package openoffice.org-voikko 3.1-2build1 failed to install/upgrade: openoffice.org-voikko pre-depends on openoffice.org-common / openoffice.org-common is not installed but configs remain.

[Ville Pilvio]

Binary package hint: dpkg

... during install:

Could not install oo.org-voikko-3.1-2build2_I386.deb

pre-dependency problem - not installing voikko >>> submit bug pls

Voikko is the Finnish lang dictionary for OO

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: openoffice.org-voikko 3.1-2build1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-20.58-generic
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-20-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Apr 6 11:35:12 2010
ErrorMessage:
 ErrorMessage: package openoffice.org-voikko is already installed and configured
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.5)
SourcePackage: dpkg
Title: package openoffice.org-voikko 3.1-2build1 failed to install/upgrade:

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

Thanks for your report.

The relevant error is
---
dpkg: regarding .../openoffice.org-voikko_3.1-2build2_i386.deb containing openoffice.org-voikko, pre-dependency problem:

 openoffice.org-voikko pre-depends on openoffice.org-common

  openoffice.org-common is not installed but configs remain.

dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/openoffice.org-voikko_3.1-2build2_i386.deb (--unpack):

 pre-dependency problem - not installing openoffice.org-voikko

affecting to openoffice.org-voikko

[Timo Jyrinki (timo-jyrinki)]

I just did the following in virtual machine:
1. Installed Ubuntu 9.10 with Finnish language
2. Checked with language-support after the installation that all language packages are installed, including openoffice.org-voikko
3. Installed all available updates for Ubuntu 9.10
4. Upgraded to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS with ”update-manager -d”

The upgrade went fine, and both OpenOffice.org and openoffice.org-voikko are still installed and functional in 10.04. I have also successfully installed Ubuntu 10.04 LTS from scratch using the beta 2 and newer daily images.

That said, it's certain that the use of Pre-Depend is potentially problematic because the upgrade calculation complexity increases considerably. On the other hand, without it it will break for everyone, which is why it was introduced again in Ubuntu 9.04 at a last minute. There is an old Debian bug report http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=431193 about "Potentially unsafe upgrade", calling for a wiser method of handling all OpenOffice.org extensions. So far that hasn't happened. However, since I'm not encountering the problem in a typical case of either ugprade or install, I hope it's a rare occurrence.

This bug can be left open until there is a "for sure" solution to the problem, but currently I'm out of options regarding the package itself. The work should be done on the openoffice.org packaging regarding extensions handling. Another option would be to investigate whether it would be safe to remove the "Conflicts" generation of openoffice.org-voikko, maybe it could help, but so far it has been deemed needed because the OOo APIs change constantly so without it the registering/unregistering of the extension might fail.

[Timo Jyrinki (timo-jyrinki)]

As another note, I was able to get circular dependency failure (update-manager then aborted successfully) when trying to upgrade 8.04 LTS -> 10.04 LTS. Filed it against update-manager in bug #562948.