pcscd won't install due to bad dependency version

[Lars Noodén]

# apt install pcscd
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 pcscd : Depends: libpcsclite1 (= 1.9.1-1) but it is not going to be installed
 qemu-block-extra : Depends: qemu-system-x86 (= 1:6.0+dfsg-2expubuntu1) but it is not going to be installed or
                             qemu-system-arm (= 1:6.0+dfsg-2expubuntu1) but it is not going to be installed or
                             qemu-system-mips (= 1:6.0+dfsg-2expubuntu1) but it is not going to be installed or
                             qemu-system-ppc (= 1:6.0+dfsg-2expubuntu1) but it is not going to be installed or
                             qemu-system-sparc (= 1:6.0+dfsg-2expubuntu1) but it is not going to be installed or
                             qemu-system-misc (= 1:6.0+dfsg-2expubuntu1) but it is not going to be installed or
                             qemu-system-s390x (= 1:6.0+dfsg-2expubuntu1) but it is not going to be installed or
                             qemu-system-x86-xen (= 1:6.0+dfsg-2expubuntu1) but it is not going to be installed
E: Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breaks, this may be caused by held packages.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 21.10
Package: pcscd (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.13.0-16.16-generic 5.13.13
Uname: Linux 5.13.0-16-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zavl icp zcommon znvpair
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu69
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
Date: Wed Oct 6 17:15:29 2021
InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-06-16 (477 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Release amd64 (20200423)
SourcePackage: pcsc-lite
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to impish on 2021-10-06 (0 days ago)

[Ludovic Rousseau (ludovic-rousseau-gmail)]

It looks like you (also) have a problem with qemu.

pcscd 1.9.1-1 is from Ubuntu 21.04. But you are using Ubuntu 21.10.
Maybe you should first use something like:
apt update
apt upgrade

[Lars Noodén (larsnooden)]

Yes, I've done the following.

apt update
apt upgrade

However, qemu is not mentioned in any part of the output from those steps. Though it is installed:

$ apt-cache policy qemu-system-x86 | head -n 3
qemu-system-x86:
  Installed: 1:6.0+dfsg-2expubuntu1
  Candidate: 1:6.0+dfsg-2expubuntu1

The problems with pcscd arose after using the update-manager to move from 21.04 to 21.10-beta. pcscd is a dependency for another package which is the main reason for using Ubuntu instead of another distro. Specifically it is a smart card reader needed to interact with an increasing number of government sites and services.

After removing qemu-block-extra, I get the following when trying to install pcscd :

# apt install pcscd
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 pcscd : Depends: libpcsclite1 (= 1.9.1-1) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

[Lars Noodén (larsnooden)]

I should add that libpcsclite1 is installed but a newer version,

# apt install libpcsclite1
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
libpcsclite1 is already the newest version (1.9.3-2).

[Ludovic Rousseau (ludovic-rousseau-gmail)]

What is the complete output of the command:
apt policy pcscd libpcsclite1

[Lars Noodén (larsnooden)]

$ apt policy pcscd libpcsclite1
pcscd:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 1.9.1-1
  Version table:
     1.9.1-1 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hirsute/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
libpcsclite1:
  Installed: 1.9.3-2
  Candidate: 1.9.3-2
  Version table:
 *** 1.9.3-2 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1.9.1-1 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hirsute/main amd64 Packages

[Lars Noodén (larsnooden)]

Ok. This was probably a bug in the update-manager that only manifested symptoms in my case in pcscd.

I noticed the only place 'hirsute' was mentioned was in /etc/apt/ is one file, /etc/apt/sources.list.d/system.sources there. Once I changed all instances of 'hirsute' to 'impish' in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/system.sources it was possible to get pcscd installed as normal.

So I guess this is either solved or should be relabeled as applying to 'update-manager'