• Bug#1105811: Fwd: Bug#1105811: AMD64: Unavailable to upgrade without li

    From Helmut Grohne@21:1/5 to Santiago Vila on Thu May 15 17:40:01 2025
    Hi Santiago,

    On Thu, May 15, 2025 at 09:04:33AM +0200, Santiago Vila wrote:
    Hi. I received this from the BTS.

    Not sure if there is anything we can do about it.

    Thank you for forwarding.

    Hello Ohta,

    While upgrade base-files to this version from 13.7 without x32 supporting
    (uninstall or drop x32 arch supporting), fail to install with below message:

    --- BEGIN QUOTE --- ******************************************************************************
    *
    * The base-files package cannot be installed because
    * /libx32 is a dangling symbolic link.
    *
    * This is an unexpected situation. Cannot proceed with the upgrade.
    *
    * For more information please read https://wiki.debian.org/UsrMerge.
    * ******************************************************************************
    --- END QUOTE ---

    So, I mkdir dummy /usr/libx32 and make symlink as /libx32.
    Then, retry to upgrade base-file to 13.8, it succeeded.

    I'm glad that the current message was sufficient to let you figure a workaround. Before jumping to any conclusions, I'd like to better
    understand the situation and whether it is a common one. Do you happen
    to have backups of the system in questions?

    * Where did /libx32 point before the upgrade?
    * Do you have any :x32 or -x32 packages installed before or after the
    upgrade? Which packages and versions precisely?

    I attempted a few related upgrades and was unsuccessful reproducing your failure thus far. In particular, libc6-x32 is the only :amd64 package
    that installs below /libx32 and installing/removing it correctly takes
    care of /libx32 in bookworm. Once upgraded to trixie, libc6-x32
    installs to /usr/libx32 and base-files handles presence/absence of
    /libx32.

    In theory, we could handle the situation by deleting such a dangling
    link, but that comes with a risk of breaking things. Hence, the current strategy is giving up and letting the user sort it out.

    Helmut

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