[Bug 934371] Re: Unresolvable problem message does not help users and results in less useful bug reports

[Brian Murray]

Users who have a package in the removal blacklist:

LP: #1245037/VarLogDistupgradeMainlog.txt:2013-10-26 13:40:53,234 ERROR
Dist-upgrade failed: 'The package 'postgresql-8.4' is marked for removal
buLP: #1245037/VarLogDistupgradeMainlog.txt:2013-10-26 13:40:53,234
ERROR Dist-upgrade failed: 'The package 'postgresql-8.4' is marked for
removal but it is in the removal blacklist.'

Will also see this same error message which actually doesn't fall into
any of the conditions listed.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/934371

Title:
  Unresolvable problem message does not help users and results in less
  useful bug reports

Status in “ubuntu-release-upgrader” package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged
Status in “update-manager” package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  In UpdateManager/UpdateManager.py the following code exists:

      except SystemError, e:
          msg = ("<big><b>%s</b></big>\n\n%s\n'%s'" %
                 (_("Could not calculate the upgrade"),
                  _("An unresolvable problem occurred while "
                    "calculating the upgrade.\n\n"
                    "Please report this bug against the 'update-manager' "
                    "package and include the following error message:"),
                  e)
                 )

  The upgrade may not be calculated for a couple of reasons.  As an
  example we have:

  E:Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breaks, this may be
  caused by held packages.

   This can be caused by:
   * Upgrading to a pre-release version of Ubuntu
   * Running the current pre-release version of Ubuntu
   * Unofficial software packages not provided by Ubuntu

  update-manager knows, or should know, if you are upgrading to a pre-
  release or running one and should notify the user to try again as this
  may be due to archive inconsistencies rather than having them file a
  bug right away.

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