package pipewire-alsa (not installed) failed to install/upgrade: conflicting packages - not installing pipewire-alsa:amd64 [pipewire-alsa conflicts with pulseaudio]

[John Rogers]

Upgrading from UBUNTU 22.10 to UBUNTU 23.04 as advised. Required software appeared to have downloaded. Committing Changes operated to about 84% at which point the system crashed. It was necessary to re-initiate the upgrade procedure. This time, the upgrade proceeded to about 95% when an error notification appeared on the screen. Further upgrades were not attempted.

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 22.10
Package: pipewire-alsa (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.19.0-40.41-generic 5.19.17
Uname: Linux 5.19.0-40-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.23.1-0ubuntu3.2
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
Date: Fri Apr 21 04:46:04 2023
ErrorMessage: conflicting packages - not installing pipewire-alsa:amd64
InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-02-04 (1171 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 19.10 "Eoan Ermine" - Release amd64 (20191017)
Python3Details: /usr/bin/python3.10, Python 3.10.7, python3-minimal, 3.10.6-1
PythonDetails: /usr/bin/python2.7, Python 2.7.18, python-is-python2, 2.7.18-9
RebootRequiredPkgs: Error: path contained symlinks.
RelatedPackageVersions:
 dpkg 1.21.9ubuntu1
 apt 2.5.3
SourcePackage: pipewire
Title: package pipewire-alsa (not installed) failed to install/upgrade: conflicting packages - not installing pipewire-alsa:amd64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

I'm not sure what the intended configuration of these two packages is. On one (older) lunar system I find neither installed. On a fresh lunar install however I find pipewire-alsa but no pulseaudio. Neither package is seeded so it seems either of those configurations is valid.

They do definitely conflict though so I recommend manually removing 'pulseaudio' and then reattempting the upgrade.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Thomas M Steenholdt (tmus)]

I seem to hit the same dep issues on a freshly installed 23.04 system when trying to install vanilla-gnome-desktop.

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 pipewire-alsa : Conflicts: pulseaudio but 1:16.1+dfsg1-2ubuntu3 is to be installed
 pipewire-audio : Conflicts: pulseaudio but 1:16.1+dfsg1-2ubuntu3 is to be installed
E: Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breaks, this may be caused by held packages.

[Thomas M Steenholdt (tmus)]

I realize that the conflict is probably intended and my issue is that vanilla-gnome-desktop relies on pulseaudio still. I'll create a separate bug, sorry.