[Bug 1919256] Re: Upgrade failure does not provide adequate next-step info

[David R Chase]

I.e., you have an error message about foreign packages.
Great.  I don't know what they are.
I did not install them, as far as I know.

Does the upgrade process not know what they are?
Why not name them?
Looking in a log file is an EXTRA STEP FOR ME.
I COULD MAKE A MISTAKE.
I DO NOT KNOW WHAT I AM DOING.

Next, given those names, is there a process for constructing a command line for ppa-purge?
If not, what do you think the chance is that I will, by myself, be able to construct this command line?  Pretty darn low, I'd say.  I do not want to ask questions.  I do not want to join a commmunity.  I want to upgrade my OS.

So there had better be a process.  Can it be automated?
Fine, then automate it.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1919256

Title:
  Upgrade failure does not provide adequate next-step info

Status in ubuntu-release-upgrader package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  I am presented with this.

  "An unresolvable problem occurred while calculating the upgrade.

   This was likely caused by:
   * Unofficial software packages not provided by Ubuntu
  Please use the tool 'ppa-purge' from the ppa-purge 
  package to remove software from a Launchpad PPA and 
  try the upgrade again.

  If none of this applies, then please report this bug using the command
  'ubuntu-bug ubuntu-release-upgrader-core' in a terminal. If you want
  to investigate this yourself the log files in '/var/log/dist-upgrade'
  will contain details about the upgrade. Specifically, look at
  'main.log' and 'apt.log'."

  ppa-purge is a command with "mandatory options" and I do not know what
  they are, and the upgrade error message does not tell me either.
  Therefore, I am stuck.  I do not know how to find those options, etc,
  if there is a mechanical process for doing so, I think it would be
  super-excellent to, uh, mechanize the invocation of ppa-purge.  And if
  that is actually not a safe thing to do, do you think it is wise to
  hand it off to this ignorant primate instead?

  I see here that maybe I could get more information at
  http://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/ -- a little too late to put that
  here, after all the time I put into creating an account etc, if that's
  is such a great idea, PUT IT IN THE ERROR MESSAGE INSTEAD.  Each
  hurdle between me and my goal raises my blood pressure and makes me
  think snarky thoughts about Linux and its developers.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
  Package: ubuntu-release-upgrader-core 2:18.04.38 [origin: unknown]
  Uname: Linux 4.9.230-76 aarch64
  ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.23
  Architecture: arm64
  CrashDB: ubuntu
  CurrentDesktop: MATE
  Date: Mon Mar 15 21:51:47 2021
  PackageArchitecture: all
  ProcEnviron:
   TERM=xterm
   PATH=(custom, no user)
   XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: ubuntu-release-upgrader
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to bionic on 2021-03-15 (0 days ago)
  VarLogDistupgradeLspcitxt:
   
  VarLogDistupgradeTermlog:

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