** Description changed:
[Impact]
On upgrade, if a user does not have a package listed in the
Distro.MetaPkgs section of DistUpgrade.cfg, they may be presented with
an error saying:
Can't install ''
It was impossible to install a required package. Please report this as a bug
using 'ubuntu-bug ubuntu-release-upgrader-core' in a terminal.
This happens in particular with minimal desktop installations, because
ubuntu-desktop-minimal is not listed in Distro.MetaPkgs (this is likely
a historical oversight, and addressing this is out of scope here).
It is important to note that:
(1) This only presents on graphical upgrades; on non-graphical frontends, the
error is logged and ignored
(2) When the error window is closed, the upgrade continues unaffected.
Nonetheless, this error is confusing and alarming to users, and is
enough for some users to decide to cancel the upgrade.
+
+ [Test Plan]
+
+ In short, the test plan is to perform an upgrade from 24.10 to 25.04 on
+ an installation where the minimal installation option was chosen. This
+ means that ubuntu-desktop-minimal should be installed, but not ubuntu-
+ desktop.
+
+ 1. Install Ubuntu 24.10 Desktop in a VM. In the installer, make sure to
+ only select the "minimal" installation.
+
+ 2. After rebooting into the installation, ensure that ubuntu-desktop-
+ minimal is installed, but not ubuntu-desktop:
+
+ $ apt policy ubuntu-desktop-minimal ubuntu-desktop
+
+ 3. Perform an upgrade with a graphical frontend. On the command line:
+
+ $ do-release-upgrade --proposed -f DistUpgradeViewGtk3
+
+ 4. Complete the steps of the upgrade. There should not be any errors
+ shown during the upgrade. In particular, there should never be a pop-up
+ window with the message:
+
+ Can't install ''
+ It was impossible to install a required package. Please report this as a bug
using 'ubuntu-bug ubuntu-release-upgrader-core' in a terminal.
+
+ 5. Examine the logs to ensure that neither of the following messages are
+ present:
+
+ 2025-05-13 18:02:53,324 DEBUG guessing '' as missing meta-pkg
+ 2025-05-13 18:02:53,324 ERROR failed to mark '' for install ("The cache has
no package named ''")
+
+ [Where problems could occur]
+
+ This bug itself demonstrates the what can go wrong when modifying
+ DistUpgrade.cfg. Errors in the formatting can affect the resulting lists
+ parsed from the configuration.
+
+ The test plan attempts to cover this better by examining logs for these
+ errors too, because these messages would be present even if the
+ graphical pop up is not shown. For example, if doing an upgrade
+ *without* this patch in a LXD container, no error will be shown to the
+ user. However, the errors would still be present in the logs.
[Original Description]
25.04 Upgrade error window says:
Can't install ''
It was impossible to install a required package. Please report this as a bug
using 'ubuntu-bug ubuntu-release-upgrader-core' in a terminal.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 24.10
Package: ubuntu-release-upgrader-core 1:24.10.14
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.11.0-25.25-generic 6.11.11
Uname: Linux 6.11.0-25-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.30.0-0ubuntu4.2
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
CrashDB: ubuntu
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Tue May 13 18:09:46 2025
InstallationDate: Installed on 2022-04-28 (1111 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS "Jammy Jellyfish" - Release amd64
(20220419)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
PATH=(custom, no user)
SHELL=/bin/bash
TERM=xterm-256color
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
RebootRequiredPkgs: Error: path contained symlinks.
SourcePackage: ubuntu-release-upgrader
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oracular on 2025-05-13 (0 days ago)
VarLogDistupgradeTermlog:
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2110594
Title:
Upgrade error window says: Can't install ''
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