latest version of language-pack-en requires unreleased version of language-pack-en-base

[Lance Hathaway]

Binary package hint: language-pack-en

I am using Ubuntu Server 8.04.3 LTS. This morning I attempted to perform an apt-get update / upgrade on my system and received a message that package language-pack-en was kept back.

The version of language-pack-en currently installed is 1:8.04+20090402. The latest version available from hardy-updates is 1:8.04+20100117, which lists language-pack-en-base >= 1:8.04+20100117 as a dependency. However, on checking the hardy-updates repository, it seems that language-pack-en-base is still at version 1:8.04+20090105, which is what I have currently installed.

I would expect these packages to be upgraded together, so they could install together.

Instead, I am left with a package that is unable to upgrade, which may be confusing for some users, who may expect all available upgrades to be capable of installing (via apt-get dist-upgrade, at the very least).

I also attempted an apt-get dist-upgrade, but this also failed. Again, I believe this to be due to the fact that the required version of the dependency to be unavailable.

Marked this as being a bug in language-pack-en because that's where the problem showed up, but may be better marked as a bug in language-pack-en-base because that's the version that needs to get bumped.

[Lance Hathaway (qhltx)]

I see, on further research, that the required version of language-pack-en-base is still in hardy-proposed. My guess is that this will be pushed into -updates soon, and therefore the bug will resolve itself. Still, it would be nice if this could be moved along now and checked in future, so there isn't another mismatched upgrade?

[HousieMousie2 (housiemousie2)]

It is the same for me on Kubuntu Hardy LTS. When trying to request the upgrade, I get "BREAK (upgrade)". Only a minor irritation that Adept Notifier remains in the system tray and to determine if there are updates I have to hover the mouse over it.

Hopefully it will resolve itself soon. :-)

[vkujala (kujala)]

I suspect a problem in dependency logic (in debian config files).

    on my desktop and laptop (Hardy 8.04.3):
      language-pack-en 1:8.04+20090402 (currently installed)
      language-pack-en 1:8.04+20100117 (available - on hold)
        Replaces: language-pack-en (<< 1:8.04+20090402) - ok.
        Replaces: language-pack-en-base - wrong!
        Depends: language-pack-en-base (>= 1:8.04+20100117) - ok.
      logic fault: can't replace and depend at same time.
      newer language-pack-en-base should replace older base
      newer language-pack-en should not replace base

[Ray Nichols (ray-rdnichols)]

This is still a problem in Kubuntu - release Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS hardy.

$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  language-pack-en
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.

Adept Notifier remains in the system tray.

[John Cottier (j-cottier)]

Same here on Kubuntu 8.04, the adept notifier asked to update. Then the package language-pack-en in the package list showed "BREAK (upgrade)" in red. A few days it is still on the adept notifier, but now it is shown on the requested list as "no change". But its still on the notifier. Shouldn't the adept notifier ignore it if its set to "no change"?

[hangfirew8 (hangfirew8-netscape)]

Confirmed on Kubuntu 8.04.4 LTS, still a problem on 01 Feb 2010. Adept Notifier stuck on 1 updated package available, but cannot give me any other choices except "no change" or BREAK, and break doesn't work.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Resolved by copying the language-pack-en-base to hardy-updates. Sorry, this should have been done at the time.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

FWIW this happened in part due to a weirdness in the way we were generating the archive administrators' view of pending stable updates: it was trying to reduce the volume of that list by only showing a single language pack update as a placeholder for all the rest, but because it showed only language-pack-en and not language-pack-en-base it was easy to take it at face value and make this mistake. I've fixed that so this shouldn't happen again.

[Ray Nichols (ray-rdnichols)]

Thanks a lot. I confirm I have no problem any more with the kept back update.

[Lance Hathaway (qhltx)]

Thanks to Steve and Colin for helping out and explaining the reason for the mistake! :) Makes it a lot more understandable.

I confirm the problem is resolved for me, as I was able to upgrade smoothly with no further issue.

[hangfirew8 (hangfirew8-netscape)]

Fixed here as well, thanks.

[Andreas Rütten (aruetten)]

Now I have something similar with the language-pack-kde-de package.

Could it be solved with a similar solution?

(Sorry for the german output, I hope you get the point)

Die folgenden Pakete sind KAPUTT:
  language-pack-kde-de
Die folgenden Pakete werden nicht verwendet und werden ENTFERNT:
  language-pack-kde-de-base
Die folgenden Pakete werden aktualisiert:
  language-pack-de language-pack-de-base language-pack-en language-pack-en-base
5 Pakete aktualisiert, 0 zusätzlich installiert, 1 werden entfernt und 0 nicht aktualisiert.
Muss 2088B/3084kB an Archiven herunterladen. Nach dem Entpacken werden 11.8MB frei werden.
Die folgenden Pakete haben verletzte Abhängigkeiten:
  language-pack-kde-de: Hängt ab: language-pack-kde-de-base (>= 1:8.04+20100117) ist aber nicht installationsfähig
Resolving dependencies...
Die folgenden Aktionen werden diese Abhängigkeiten auflösen:

Beibehalten der folgenden Pakete in ihrer aktuellen Version:
language-pack-kde-de [1:8.04+20090105.1 (now)]
language-pack-kde-de-base [1:8.04+20090105 (hardy-updates, now)]

[sben (sben1783)]

Same problem with language-pack-kde-de here on Kubuntu 8.04LTS.

[Lance Hathaway (qhltx)]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't the bug for language-pack-kde-de be filed under that package?

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/language-pack-kde-de

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

It should be resolved for all languages in any case. Sorry, there are race conditions when copying all the language packs over, owing to the large number of packages involved.

[Andreas Rütten (aruetten)]

@lance you are right.

My hope was that these problems are so similar that they can be solved with a very similar solution (and maybe by the same person)

[Juozas Pocius (juozaspo)]

solved by building language packs from source and installing all of them with dpkg in one command.
# apt-get -b language-pack-en language-pack-en-base
# sudo dpkg -i language-pack-en_{Build}.deb language-pack-en-base_{Build}.deb

If others neads to be updated or says there are conflicts, build them too, and add them to same dpkg command.

If package doesn't build try
# sudo apt-get build-dep {Package}

[Juozas Pocius (juozaspo)]

i meant to build use
# apt-get source -b {package},
Sorry for my mistake

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Or just wait - if the source packages are all available, it isn't going to take that long.