Bug 2349754

Summary: dnf system-upgrade no longer accepts --allowerasing
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: Kamil Páral <kparal>
Component: dnf5Assignee: Marek Blaha <mblaha>
Status: CLOSED ERRATA QA Contact:
Severity: unspecified Docs Contact:
Priority: unspecified    
Version: 41CC: daniel.mach, jkolarik, jmracek, jrohel, lbrabec, mblaha, nsella, packaging-team-maint, pkratoch, ppisar, robatino, rpm-software-management
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: Unspecified   
OS: Unspecified   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: dnf5-5.2.11.0-1.fc43 dnf5-5.2.11.0-1.fc41 dnf5-5.2.11.0-1.fc42 dnf5-5.1.17-4.fc40 Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2025-03-14 04:38:49 UTC Type: Bug
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Bug Depends On:    
Bug Blocks: 2291265    

Description Kamil Páral 2025-03-04 09:50:13 UTC 
Description of problem:

After switch to DNF5, `dnf system-upgrade` no longer accepts the --allowerasing option. 

That means that a large portion of our users will have troubles to perform a distro upgrade, because some broken dependencies are unavoidable in a large repo, and the reality is that this option is almost always needed in a real-world scenario. Even gnome-software uses the same approach for graphical upgrades. And even Fedora guides describe it:
https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/quick-docs/upgrading-fedora-offline/

In simple cases, like the one documented below, users might be able to figure out the solution by themselves (remove the offending packages first). But if the issue is more complex, it will limit the number of users able to perform the upgrade more and more.

I assume dropping the support for this option is just an oversight when changing how options are checked between DNF4 and DNF5. Please add back --allowerasing support to `dnf system-upgrade` (and possibly other useful options, some are mentioned in the guide above).


Error example:

$ sudo dnf system-upgrade download --releasever 42
Updating and loading repositories:
...
Repositories loaded.
Failed to resolve the transaction:
Problem: problem with installed package
  - installed package igt-gpu-tools-1.27.1-0.5.20230215git45da871.fc41.x86_64 requires libgsl.so.27()(64bit), but none of the providers can be installed
  - package igt-gpu-tools-1.27.1-0.5.20230215git45da871.fc41.x86_64 from fedora requires libgsl.so.27()(64bit), but none of the providers can be installed
  - gsl-2.7.1-11.fc41.x86_64 does not belong to a distupgrade repository

$ sudo dnf system-upgrade download --releasever 42 --allowerasing
Unknown argument "--allowerasing" for command "download". Add "--help" for more information about the arguments.
The argument is available for commands: builddep, group upgrade, group install, swap, reinstall, downgrade, debuginfo-install, distro-sync, upgrade, install. (It has to be placed after the command.)



Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
dnf5-5.2.10.0-2.fc41.x86_64
Comment 1 Fedora Blocker Bugs Application 2025-03-04 09:54:49 UTC 
Proposed as a Blocker for 42-final by Fedora user kparal using the blocker tracking app because:

 There's no specific release criterion covering this case (the existing criterion only covers the default installation package set), but I'm raising this for a blocker discussion anyway, because it seems really important to me. This would prevent a large number of our users to perform the upgrade, unless they figure out how to work around it manually.
Comment 2 Marek Blaha 2025-03-04 13:01:04 UTC 
I agree that --allowerasing is useful in system-upgrade scenario. In fact, the fix should be quite easy.
Comment 3 Marek Blaha 2025-03-04 13:09:15 UTC 
PR with the fix: https://github.com/rpm-software-management/dnf5/pull/2105
Comment 4 Fedora Update System 2025-03-10 17:05:41 UTC 
FEDORA-2025-823f6cb22a (dnf5-5.2.11.0-1.fc42) has been submitted as an update to Fedora 42.
https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-823f6cb22a
Comment 5 Lukas Brabec 2025-03-10 18:17:57 UTC 
Discussed during the 2025-03-10 blocker review meeting [1]:

!agreed 2349754 - Punt - People are in general in favor of blocking on this, but there's no direct criterion for it. It seems it will be fixed soon anyway, let's wait a while before potentially proposing a criterion (if we decide to block on it). 

[1] https://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/blocker-review_matrix_fedoraproject-org/2025-03-10/f42-blocker-review.2025-03-10-16.01.log.html
Comment 6 Kamil Páral 2025-03-10 20:25:00 UTC 
Hey folks, please note that we need a Fedora 41 update the most, because that's the release people will be upgrading *from*. (In F40, dnf4 is used by default, so most people shouldn't be affected - but still it would be nice to have it for those who started using dnf5 in there as well).
Comment 7 Fedora Update System 2025-03-11 01:23:08 UTC 
FEDORA-2025-823f6cb22a has been pushed to the Fedora 42 testing repository.
Soon you'll be able to install the update with the following command:
`sudo dnf upgrade --enablerepo=updates-testing --refresh --advisory=FEDORA-2025-823f6cb22a`
You can provide feedback for this update here: https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-823f6cb22a

See also https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Updates_Testing for more information on how to test updates.
Comment 8 Fedora Update System 2025-03-11 08:51:35 UTC 
FEDORA-2025-edc76bfa6e (dnf5-5.2.11.0-1.fc41) has been submitted as an update to Fedora 41.
https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-edc76bfa6e
Comment 9 Kamil Páral 2025-03-11 09:31:01 UTC 
(In reply to Fedora Update System from comment #8)
> FEDORA-2025-edc76bfa6e (dnf5-5.2.11.0-1.fc41) has been submitted as an
> update to Fedora 41.
> https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-edc76bfa6e

System upgrade now supports --allowerasing. I've successfully upgraded F41->F42.
Comment 10 Fedora Update System 2025-03-11 12:58:53 UTC 
FEDORA-2025-c2768e4ba4 (dnf5-5.1.17-4.fc40) has been submitted as an update to Fedora 40.
https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-c2768e4ba4
Comment 11 Fedora Update System 2025-03-12 02:40:47 UTC 
FEDORA-2025-edc76bfa6e has been pushed to the Fedora 41 testing repository.
Soon you'll be able to install the update with the following command:
`sudo dnf upgrade --enablerepo=updates-testing --refresh --advisory=FEDORA-2025-edc76bfa6e`
You can provide feedback for this update here: https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-edc76bfa6e

See also https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Updates_Testing for more information on how to test updates.
Comment 12 Fedora Update System 2025-03-12 03:09:06 UTC 
FEDORA-2025-c2768e4ba4 has been pushed to the Fedora 40 testing repository.
Soon you'll be able to install the update with the following command:
`sudo dnf upgrade --enablerepo=updates-testing --refresh --advisory=FEDORA-2025-c2768e4ba4`
You can provide feedback for this update here: https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-c2768e4ba4

See also https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Updates_Testing for more information on how to test updates.
Comment 13 Fedora Update System 2025-03-14 04:38:49 UTC 
FEDORA-2025-edc76bfa6e (dnf5-5.2.11.0-1.fc41) has been pushed to the Fedora 41 stable repository.
If problem still persists, please make note of it in this bug report.
Comment 14 Fedora Update System 2025-03-15 00:43:32 UTC 
FEDORA-2025-823f6cb22a (dnf5-5.2.11.0-1.fc42) has been pushed to the Fedora 42 stable repository.
If problem still persists, please make note of it in this bug report.
Comment 15 Fedora Update System 2025-03-18 02:03:14 UTC 
FEDORA-2025-c2768e4ba4 (dnf5-5.1.17-4.fc40) has been pushed to the Fedora 40 stable repository.
If problem still persists, please make note of it in this bug report.