10.04 -> 10.10beta: could not install the upgrades - Couldn't configure pre-depend x11-common for x11-xkb-utils, probably a dependency cycle.

[Thorsten Hirsch]

Binary package hint: update-manager

When doing a distribution upgrade (kdesudo "do-release-upgrade -m desktop -f kde -d"), the installer aborts with the message "E:Couldn't configure pre-dependend x11-common for x11-xkb-utils, probably a dependency cycle."

The installer just finished "Getting new packages" and was about to start "Installing the upgrades".

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Could you please add the log files from '/var/log/dist-upgrade/' to this bug report as separate attachments? Thanks in advance.

[Thorsten Hirsch (t-hirsch)]

Here are the log files.

Meanwhile I found a workaround:
1. removed x11-kbd-utils (and a lot of dependencies)
2. then removed everything deborphan told me (several times)
3. sudo do-release-upgrade -m desktop -f kde -d (in console)

So I guess the dependency cycle really was about x11-kbd-utils and/or x11-common.

[Thorsten Hirsch (t-hirsch)]

Maybe I should change the status after uploading the requested information...?

[Digulla-hepe (digulla-hepe)]

Same problem here.

[Digulla-hepe (digulla-hepe)]

I have a more simple workaround:

dpkg --force-depends --remove x11-xkb-utils

This just deletes the package with the cycle. After that, the upgrader starts installing the upgrades.

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

Thanks for the logs. Confirming the issue.

[rhpot1991 (rhpot1991)]

I hit this issue today, installed x11-common by hand to get the latest version (sudo apt-get install x11-common), now my upgrades is on its way again.

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

After investigation, I think that some package coming from the kubuntu-ppa or kubuntu-ppa/backport is blocking the update but I haven't found which one yet.
I'm lowering the importance and closing the x11-xkb-utils task.

[Wim Cools (wim-cools)]

I have the same problem.
But the workaround doesn't help me :
dpkg --force-depends --remove x11-xkb-utils
dpkg: warning: while removing x11-xkb-utils, directory '/var/lib/xkb' not empty so not removed.

[Thorsten Hirsch (t-hirsch)]

That was just a warning, so the workaround should still work.

[Alan James (alan-alanjames)]

That workaround didn't work for me, even after removing x11-xkb-utils I still got the error.

What did work though was installing the maverick version of x11-common from http://packages.ubuntu.com/maverick/all/x11-common/download

Upgrade is now in progress.

[JunCTionS (junctions)]

Thanks Alan James,
The workaround didn't work for me either so after doing that (but without reinstalling x11-xkb-utils) I installed x11-commons and upgrade is now in progress.

I should point out that (as all of you, I imagine) I am working on 10.04→10.10 stable upgrade (non-beta).
but this is where google brought me.

[Ioannis Nousias (ioannis-nousias)]

The workaround Alan James proposed works for me too, while removing x11-xkb-utils didn't

PS: 10.04->10.10 final here as well, on Kubuntu with KDE 4.5.1 from PPA

[David (davidstoll+launchpad)]

None of the suggestions above worked for me. ;(

Now my machines (running mythtv) don't work.

Any other suggestions. I am getting the exact same error as reported here.

[mafrasi2 (mafrasi99)]

Thanks a lot, James.
I had to install x11-commons via
sudo dpkg -i ./x11-common_7.5+6ubuntu3_all.deb
and the upgrade is in progress

[David (davidstoll+launchpad)]

I guess one of the links gave me a different (old?) version...got x11-common_7.5+6ubuntu3_all.deb and all is well.

Thanks James!

[Wim Cools (wim-cools)]

I was able to upgrade from Ubuntu 10.04 to 10.10 64 bit finally.
But it is even worse. gdm (X) doesn't start. I have an Intel graphics driver and a LG E2350V HD monitor.
In the X.0.Log file I see : Screens found, but none have a usable configuration.

[N7DR (doc-evans)]

I see that this is marked as "Low" importance. I can't imagine why. After four hours of downloading files to go from lucid to maverick today, following the official upgrade path as described at www.kubuntu.org, everything ground to a halt with this error.

The lucid system, as recommended, was completely up to date, and had, to the best of my knowledge, only official lucid packages (i.e., no PPA packages). FWIW, it's a 64-bit system.

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

@N7DR, if you having this issue without packages from Kubuntu PPA enabled, could you attach the files in /var/log/dist-upgrade and the file /var/lib/dpkg/status, that would help us to narrow down the problem. Thanks.

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

I'm adding a task for kubuntu-meta because the problem exists only for kubuntu upgrades and setting it to 'high'. I keep the u-m task open because it is an upgrade issue but importance to 'low' because it is not a problem with update-manager.

[David (davidstoll+launchpad)]

Don't know if it's related, but installing x11-common_7.5+6ubuntu3_all.deb to get the upgrade to proceed may have affected my lirc...?
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=9968475

[uboot fanat (ubootfanat)]

just updated from 10.04 to 10.10. got the error also. running on ubuntu with gnome!

manual installation of x11-common solved the problem.

[Abe (abesosman)]

Jean,

  I just want to let you know that by removing both x11-xkb-utils &
x11-common as suggested in one of the posts, the installation went smoothly
and had no other problems.

  Thanks for the reply.

      -Abe

On Sat, Oct 9, 2010 at 8:08 PM, Jean-Baptiste Lallement <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> After investigation, I think that some package coming from the kubuntu-ppa
> or kubuntu-ppa/backport is blocking the update but I haven't found which one
> yet.
> I'm lowering the importance and closing the x11-xkb-utils task.
>
> ** Changed in: update-manager (Ubuntu)
> Importance: High => Low
>
> ** Changed in: x11-xkb-utils (Ubuntu)
> Status: Triaged => Invalid
>
> --
> 10.04 -> 10.10beta: could not install the upgrades - Couldn't configure
> pre-depend x11-common for x11-xkb-utils, probably a dependency cycle.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/639933
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug (657470).
>
> Status in “update-manager” package in Ubuntu: Triaged
> Status in “x11-xkb-utils” package in Ubuntu: Invalid
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: update-manager
>
> When doing a distribution upgrade (kdesudo "do-release-upgrade -m desktop
> -f kde -d"), the installer aborts with the message "E:Couldn't configure
> pre-dependend x11-common for x11-xkb-utils, probably a dependency cycle."
>
> The installer just finished "Getting new packages" and was about to start
> "Installing the upgrades".
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-manager/+bug/639933/+subscribe
>

[Greg Ruo (la1234uk)]

did:
sudo apt-get remove x11-xkb-utils x11-common and now upgrade seems going normally.

Thanks to all posters.

Greg Ruo

[N7DR (doc-evans)]

Reply to #19:

Sorry, I thought I would be automatically notified of any new comments (like kde-bugs) but it seems that commentators are not automatically subscribed here, so I only just saw your request.

I just tried to upgrade again, and (of course) still hit the same bug.

Attaching a directory listing of /var/log/dist-upgrade (I assume that that's want you wanted, not the actual files), and the file /var/lib/dpkg/status. (Maybe it will take an additional post here to upload the second file; it looks like I can attach only one file per comment.)

[N7DR (doc-evans)]

Attachment file /var/lib/dpkg/status.

[Daniel Medeiros (lobomal)]

Works for me !!!

<b>sudo apt-get remove x11-xkb-utils x11-common</b>

<b>sudo apt-get -f install</b>

Muito Obrigado !!!

[Trystan (trystan)]

Manually updating x11-common to x11-common_7.5+6ubuntu3_all.deb prior to the upgrade, as suggested by mafrasi2, resolved the problem for me. Uninstalling x11-common seems to be a risky workaround. That's the X11 core. I would think it would bork dependency calculations for the upgrade pretty bad if it were removed...but I'm not a distro dev.

[David E (david-empireofgames)]

I'm upgrading from 10.04 to 10.10 of Mythbuntu and encountering the same error. The following workaround did it for me (based on the suggestions above):

 dpkg --force-depends --remove x11-xkb-utils // this may or may not be necessary
wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/x/xorg/x11-common_7.5+6ubuntu3_all.deb
 dpkg -i x11-common_7.5+6ubuntu3_all.deb

And then the upgrade proceeded without error.

My dist-upgrade and dpkg/status log files (prior to applying above workaround) is attached in the hopes it'll help in finding the source of this problem.

[N7DR (doc-evans)]

It's now December. Is there any kind of estimate of when this is likely to be fixed? Surely there must be many people who never come here, and others like me who apply only official changes to their system, who are precluded from upgrading to lucid by this bug.

[Peter Nauta (pnauta)]

David E's workaround worked for me. Updating Mytrhbuntu 9.10 to 10.10.

[N7DR (doc-evans)]

Maverick is now halfway through its cycle of being the latest Kubuntu... and this bug is still stopping us from upgrading production machines (for which unofficial workarounds that require removal of core packages are simply not an option). For months I've been trying to ignore people imploring us to switch to another distro, but dropping Kubuntu after many years is beginning to look more and more attractive :-(

[Adam Porter (alphapapa)]

This should be a critical bug. Debian would call it an RC bug and not release until it's fixed, but Kubuntu has ignored it for 9 months and is about to release? :(

I know Kubuntu is understaffed compared to Ubuntu (a shame that the paid employees are all paid to work on Ubuntu)--all I ask is that the final version NOT BE RELEASED until it's fixed. Kubuntu has been pushing out gold releases that are broken out-of-the-box (including broken-after-upgrade) for some time now, and it needs to stop! If that means missing a release date, so be it! It's unacceptable to publish an official upgrade that is known to break systems! How anyone could say, "Go ahead and release it, even though it will break systems," is unfathomable to me.

[Alessander Botti Benevides (alessanderbotti)]

Can this bug occur when upgrading from Kubuntu 11.04 to Kubuntu 11.10?

[Wurzeltroll (launch-afreytag)]

I could upgrade from 11.04 to 11.10 without any problems.

[Harald Sitter (apachelogger)]

Righto. So now that there is a bigger sample size I was able to look at (>5, unlike back in october when I looked at this the first time), I checked all the actually complete log uploads (that is those including status) and guess what I found.... You were all using the x-swat PPA. I am not terribly surprised you ran into issues with that as of course such a PPA might hold partially higher versions than in the upgrade target, thus causing such problems. Not a problem in kubuntu or anything. Also FWIW, kubuntu-meta is an utterly wrong package to report bugs to that have nothing to do with the package kubuntu-meta, because kubuntu-meta bugs get looked at exactly four times per year.