Bug#956436: systemd-timesyncd will remove virtualbox-guest-utils

[Michael Biebl]

Am 12.04.20 um 19:40 schrieb Balint Reczey:
> Hi Michael,
> 
> On Sat, Apr 11, 2020 at 9:53 PM Michael Biebl <biebl at debian.org> wrote:
>>
>> Am 11.04.20 um 10:02 schrieb luca:
>>> Package: systemd-timesyncd
>>> Version: 245.4-3
>>> Severity: normal
>>>
>>>
>>> # apt-get -V dist-upgrade
>>> Reading package lists... Done
>>> Building dependency tree
>>> Reading state information... Done
>>> Calculating upgrade... Done
>>> The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
>>>    libnotify-bin (0.7.9-1)
>>>    libqpdf26 (9.1.1-1)
>>> Use 'apt autoremove' to remove them.
>>> The following packages will be REMOVED:
>>>    virtualbox-guest-utils (6.1.4-dfsg-4)
>>>    virtualbox-guest-x11 (6.1.4-dfsg-4)
>>
>> Balint, I guess we should drop
>> Conflicts: virtualbox-guest-utils,
>>            virtualbox-guest-utils-hwe
>> ?
> 
> Ah, yes, sorry, I did think about that, but forgot to propose the
> solution in the MR.
> 
> IMO systemd-timesyncd should be the default time-daemon but also the
> least preferred option to install, when some other installed package
> can sync the time.
> 
> I think the cleanest solution would be virtualbox source building a
> binary package that Conflicts/Provides/Replaces: time-daemon and sets
> up time synchronisation with the host (
> https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch09.html#changetimesync )

Nod, I think that package actually is virtualbox-guest-utils?

> If this solution is not viable, then I think the second best option is
> considering virtualbox-guest-utils as a time-daemon alternative:
> 
> AFAIK when virtualbox-guest-utils* is installed the guest's clock can
> be considered to be synchronised to the host and hopefully
> transitively to a reasonably good source, so I propose changing
> systemd instead to depend on systemd-timesyncd | time-daemon |
> virtualbox-guest-utils | virtualbox-guest-utils-hwe.  This solution
> has the disadvantage of not being able to install systemd-timesyncd
> when virtualbox-guest-utils is present, but should not sync time with
> the host. IMO this is not a huge problem, since other time-daemon-s
> can still be installed such as chrony, so the guest can still have
> accurate time, just not with systemd-timesyncd.

I would prefer not to add virtualbox-guest-utils* as an alternative
Depends.

> Cheers,
> Balint
> 
> PS: virtualbox-guest-utils is in contrib, but per #681419 it can still
> be used as an alternate dependency.

I guess I'll drop the conflicts and clone/reassign this bug report to
virtualbox and leave it up to them to decide if it should be possible to
install an NTP client alongside virtualbox-guest-utils* or not (and if
the latter, to add a C/R/P: time-daemon)

Regards,
Michael