[Pkg-mozext-maintainers] Bug#982758: webext-browserpass: Failed to install on upgrade to bullseye

[Axel Beckert]

Hi Michael,

Michael Meskes wrote:
> I'm with Daniel on this one as I cannot reproduce it either:
> 
> Preparing to unpack .../webext-browserpass_3.7.2-1+b1_amd64.deb ...
> Unpacking webext-browserpass (3.7.2-1+b1) over (2.0.22-2) ...

Indeed. Using a clean Sid chroot, installing webext-browserpass from
Buster and then upgrading does not exhibit this issue.

Nevertheless IIRC I ran into it when upgrading a (production) Thinkpad
from Buster to Bullseye, i.e. no other versions of webext-browserpass
than those from Buster and Bullseye were involved.

There were though a quite few other webext-* packages involved on that
dist-upgrade. Those are now installed now on bullseye and contain the common directories involved in that symlink/directory switch:

# dpkg -S /usr/share/chromium/extensions /usr/share/mozilla/extensions
webext-browserpass, webext-ublock-origin-chromium, webext-bulk-media-downloader, webext-privacy-badger, webext-https-everywhere: /usr/share/chromium/extensions
webext-browserpass, webext-ublock-origin-firefox, webext-treestyletab, webext-bulk-media-downloader, webext-form-history-control, webext-privacy-badger, webext-https-everywhere, webext-noscript, webext-debianbuttons, firefox-esr, webext-umatrix: /usr/share/mozilla/extensions

> Something fishy is going on here. I'm not sure how to find out what
> though if I cannot reproduce it. Also I wonder if removing the
> package from testing is helpful or even correct in such a case.

Good question. My gut feeling at least says that the RC severity is
justified as quite some people ran into it and it actually causes apt
to abort in a quite nasty way.

> Anyway, any idea how to find out what's going on and what is
> different on your systems?

Currently not, unfortunately, as I don't have further ideas where to
look for.

I currently suspect a relation to respectively overlap with a similar
symlink/directory switch of maybe one of the directories mentioned
above.

> For instance I tried on a sid system where I install the old
> browserpass package.

(It also seems important to not just remove but really purge the
current package in case it was installed befotrehand. But I assume you
either did that or used a fresh install.)

> Did everyone with the error see it on a dist-upgrade only?

In my case yes. I have it installed on multiple sid boxes and it
didn't occur on any of them (which are upgraded in a rolling release
fashion).

Will soonish upgrade another productive Buster desktop to Bullseye
where webext-browserpass is installed. Will have a close eye on the
moment when upgrading webext-browserpass respectively will upgrade
that package in a separate package upgrade from the remainder.

		Regards, Axel
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