Update from 3.4.0.22 to 3.4.0.24 urges user to remove system packages

[nthn]

REPRODUCIBILITY (% or how often): random?
BUILD ID = OS VERSION (Settings > About product): 3.4.0.22
HARDWARE (Jolla1, Tablet, XA2,…): any
UI LANGUAGE: any
REGRESSION: (compared to previous public release: Yes, No, ?): yes

DESCRIPTION:

Trying to install the update from 3.4.0.22 to 3.4.0.24 via the System Settings, the update page warns the user about several packages, and says they must be removed to install the update.
I updated the Jolla 1 and Jolla Tablet, and both warned about different packages (despite mostly the same software being installed on both systems) - among them were things like libjpeg or opus. Another user even had it complain about gnupg2: [release notes] Pallas-Yllästunturi 3.4.0.
It seems there is some filter going havoc, because actually uninstalling some of these packages would cause a lot of trouble.

Despite the big warning, the pulley menu still allows the user to install the update, and it installs just fine.

[abranson]

After problems with the previous release where third-party packages were causing upgrades to fail, we’ve added a check into the upgrade download sequence to try to ensure that no packages are going to be involved in the upgrade that can’t be verified as coming from the previous release. For a package to be involved, it must be either intended to be upgraded or uninstalled as part of the upgrade, so ordinary apps from the store should not be affected. The involved package name and version is checked against the previous release, and if it’s not found or differs in version then it will be listed in that warning.

As it’ll show packages that exist in the system but aren’t the same versions, the text might be better understood as ‘Uninstall or revert to system versions’. Even this can be misleading, as if the current SSU sailfish version has been changed and the repositories refreshed manually then installed packages will no longer correspond to the repository version and so will be flagged.

Later on we may be able to add additional metadata to verify package origins more accurately, at which point it may even be reliable enough to block the upgrade until the package state is sorted out. For now though it’ll stay as only a warning, which will hopefully help casual openrepos users avoid failing upgrades and non-booting devices.

Note: you can find the list of package reported in ~/.cache/sailfish-osupdateservice/osinfo if you want to copy/paste it

[JoOppen]

I did not receive any of these messages while updating 7 devices (again) from 3.4.0.22 to 3.4.0.24. While some of them now have a long life (the tablet, for instance) without any reset I guess my devices must still be pretty “clean” although I have installed (and removed) many apps meanwhile, a good share of it from open repos.

Therefore I beleive the notice must refer to some particular packages from open repos or other sources as @abranson suggests.

[nthn]

Thanks for the detailed explanation! Unfortunately the list is empty now (I presume it got wiped after the update), but if it happens again I’ll make a copy. I’m sure some of those packages were probably replaced at some point with versions from OpenRepos (e.g. the libjpeg packages from lpr’s repo), so that’s probably the case for the other packages as well.

Perhaps you could add an info bubble to the warning message that, when tapped, explains that the versions of those packages don’t match their expected versions, and could therefore cause problems with the update.

By the way, is there an easy “revert to system version” command?

[mortenbo]

No update is available for me when I look? Has the GPS issue with XA2 been fixed with this update?

[ljo]

I got the warning for telepathy-gabble-plus installed from openrepos on one of my devices. It was though not possible to remove it from storeman due to the library version not available anymore. So for an ordinary user this could be a showstopper. But in general I think the warnings are a good step forward in providing insights.

[nthn]

@mortenbo

No update is available for me when I look?

It’s only available for Early Access yet.

[Kea]

The update on.my XA2plus went smooth and without warnings. I have Storeman and several apps from openrepos.
Unfortunately nothing has changed with GPS. It still doesn’t work.

[peterleinchen]

@nthn

Perhaps you could add an info bubble to the warning message that, when tapped, explains that the versions of those packages don’t match their expected versions, and could therefore cause problems with the update.

Oh, well. That would be nice instead of this confusing message!
@Jolla : just the latest confused (and multiple topic creating) user.

By the way, is there an easy “revert to system version” command?

Not sure whether @olf 's sfos-upgrade supports this. But if not, would it be worth a feature request? @olf

another request @Jolla, @vige, @jovirkku
Could we somehow make @abranson 's post sticky or copy it into a new topic?

[olf]

@peterleinchen

Oh, well. That would be nice instead of this confusing message!
@Jolla : just the latest confused (and multiple topic creating) user.

Please discuss this (what the message may mean and what technically may happen) at the right thread for this: How to interpret "Uninstall the following ..." in the SailfishOS-updater? - #2 by olf

Please stop pointing to other threads to depict the confusion, because it just increases that confusion.

[olf]

@peterleinchen

By the way, is there an easy “revert to system version” command?

Not sure whether @olf 's sfos-upgrade supports this.

No, sfos-upgrade does currently only provide the features described in the section “usage”.

But if not, would it be worth a feature request? @olf

Well, I am currently trying to wind down my activities WRT SailfishOS, because many aspects are (either always were or have been becoming) something between unfortunate and toxic: Release quality, some community interactions, development strategy etc. etc.

OTOH it does not seem to hard to create a new option, which disables all repositories from Openrepos and runs a pkcon --allow-downgrade update, but this need testing etc. etc.
So creating a feature request as an issue at GitHub (please include a link to this conversation here) cannot do any harm. Providing a Merge Request will vastly increase the likelihood of having this implemented soon.

[peterleinchen]

@olf

Please discuss this (what the message may mean and what technically may happen) at the right thread for this: How to interpret "Uninstall the following ..." in the SailfishOS-updater? - #2 by olf

Yes. But I found the answer of @abranson here quite informative. That was reason to answer here. I should have included your link as well!

Please stop pointing to other threads to depict the confusion, because it just increases that confusion.

Makes sense and you are right, but I just wanted to make the Sailors aware of it!!!

[olf]

@peterleinchen

But I found the answer of @abranson here quite informative.

Yes, absolutely agreed that it is, hence also referencing his answer Update from 3.4.0.22 to 3.4.0.24 urges user to remove system packages - #2 by abranson there.