Bug#961393: pulseaudio,elogind: Can't install both

[Mark Hindley]

Matti,

Thanks for this.

Certainly pulseaudio does work with elogind. libelogind0 provides libsystemd0 so
the dependencies do work:

> dpkg -l|egrep 'pulse|logind'
ii  elogind                              241.3-1+debian3                      amd64        user, seat and session management daemon
ii  libelogind0:amd64                    241.3-1+debian3                      amd64        user, seat and session management library
ii  libpam-elogind:amd64                 241.3-1+debian3                      amd64        elogind PAM module
ii  libpam-elogind-compat:amd64          1.3                                  amd64        Compatibility package for testing integration of libpam-elogind into Debian
ii  libpulse-mainloop-glib0:amd64        13.0-5                               amd64        PulseAudio client libraries (glib support)
ii  libpulse0:amd64                      13.0-5                               amd64        PulseAudio client libraries
ii  libpulsedsp:amd64                    13.0-5                               amd64        PulseAudio OSS pre-load library
ii  pulseaudio                           13.0-5                               amd64        PulseAudio sound server
ii  pulseaudio-utils                     13.0-5                               amd64        Command line tools for the PulseAudio sound server
ii  xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin:amd64        0.4.3-1                              amd64        Xfce4 panel plugin to control pulseaudio

On Sun, May 24, 2020 at 04:16:27AM +0200, Matti Palmström wrote:
>    Package: pulseaudio,elogind
>    Severity: important
>    Version: pulseaudio/13.0-5 elogind/241.3-1+debian3
>    Heya
>    I was gonna try to install elogind but then aptitude (and apt) wants to
>    uninstall a lot.

However, what I think you are describing here is that is somewhat painful to
change an existing systemd system over to another init + elogind.
That is because of the depdendency of libpam-systemd on systemd-sysv: when you
change away from systemd as init it takes most of the desktop components away
with it.  Once an alternative init + libpam-elogind is installed those
components (including puleseaudio and, I think, wine) will be installable
again.

I have already opened a bug about this with a proposed fix. See #935304. However
it is currently closed as wontfix.

I do have other workarounds to avoid having to remove and reinstall many desktop
components, but they are hacks that involve hand editing the dependencies in
/var/lib/dpkg/status and can't be recommended as any sort of solution.

So, if you are brave, do try elogind. Be assured that the dependencies will be
resolved and you will be able to reinstall pulseaudio.

If you confirm my analysis of your issue, #935304 should probably be reopened
and this merged into it.

Thanks

Mark