Created attachment 1851877 [details] gnome-software Description of problem: gnome-software has a history of failing without error (e.g., Bug 1370596). In this case, at least it shows a popup message saying that it failed but, once again, the actual error message is missing: > Unable to upgrade to Fedora Linux 35: > Could not depsolve transaction; 1 problem detected: This is it, it ends with the colon. In other words: Fedora 34 cannot be upgraded to Fedora 35 and gnome-software leaves the end user in the dark why. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): Fedora 34 How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Try to upgrade Fedora using the graphical software update tool. 2. Observe error. 3. Ask a friend for help. Actual results: It shows that some transaction failed but doesn't say which one: > Unable to upgrade to Fedora Linux 35: > Could not depsolve transaction; 1 problem detected: What's a user supposed to do? And end user would just give up and ask for help or stop updating altogether. An experienced user would now start debugging, first by examining /var/log/messages, which doesn't have any info either. # cd /var/log/ # grep -Rn --col 'would result in removing' mes* messages-20220109:288105:Jan 2 21:57:54 journal[1597544]: not handling error failed for action refine: failed to refine distro upgrade: Could not depsolve transaction; 1 problem detected:#012 Problem: The operation would result in removing the following protected packages: kernel-core So the log file has been rotated in the meantime. Please note that this error message was not generated during this attempt to upgrade the system but probably by one of the many previous attempts. It's unclear if and why these attempts logged exactly one error (i.e., if only the first attempt logged that error). Expected results: It's one thing that an installed package cannot be updated for whatever reason but the official upgrade tool must show the full error message to point the user in the right direction! For example, the first attempt logged this: nothing provides module(platform:f31) needed by module gimp:2.10:3120191106095052:f636be4b.x86_64 This is what the popup message should say. Additional info: After the first attempt failed because of an unclear dependency error with Gimp, it was uninstalled, hoping it could soon be reinstalled. Furthermore, a full system update was performed.
Thanks for a bug report. This had been addressed upstream recently: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-software/-/merge_requests/1084 It landed only into the development version, 42.alpha.
Starting `gnome-software --verbose`, this is all that's logged after clicking "Download": 16:54:52:0923 Gs Starting upgrade download with cancellable 0x5635ffb3bd20 16:54:52:0923 Gs Chaining cancellation from 0x5635ffb3bd20 to 0x5636011756e0 16:54:52:0929 PK adding state 0x5635fe08c020 16:54:52:0929 PK role now upgrade-system 16:54:52:0972 Gs emitting waiting(org.fedoraproject.Fedora-35) 16:54:52:0989 Gs emitting querying(org.fedoraproject.Fedora-35) 16:54:53:0995 Gs emitting setup(org.fedoraproject.Fedora-35) 16:54:55:0740 PK remove state 0x5635fe08c020 16:54:55:0740 Gs recovering state on org.fedoraproject.Fedora-35 from installing to available 16:54:55:0740 Gs no refine flags set for transaction 16:54:55:0740 Gs running upgrade-download on plugin=packagekit-upgrade with dedupe-flags=7 with interactive=True with timeout=60 on apps system/package/*/org.fedoraproject.Fedora-35/*, elapsed time since creation 2817ms 16:54:55:0751 Gs Disconnecting cancellable 0x5635ffb3bd20 16:55:32:0942 Gs Starting upgrade download with cancellable 0x563600278de0 16:55:32:0942 Gs Chaining cancellation from 0x563600278de0 to 0x7fce182b20a0 16:55:32:0943 PK adding state 0x7fce2c013a80 16:55:32:0943 PK role now upgrade-system 16:55:33:0245 Gs emitting waiting(org.fedoraproject.Fedora-35) 16:55:33:0245 Gs emitting querying(org.fedoraproject.Fedora-35) 16:55:33:0856 Gs emitting setup(org.fedoraproject.Fedora-35) 16:55:35:0487 PK remove state 0x7fce2c013a80 16:55:35:0487 Gs recovering state on org.fedoraproject.Fedora-35 from installing to available 16:55:35:0487 Gs no refine flags set for transaction 16:55:35:0487 Gs running upgrade-download on plugin=packagekit-upgrade with dedupe-flags=7 with interactive=True with timeout=60 on apps system/package/*/org.fedoraproject.Fedora-35/*, elapsed time since creation 2545ms 16:55:35:0488 Gs Disconnecting cancellable 0x563600278de0
Created attachment 1916299 [details] gnome-software failing but not showing full error message A never ending story, see attached screenshot: A typical user would be unable to upgrade his Fedora installation at that point, s/he would have to call some admin just because gnome-software doesn't show what's wrong. The admin would start gnome-software from a terminal and get this: not handling error failed for action refine: failed to refine distro upgrade: Could not depsolve transaction; 1 problem detected: Problem: The operation would result in removing the following protected packages: kernel-core This is completely useless. What does this even mean?? If kernel-core has to be removed as in replaced and updated, then there's no reason for an error. If the updater actually wants to do what it says it wants to do, leaving the system without kernel-core, then what's wrong with the update tool? It's nice to have a gui but it almost never works.
> not handling error failed for action refine: failed to refine distro upgrade: Could not depsolve transaction; 1 problem detected: > Problem: The operation would result in removing the following protected packages: kernel-core The error comes from the PackageKit. The gnome-software can do nothing about it. With respect of the error showing in the GUI, there are related upstream bugs filled: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-software/-/issues/1612 https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-software/-/issues/753 https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-software/-/issues/1910
This message is a reminder that Fedora Linux 35 is nearing its end of life. Fedora will stop maintaining and issuing updates for Fedora Linux 35 on 2022-12-13. It is Fedora's policy to close all bug reports from releases that are no longer maintained. At that time this bug will be closed as EOL if it remains open with a 'version' of '35'. Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, change the 'version' to a later Fedora Linux version. Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that we were not able to fix it before Fedora Linux 35 is end of life. If you would still like to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it against a later version of Fedora Linux, you are encouraged to change the 'version' to a later version prior to this bug being closed.
Fedora Linux 35 entered end-of-life (EOL) status on 2022-12-13. Fedora Linux 35 is no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug. If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of Fedora Linux please feel free to reopen this bug against that version. Note that the version field may be hidden. Click the "Show advanced fields" button if you do not see the version field. If you are unable to reopen this bug, please file a new report against an active release. Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.