[Freedombox-discuss] Unmet dependencies, "Applying updates failed".

[Jonas Smedegaard]

Quoting A. F. Cano (2020-12-16 21:52:29)
> On Wed, Dec 16, 2020 at 10:34:29AM +0100, Jonas Smedegaard wrote:
> > Quoting James Valleroy via Freedombox-discuss (2020-12-16 03:50:50)
> > > On 12/14/20 6:00 PM, A. F. Cano wrote:
> > > > But the problem after all these packages got installed is that  there
> > > > are still unmet dependencies.  From cockpit->software updates:
> > > > 
> > > > The following packages have unmet dependencies:
> > > >   php-common: Breaks: php7.3-common but 7.3.15-3 is to be installed
> > > >   libgc1: Conflicts: libgc1c2 but 1:7.6.4-0.4 is to be installed
> > > >   fuse3: Breaks: fuse
> > > >   libgcc1: Depends: gcc-10-base (= 10.1.0-1) but 10.2.0-19 is to be installed
> > > >   python3-django: Breaks: python-django-common
> > > >   libmailutils5: Depends: mailutils-common (= 1:3.5-3) but 1:3.10-3 is to be installed
> > > >   libgc1c2: Conflicts: libgc1 but 1:8.0.4-3 is to be installed

In above, *all* those packages should be flagged as auto-installed - 
because none of them are used directly, only as dependencies of 
something more concrete.


> > > The manual solution is to try upgrading just one of the listed 
> > > packages (with "apt install <package>"), and see if that would 
> > > lead to any important packages (freedombox, apps) being removed. 
> > > If it would remove an important package, then you can cancel the 
> > > upgrade. It may remove some non-important or obsolete packages, 
> > > such as python2 packages, and that is ok.

python2 is not used directly on a FreedomBox: a FreedomBox user never 
types "python" or "python2" on the commandline!

Instead, python2 is (or was in Buster, gone in Bullseye) used indirectly 
by python libraries, which are used indirectly by daemons or other 
tools, some of them depending on each other and others explicitly 
installed.


> > Sounds like the underlying issue for this is packages wrongly marked as 
> > manually installed - check with this command:
> > 
> >   apt-mark showmanual
> 
> $ apt-mark showmanual | wc -l
> 217

My guess is you can get it down to 20 or less - a linux kernel and the 
freedombox package and maybe nothing else.


> > If you find that packages you didn't explicitly install yourself 
> > gets marked as manually installed, then see bug#742977 and consider 
> > contributing to that bugreport.
> 
> I wouldn't know where to start since I really don't know how the apt
> system works internally,

If you are not familiar with apt and reading the man page of e.g. 
apt-mark, then maybe it is not you but someone else more fluent in that 
tool that should do such exploration.

Rather than start from a custom system already being poked with in 
various ways, I recommend to start from a fresh install of FreedomBox 
and try mark as much as possible as auto-installed without anything 
getting uninstalled.

I can dearly recommend to use aptitude in fullscreen mode for such 
exploration.


 - Jonas

-- 
 * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt
 * Tlf.: +45 40843136  Website: http://dr.jones.dk/

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