[Bug 2106202] Re: Kubuntu 24.10 do-release-upgrade and Steam (or other) dependencies installed produces not booting desktop
Julian Andres Klode
2106202 at bugs.launchpad.net
Thu Apr 24 15:18:17 UTC 2025
** Tags removed: rls-pp-incoming
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2106202
Title:
Kubuntu 24.10 do-release-upgrade and Steam (or other) dependencies
installed produces not booting desktop
Status in ubuntu-release-upgrader package in Ubuntu:
Confirmed
Status in ubuntu-release-upgrader source package in Plucky:
In Progress
Bug description:
[Impact]
Having libc6:i386 installed, which happens when e.g Steam is
installed, can cause an upgrade calculation that removes the desktop
environment, despite it being in the removal denylist.
[Test Plan]
Create a VM running Kubuntu 24.10. Then, install steam, and try an
upgrade.
$ dpkg --add-architecture i386
$ apt install steam
Confirm that libc6:i386 is now installed, as that is believed to be
the root cause of this bug.
Note that due to the fact that plucky is now released, but upgrades
are disabled, we cannot use the --proposed flag to test upgrades
conveniently. Instead, we need to manually download the tarball from
https://changelogs.ubuntu.com/meta-release-proposed, unpack it, and
run the script.
$ wget http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/plucky-proposed/main/dist-upgrader-all/current/plucky.tar.gz
$ tar xf plucky.tar.gz
$ sudo -E ./plucky --frontend DistUpgradeViewText
During the upgrade, when prompted about package removals, enter 'd'
for details. Confirm that are there no unexpected package removals
such as the desktop metapackage or steam.
The upgrade should complete without errors, and the VM should reboot
into plucky after the upgrade. Confirm that steam and libc6:i386 are
still installed.
[Where problems could occur]
The patch changes the condition for libc6_possible to be True, which
means that in some cases libc6 might not be upgraded first. This path
has always been possible, but this patch could expand the cases where
it happens.
1. We could regress on
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-menus/+bug/1766890
in cases where libc6 cannot be upgraded first, although we expect this
to be resolved these days by using noawait triggers in any case, so
the quirk to upgrade libc6 first should not actually be needed
anymore.
2. We could change installation ordering and cause issues due to
missing dependencies
Optimally we'd remove the step entirely but this may carry a higher
risk of regressions as it affects more systems that have had a tested
working upgrade path with libc6 first.
There is no possibility of dependency changes getting *worse*,
strictly speaking. We calculate the upgrade first and show it to the
user. If the change causes libc6 to not be upgraded first, the
resulting upgrade will be exactly what was displayed rather than
something potentially different.
[Original Description]
1. Using a clean and upgraded install of Kubuntu 24.10, install
Valve's Steam from the webesite: https://store.steampowered.com/about/
2. perform do-release-upgrade
3. Note that the "Searching for software" step will be extremely slow
(taking 1 to 1.5 hours in some tests).
4. When the install complete but before rebooting, check the status of
the kununtu-desktop package and note that it is not installed. If
system is restarted, it will not boot. Installing kubuntu-desktop
prior to rebooting will allow proper rebooting.
*** additional to original report ***
Summary of Bug comments and investigations so far:
* The bug as reported is triggered on Kubuntu 24.10 systems where the upstream Valve .deb or Ubuntu archive steam installer/launcher packages have been installed.
* It later turns out that this is not specific to the steam packages. It is just that this is likely one of the most common things that users might have installed that triggers the bug. Others might be wine32 etc (to be confirmed, but seems logical)
* Steam installs a range of i386 libraries on an amd64 system via some dependency metapackages.
* However, to replicate the bug one only has to install the package libc6:i386 on an otherwise pristine Kubuntu 24.10 install.
* The bug is triggered when the system is upgraded to 25.04 when the Ubuntu upgrader tool is used. This can be from the command line via 'do-release-upgrade', or invoking that with the commands to launch the GUI installer, or from the system tray upgrade notification dialogue.
* The bug does NOT seem to be triggered when a system is upgraded with the old fashioned switching of software sources from oracular to plucky and doing 'sudo apt-get dist-upgrade' or 'sudo apt full-upgrade'.
* This seems to be a bug related to the upgrader itself and how it treats/resolves dependencies and implements an upgrade.
* To the user the upgrader presents what seems to be a sane and sensible summary of what the upgrade will do. i.e. the number and names of packages to be upgraded, newly installed and removed, look sensible. It does not propose to remove the kubuntu-desktop, or other core plasma desktop packages etc. Just packages that one would expect due to deliberate breaks/replaces on old conflicting versions etc.
* It is only when the upgrader performs the upgrade that it diverges without warning from the proposed upgrade, and removes key desktop meta packages and other packages.
* Then subsequent clean up of 'obsolete packages' then proposes to remove even more, presumably as the packages that did depend on them were removed in the previous upgrade stage.
* As widely commented, later re-installing the kubuntu-desktop meta package should restore what was incorrectly removed via the upgrader.
*** end of additional comments ***
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 25.04
Package: ubuntu-release-upgrader-core 1:25.04.11
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.14.0-13.13-generic 6.14.0
Uname: Linux 6.14.0-13-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.32.0-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
CrashDB: ubuntu
CrashReports:
640:1000:110:175125496:2025-03-29 12:39:16.258547358 -0600:2025-03-29 12:38:59.705217907 -0600:/var/crash/_usr_bin_plasmashell.1000.crash
640:1000:110:4231423:2025-03-30 12:15:26.452457354 -0600:2025-03-30 12:15:25.246440280 -0600:/var/crash/_usr_libexec_ibus-ui-gtk3.1000.crash
CurrentDesktop: KDE
Date: Thu Apr 3 21:06:53 2025
InstallationDate: Installed on 2025-03-29 (5 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 25.04 "Plucky Puffin" - Beta amd64 (20250324.1)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: ubuntu-release-upgrader
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
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