On Wed, Jul 01, 2026 at 01:58:30PM +0200, Johannes Schauer Marin Rodrigues
wrote:
> Package: init-system-helpers
> Version: 1.69
> Severity: normal
> Tags: patch
>
> Hello init-system-helpers maintainers,
>
> currently, systemd-sysv Conflicts with insserv and this was added (see
> #1072562
> for details) because update-rc.d wrongly runs it even on systems which use
> systemd to boot. I propose the following patch to fix this behaviour and
> prevent insserv from being run on systems which use systemd as init:
Josch,
Thanks very much for raising this issue and for the suggested solutions. Your
approach looks technically sound to me.
I would like to add my support for this change to be accepted. In addition to
your motivation in respect of GNU Hurd, I would like to point out another use
case that would benefit.
Currently autopkgtests for insserv and dependencies (openrc, startpar) fail when
run on ci.debian.net. This is because systemd-sysv is already installed in the
ci
testbed cannot be removed:
autopkgtest [18:10:19]: test upstream: preparing testbed
Reading package lists...
Building dependency tree...
Reading state information...
Solving dependencies...
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
satisfy:command-line : Depends: insserv but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to satisfy dependencies. Reached two conflicting assignments:
1. insserv:amd64 is selected for install because:
1. satisfy:command-line:amd64=1 is selected for install
2. satisfy:command-line:amd64 Depends insserv
2. insserv:amd64 is available in version 1.27.0-1
but none of the choices are installable:
- insserv:amd64=1.27.0-1 is not selected for install because:
1. systemd-sysv:amd64 is selected for install
2. systemd-sysv:amd64 Conflicts insserv
upstream FAIL badpkg
blame: insserv
Insserv autopkgtest passes when run locally on a testbed without systemd-sysv
installed.
Fixing update-rc.d behaviour on systemd systems even if insserv is installed
would allow systemd-sysv Conflicts: insserv to be removed, and the insserv and
related autopkgtests would then pass on ci.d.n.
I appreciate that systemd maintainers have little interest in spending time and
effort in this area. Accordingly and like Josch, I am happy to offer an NMU of
src:init-system-helpers with this fix.
With best wishes
Mark
