Problem with ncurses YaST after update of libyui*

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1

Trying to figure out what’s causing this, and wonder if any others are seeing the same “problem”.

A while ago following a zypper dup that included an update of libyui8 to libyui9, ncurses YaST Software Management failed with the error: “… Couldn’t load plug-in ncurses-pkg …”

I soon discovered that “libyui-ncurses-pkg9” wasn’t installed. Once installed all was fine, didn’t really bother about it.

More recently with snapshot 20190628 there was again an update of libyui*, this time from 9 to 10. Once more ncurses YaST Software Management failed in the same manner, for the same reason, “libyui-ncurses-pkg*” was missing.

Looking through “/var/log/zypp/history” “libyui-ncurses-pkg9” had been removed:

2019-06-30 15:21:43|remove |libyui-ncurses-pkg9|2.48.9-2.4|x86_64

and “libyui-ncurses-pkg10” had not been installed.

Packaging error? Phase of the moon? “–no-recommends”?

According to “rpm” nothing actually requires or recommends that package anyway, but I don’t believe it…

paul@Orion-15:~$ rpm -q --whatrequires libyui-ncurses-pkg10
no package requires libyui-ncurses-pkg10
paul@Orion-15:~$ rpm -q --whatrecommends libyui-ncurses-pkg10
no package recommends libyui-ncurses-pkg10
paul@Orion-15:~$

I have an awful feeling the reason for this is staring me in the face … I just don’t see it :slight_smile: …

2

It was probably the “–no-recommends”.

I updated TW in a VM yesterday. There were more new packages than usual, so I looked carefully. And many were “libyui-ncurses” packages.

But then I don’t use “–no-recommends”.

3

Yeah… That’s the way I leaning towards, but was unsure as the missing package effectively breaks the Software Management module, so I would expect it to have been a requires rather than recommends.

I updated TW in a VM yesterday. There were more new packages than usual, so I looked carefully. And many were “libyui-ncurses” packages.

Including “libyui-ncurses-pkg10” ? (On my own system the remaining libyui* packages were all updated 9 -> 10)

Probably won’t worry too much about it, but I’ll try to remember to not use “–no-recommends” when eventually there’s a libyui* 10 -> 11 update, provided it doesn’t want to pull in too much stuff I don’t want.

4

Yast-ncurses works without problems for me I never use --no-recommends for the update .
To be honest I used yast for the update, and then I checked with zypper as I usually do, and saw that zypper removed the packages (9) and did what zypper asked for

5

I booted up the VM and checked. And yes, “libyui-ncurses-pkg10” is installed.

I used Yast ncurses to check that. It all seems to work.

6

Hmm… OK Thanks for taking a look.

Don’t think I’ll pursue this much further, but will keep a watch for the eventual libyui*10 to 11 and see what happens then if I don’t use --no-recommends.

7

Following up a little, as this is somewhat bugging me now.

Just looked at one of my Leap 15.0 systems, that also has libyui-ncurses-pkg* missing. (All updates on that are also done with no recommends, by “solver.onlyRequires = true” in “/etc/zypp/zypp.conf”)

Going back to the TW install, if I un-install “libyui-ncurses-pkg10” and use YaST -> Software Management -> Package Groups -> Recommended Packages, I see that “libyui-ncurses-pkg10” is listed amongst them:

http://paste.opensuse.org/view/raw/4e5aec2d

However, I’m at a loss as to discover what is recommending it…

rpm reports:

paul@Orion-15:~$ sudo rpm -q --whatrecommends libyui-ncurses-pkg10
[sudo] password for root: 
no package recommends libyui-ncurses-pkg10

as does zypper:

paul@Orion-15:~$ sudo zypper se --recommends libyui-ncurses-pkg10
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
No matching items found.

and according to zypper the only package that actually requires it is a development package:

paul@Orion-15:~$ sudo zypper se --requires libyui-ncurses-pkg10
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...

S | Name                     | Summary                         | Type   
--+--------------------------+---------------------------------+--------
  | libyui-ncurses-pkg-devel | Libyui-ncurses-pkg header files | package
paul@Orion-15:~$

:\

8

Well, I don’t know either. However, there appear to be some complex rules that can also do recommending, depending on whatever else is found.

For example, if I plug in a WiFi USB adapter, then suddenly the firmware for that adapter shows up as a new recommend. When I recently switch a VM to use QXL graphics (was virtio graphics), then a video driver for QXL showed up in recommends.

9

After pondering this for a while…

as ncurses YaST Software Management breaks after update of libyui* if using no-recommends I thought it worth a bug report:

https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1140239

… I’ll wait on the outcome.

10

Yes, good idea.

I see you have run into problems with the NEEDINFO request. If you have a space or are using virtualization, you could try a clean install from an older iso, and then update from there.

11

It appears that I didn’t have the pattern “yast2_basis” installed, which has:

libyui-ncurses-pkg10 | package | Required

I’ve now installed that pattern and will see what happens on the eventual libyui* 10 -> 11 update.

12

I run into almost exactly the same issue, but in my case the missing package was libyui-qt-pkg10 when using the --no-rec option, without that option the package was installed. I already had the pattern you mentioned installed. For the fun I installed a backup from January and tried again with --no-rec option and the same thing happened.

13

The confusion/mystery deepens… Think I’ll go fire up the coffee percolator.

On my TW machine, whilst I don’t recall having removed that pattern, I may have done so inadvertently in a spate of click-happy mouse-madness whilst removing some of the YaST modules I don’t need.

However, I’ve just checked on both of my Leap 15.0 systems, the yast2_basis pattern was not installed on those either.

Maybe that in itself is recommended… >:)

All good fun, thanks to all for your various input. :slight_smile: