[Bug 304192] [NEW] Uninstalling galeon and galeon-common breaks x-www-browser and gnome-www-browser alteratives

[Steve Beattie]

Public bug reported:

Binary package hint: galeon

The galeon package provides the /usr/bin/galeon binary; however, the
update-alternative invocations for x-www-browser and gnome-www-browser
are handled by the pre/post scripts in the galeon-common package. This
causes the alternatives configuration to get broken for x-www-browser
and gnome-www-browser if the galeon package gets uninstalled before the
galeon-common package or if only the galeon package is uninstalled.

The update-alternatives management steps should be moved to the pre/post
steps of the galeon package, not galeon-common, since that is where the
binary is provided.

Example on intrepid (though the problem exists on hardy as well; I
haven't checked jaunty yet, but it seems a safe assumption that the
problem exists there as well):

alternatives configuration before installing galeon:

  $ update-alternatives --display x-www-browser
  x-www-browser - status is auto.
   link currently points to /usr/bin/firefox-3.0
  /usr/bin/firefox-3.0 - priority 40
  Current `best' version is /usr/bin/firefox-3.0.

  $ update-alternatives --display gnome-www-browser
  No alternatives for gnome-www-browser.

  $ ls -l /etc/alternatives/{x,gnome}-www-browser
  ls: cannot access /etc/alternatives/gnome-www-browser: No such file or directory
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 2008-11-26 21:13 /etc/alternatives/x-www-browser -> /usr/bin/firefox-3.0

alternatives configuration after installing galeon and galeon-common:

  $ update-alternatives --display x-www-browser
  x-www-browser - status is auto.
   link currently points to /usr/bin/galeon
  /usr/bin/firefox-3.0 - priority 40
  /usr/bin/galeon - priority 120
   slave x-www-browser.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/galeon.1.gz
  Current `best' version is /usr/bin/galeon.

  $ update-alternatives --display gnome-www-browser
  gnome-www-browser - status is auto.
   link currently points to /usr/bin/galeon
  /usr/bin/galeon - priority 120
   slave gnome-www-browser.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/galeon.1.gz
  Current `best' version is /usr/bin/galeon.

alternatives configuration after removing just the galeon package; note
that the alternatives symlinks are dangling here:

  $ update-alternatives --display x-www-browser
  x-www-browser - status is auto.
   link currently points to /usr/bin/galeon
  /usr/bin/firefox-3.0 - priority 40
  Current `best' version is /usr/bin/firefox-3.0.

  $ update-alternatives --display gnome-www-browser
  gnome-www-browser - status is auto.
   link currently points to /usr/bin/galeon
  No versions available.

  $ ls -l /etc/alternatives/{x,gnome}-www-browser
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 2008-12-01 17:25 /etc/alternatives/gnome-www-browser -> /usr/bin/galeon
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 2008-12-01 17:25 /etc/alternatives/x-www-browser -> /usr/bin/galeon

And finally the alternatives configuration after uninstalling galeon-
common; note that because update-alternatives was told in galeon-
common's preun to remove a binary that doesn't exist, it converted the
configurations from 'auto' to 'manual':

  $ update-alternatives --display x-www-browser
  x-www-browser - status is manual.
   link currently points to /usr/bin/galeon
  /usr/bin/firefox-3.0 - priority 40
  Current `best' version is /usr/bin/firefox-3.0.

  $ update-alternatives --display gnome-www-browser
  gnome-www-browser - status is manual.
   link currently points to /usr/bin/galeon
  No versions available.

And of course the symlinks are still dangling to nowhere.

(For a workaround to get the alternatives configuration back under
update-alternatives control, run "sudo update-alternatives --auto x-www-
browser ; sudo update-alternatives --auto gnome-www-browser")

** Affects: galeon (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

-- 
Uninstalling galeon and galeon-common breaks x-www-browser and gnome-www-browser alteratives
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/304192
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