Bug#1091092: Incorrect dependency on malcontent-gui

[asciiwolf at seznam.cz]

Hi Simon,

> I feel as though there's something here that you're not telling me. Why
> is this Severity: important? Is there a scenario in which the wrong thing
> happens as a result of this dependency? Even if this is an excessively
> strong dependency, we would not normally consider that to be "a bug which
> has a major effect on the usability of a package, without rendering it
> completely unusable to everyone"[1] without some sort of exacerbating
> factor.

> If I'm reading between the lines correctly, are you saying that the
> problem scenario is something like this?

> Steps to reproduce: Install GNOME. Attempt to remove malcontent-gui by
> using GNOME Software?

> Expected result: either uninstallation is prevented, or malcontent-gui
> is uninstalled but gnome-control-center remains?

> Actual result: GNOME Software attempts to remove gnome-control-center?

With all due respect, it seems you misunderstood the whole thing.

malcontent-gui (malcontent-control) used to be a core thing required by gnome-control-center and as such was not user uninstallable. This got changed in the latest malcontent release and malcontent-gui is now treated as a regular app (that is displayed in Shell Overview and is user-uninstallable in GNOME Software) since version 0.13.0. This is a problem because of it still being a core dependency of gnome-control-center in Debian.

You can try it yourself by using the "sudo pkcon remove malcontent-gui" command. Currently, uninstalling the malcontent-gui package using PackageKit or apt will also remove gnome-control-center, gnome-session and other important packages leading to a broken system. Same thing will probably also happen when an end-user will try to uninstall this app using GNOME Software after it gets updated to 0.13.0 in Debian and becomes user-uninstallable. This is not a GNOME Software or a PackageKit bug; it is an intended behavior caused by incorrect dependencies of an app that is now treated as non-system, user-uninstallable one.

Please see the following upstream links:

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/…175
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/…/48
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/…529

If you have additional questions about this and why malcontent-gui (malcontent-control) is no longer treated as a system app, you can try contacting Philip Withnall.

As an alternative, you can patch the package in Debian (after the 0.13.0 update) and re-add the "<compulsory_for_desktop>GNOME</compulsory_for_desktop>" line into its AppStream metadata file. This will prevent the malcontent-gui package from being user-uninstallable. However, I am not sure whether this is a correct approach recommended by upstream.

> The commit that elevated the Recommends to Depends[2] cited these reasons:
> Depend instead of Recommend malcontent-gui
> fixes the Apps tab being blank, see LP: #2072772 comment 5[3]

Are you sure that full malcontent-gui is needed to fix this and not only (lib)malcontent?

> Also, there's a new law requiring parental controls
> to be pre-installed for computers sold in France

Sure, it can be pre-installed. But according to upstream, malcontent-gui should be user-uninstallable.

Regards,
Daniel