs/base-unicode-symbols-0.2.2.4.log ):
Failed to install unix-time-0.3.4
Last 10 lines of the build log ( /home/dsu/.cabal/logs/unix-time-0.3.4.log ):
cabal: /home/dsu/.cabal/logs/unix-time-0.3.4.log: does not exist

It simply says "fail to install" and give no any hints.Why use of stackage still has these problems?

Solution

This generic cabal debugging advice usually finds the problem....

Update the cabal database, try again

cabal update
cabal install ....

Try to install the dependency with the problem separately.... Looking above, it seems I see a few lines that start with "Failed to install....", test these separately.

cabal install base-unicode-symbols

Recurse if necessary.

Download the package that fails,

cabal unpack base-unicode-symbols
cd base-unicode-symbols-*

Configure to see if its dependencies are all loaded

cabal configure

If not, recurse into the troubled package.

Try to build the package

cabal build

If it doesn't work, you now have useful error messages. If you can fix the problem, great, else repost the information here.

Install

cabal install

In more drastic cases, you might want to delete (actually, just move it in case you want it back) your ~/.cabal/* contents, or your ~/.ghc/* contents, but leave this as a last resort, because you will have to reinstall all cabal packages. Also, you might want to keep the contents of ~/.cabal/bin/*.