Bug 2533661

Summary: cockpit-machines pulls too many desktop dependencies via qemu-char-spice dep
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: Aleksandra Fedorova <afedorova>
Component: cockpit-machinesAssignee: Katerina Koukiou <kkoukiou>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: unspecified    
Version: 45CC: berrange, cfergeau, crobinso, extras-qa, jvanderwaa, kkoukiou, lukas.ruzicka, martin, mcascell, mmarusak, mvollmer, pbonzini, pboy, philmd, rjones, suraj.ghimire7, tmatus, virt-maint
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: Unspecified   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard: RejectedFreezeException
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: 2388749 Environment:
Last Closed: Type: ---
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: 2388749    
Bug Blocks:    

Description Aleksandra Fedorova 2026-09-15 10:04:48 UTC 
+++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #2388749 +++

cockpit-machines currently recommends the qemu-char-spice package as a weak dependency to enable spice support.

On Fedora 44 qemu-char-spice pulls in 58 packages.

According to @Peter Boy this creates an issue for the Fedora Server images and other non-desktop installations of Fedora.

Hence the request is to drop this recommended dependency in Fedora 45.

Additional data:

root@localhost:~# dnf --setopt=install_weak_deps=False install qemu-char-spice
Updating and loading repositories:
Repositories loaded.
Package                                                                                                       Arch                   Version                                                                                                       Repository                                                          Size
Installing:
 qemu-char-spice                                                                                              x86_64                 2:10.2.2-1.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                          20.3 KiB
Installing dependencies:
 alsa-lib                                                                                                     x86_64                 0:1.2.16.1-1.fc44                                                                                             updates                                                          1.5 MiB
 cairo                                                                                                        x86_64                 0:1.18.4-6.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                           1.8 MiB
 cdparanoia-libs                                                                                              x86_64                 0:10.2-50.fc44                                                                                                fedora                                                         113.3 KiB
 fontconfig                                                                                                   x86_64                 0:2.17.0-4.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                         776.4 KiB
 freetype                                                                                                     x86_64                 0:2.14.3-1.fc44                                                                                               updates                                                        918.3 KiB
 fribidi                                                                                                      x86_64                 0:1.0.16-4.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                         190.0 KiB
 graphene                                                                                                     x86_64                 0:1.10.8-4.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                         158.3 KiB
 graphite2                                                                                                    x86_64                 0:1.3.14-20.fc44                                                                                              fedora                                                         191.5 KiB
 gstreamer1                                                                                                   x86_64                 0:1.28.7-1.fc44                                                                                               updates                                                          5.5 MiB
 gstreamer1-plugins-base                                                                                      x86_64                 0:1.28.7-1.fc44                                                                                               updates                                                          7.5 MiB
 harfbuzz                                                                                                     x86_64                 0:14.1.0-2.fc44                                                                                               updates                                                          2.8 MiB
 ipxe-roms-qemu                                                                                               noarch                 0:20240119-5.gitde8a0821.fc44                                                                                 fedora                                                           2.7 MiB
 iso-codes                                                                                                    noarch                 0:4.20.1-3.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                          22.3 MiB
 libX11                                                                                                       x86_64                 0:1.8.13-1.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                           1.3 MiB
 libX11-common                                                                                                noarch                 0:1.8.13-1.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                           1.1 MiB
 libX11-xcb                                                                                                   x86_64                 0:1.8.13-1.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                          10.8 KiB
 libXau                                                                                                       x86_64                 0:1.0.12-4.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                          72.8 KiB
 libXext                                                                                                      x86_64                 0:1.3.6-5.fc44                                                                                                fedora                                                          89.8 KiB
 libXft                                                                                                       x86_64                 0:2.3.8-10.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                         168.3 KiB
 libXi                                                                                                        x86_64                 0:1.8.3-1.fc44                                                                                                updates                                                         80.6 KiB
 libXrender                                                                                                   x86_64                 0:0.9.12-4.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                          49.9 KiB
 libXv                                                                                                        x86_64                 0:1.0.13-4.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                          25.9 KiB
 libXxf86vm                                                                                                   x86_64                 0:1.1.6-4.fc44                                                                                                fedora                                                          25.1 KiB
 libdatrie                                                                                                    x86_64                 0:0.2.14-2.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                          61.7 KiB
 libepoxy                                                                                                     x86_64                 0:1.5.10-12.fc44                                                                                              fedora                                                           1.1 MiB
 libglvnd                                                                                                     x86_64                 1:1.7.0-9.fc44                                                                                                fedora                                                         526.5 KiB
 libglvnd-egl                                                                                                 x86_64                 1:1.7.0-9.fc44                                                                                                fedora                                                          68.6 KiB
 libglvnd-glx                                                                                                 x86_64                 1:1.7.0-9.fc44                                                                                                fedora                                                         601.0 KiB
 libjpeg-turbo                                                                                                x86_64                 0:3.1.3-1.fc44                                                                                                fedora                                                         818.2 KiB
 libogg                                                                                                       x86_64                 2:1.3.6-2.fc44                                                                                                fedora                                                          45.6 KiB
 libpng                                                                                                       x86_64                 2:1.6.58-1.fc44                                                                                               updates                                                        249.6 KiB
 libthai                                                                                                      x86_64                 0:0.1.30-2.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                         800.9 KiB
 libtheora                                                                                                    x86_64                 1:1.1.1-41.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                         480.9 KiB
 libvisual                                                                                                    x86_64                 1:0.4.2-4.fc44                                                                                                fedora                                                         464.5 KiB
 libvorbis                                                                                                    x86_64                 1:1.3.7-14.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                         837.0 KiB
 libwayland-client                                                                                            x86_64                 0:1.26.0-1.fc44                                                                                               updates                                                         66.0 KiB
 libwayland-cursor                                                                                            x86_64                 0:1.26.0-1.fc44                                                                                               updates                                                         37.2 KiB
 libwayland-egl                                                                                               x86_64                 0:1.26.0-1.fc44                                                                                               updates                                                         12.3 KiB
 libxcb                                                                                                       x86_64                 0:1.17.0-7.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                           1.1 MiB
 libxshmfence                                                                                                 x86_64                 0:1.3.2-8.fc44                                                                                                fedora                                                          12.3 KiB
 llvm-filesystem                                                                                              x86_64                 0:22.1.8-4.fc44                                                                                               updates                                                          0.0   B
 llvm-libs                                                                                                    x86_64                 0:22.1.8-4.fc44                                                                                               updates                                                        140.5 MiB
 lm_sensors-libs                                                                                              x86_64                 0:3.6.0-24.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                          85.7 KiB
 mesa-dri-drivers                                                                                             x86_64                 0:26.1.8-1.fc44                                                                                               updates                                                         52.3 MiB
 mesa-filesystem                                                                                              x86_64                 0:26.1.8-1.fc44                                                                                               updates                                                          3.6 KiB
 mesa-libEGL                                                                                                  x86_64                 0:26.1.8-1.fc44                                                                                               updates                                                        394.4 KiB
 mesa-libGL                                                                                                   x86_64                 0:26.1.8-1.fc44                                                                                               updates                                                        374.0 KiB
 mesa-libgbm                                                                                                  x86_64                 0:26.1.8-1.fc44                                                                                               updates                                                         19.5 KiB
 opus                                                                                                         x86_64                 0:1.6-2.fc44                                                                                                  fedora                                                         467.7 KiB
 orc                                                                                                          x86_64                 0:0.4.41-3.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                         721.9 KiB
 pango                                                                                                        x86_64                 0:1.57.1-1.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                           1.0 MiB
 qemu-common                                                                                                  x86_64                 2:10.2.2-1.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                           2.6 MiB
 qemu-ui-opengl                                                                                               x86_64                 2:10.2.2-1.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                          36.1 KiB
 qemu-ui-spice-core                                                                                           x86_64                 2:10.2.2-1.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                          67.8 KiB
 spice-server                                                                                                 x86_64                 0:0.16.0-2.fc43                                                                                               fedora                                                           1.2 MiB
 spirv-tools-libs                                                                                             x86_64                 0:2026.1-1.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                           6.1 MiB
 xml-common                                                                                                   noarch                 0:0.6.3-68.fc44                                                                                               fedora                                                          78.4 KiB

Transaction Summary:
 Installing:        58 packages

Total size of inbound packages is 68 MiB. Need to download 68 MiB.
After this operation, 262 MiB extra will be used (install 262 MiB, remove 0 B).
Is this ok [y/N]: n
Operation aborted by the user.


--- Additional comment from Daniel Berrangé on 2026-09-15 08:32:59 UTC ---

> For the record, it looks like this now on Fedora 44.  I think this is a regression, as it now also pulls in llvm-libs. (For a 3D software renderer, maybe?)  Gtk is gone, but all the rest is still there.

This all looks normal to me, the chain is:

  qemu-char-spice -> qemu-ui-spice-core -> qemu-ui-opengl -> libglvnd-glx -> mesa-libGL -> mesa-dir-drivers -> llvm-libs

IOW, since SPICE needs 3rd libs, the chain looks unavoidable.
Comment 1 Aleksandra Fedorova 2026-09-15 10:05:19 UTC 
The change is rather small and would only apply to Fedora 45 and above:
https://github.com/cockpit-project/cockpit-machines/pull/2279

There is a possible impact on some of the Fedora deliverables in Fedora 45 which had cockpit installed by default and therefore might have the qemu-char-spice package installed by default.

Since we are past F45 Beta I would like to request an exception status for this issue for F45 for awareness
Comment 2 Fedora Blocker Bugs Application 2026-09-15 10:09:08 UTC 
Proposed as a Freeze Exception for 45-final by Fedora user bookwar using the blocker tracking app because:

 The change is needed because it impacts the Fedora Server edition and its default footprint.

The change is rather small - it removes a weak dependency, but it may have an impact on release deliverables built with cockpit package preinstalled with weak dependencies. So I am bringing it to the exception review for awareness and discussion.
Comment 3 Lukáš Růžička (Fedora Quality) 2026-09-21 18:20:35 UTC 
  AGREED RejectedFinalFreezeException
  
  Discussed at the 2026-09-21 (blocker / freeze exception) review meeting:
  
  this is rejected as it seems like a minor and somewhat-debated change that wouldn't really be appropriate in a freeze
  
  https://meetbot-raw.fedoraproject.org//blocker-review_matrix_fedoraproject-org/2026-09-21/f45-blocker-review.2026-09-21-16.01.log.txt