[Bug 1320267] [NEW] pkgProblemResolver logs cryptic, unactionable errors

[Lupius]

Public bug reported:

I've been having trouble upgrading Ubuntu 13.10 to 14.04 due to broken
dependencies reported by pkgProblemResolver. Researched all over the
internet for a definitive solution and could not find any. The most
commonly offered solutions are of drastic measures such as removing 3rd
party PPAs, blindly remove *possible* offending packages, manually
changing Ubuntu PPAs to the newer release channel, or even a clean
install from an ISO.

I could not for the life of me find any documentation that actually
explains what is being logged by pkgProblemResolver. For example take
the following block:

Broken libclutter-1.0-0:amd64 Breaks on libcogl12 [ amd64 ] < 1.14.0-2 > ( libs )
  Considering libcogl12:amd64 55 as a solution to libclutter-1.0-0:amd64 52
  MarkKeep libclutter-1.0-0 [ amd64 ] < 1.14.4-3 -> 1.16.4-0ubuntu2 > ( libs ) FU=0
  Holding Back libclutter-1.0-0:amd64 rather than change libcogl12:amd64

I'm a senior software engineer with 4+ years experience of using Ubuntu
as a dev environement, and this error log is complete gibberish to me. I
want to understand exactly how the dependency is broken in the first
place and how the resolution logic arrived at MarkKeep, so that I can
have a systematic approach for addressing these errors without resorting
to any of the earlier mentioned drastic measures.

** Affects: ubuntu-release-upgrader (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

** Package changed: unity-greeter (Ubuntu) => ubuntu-release-upgrader
(Ubuntu)

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1320267

Title:
  pkgProblemResolver logs cryptic, unactionable errors

Status in “ubuntu-release-upgrader” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  I've been having trouble upgrading Ubuntu 13.10 to 14.04 due to broken
  dependencies reported by pkgProblemResolver. Researched all over the
  internet for a definitive solution and could not find any. The most
  commonly offered solutions are of drastic measures such as removing
  3rd party PPAs, blindly remove *possible* offending packages, manually
  changing Ubuntu PPAs to the newer release channel, or even a clean
  install from an ISO.

  I could not for the life of me find any documentation that actually
  explains what is being logged by pkgProblemResolver. For example take
  the following block:

  Broken libclutter-1.0-0:amd64 Breaks on libcogl12 [ amd64 ] < 1.14.0-2 > ( libs )
    Considering libcogl12:amd64 55 as a solution to libclutter-1.0-0:amd64 52
    MarkKeep libclutter-1.0-0 [ amd64 ] < 1.14.4-3 -> 1.16.4-0ubuntu2 > ( libs ) FU=0
    Holding Back libclutter-1.0-0:amd64 rather than change libcogl12:amd64

  I'm a senior software engineer with 4+ years experience of using
  Ubuntu as a dev environement, and this error log is complete gibberish
  to me. I want to understand exactly how the dependency is broken in
  the first place and how the resolution logic arrived at MarkKeep, so
  that I can have a systematic approach for addressing these errors
  without resorting to any of the earlier mentioned drastic measures.

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