How can I exclude a few packages from full system update?

Tachyonenstrahl · October 19, 2024, 2:21am

Hello, have a nice day, everyone.

I have been using OMLx successfully for at least 18 months. It is working mostly well on 3 different PCs. All of those 3 partitions share their roots. 1 original OMLx Plasma partition from spring 2023 evolved and branched out into those 3 OMLx Plasma partitions.

“Og1” = original OMLx Plasma partition on PC 1: still v24.08
“Cp0” = copy of Og1 on PC 2, now superseded by a fresher/newer copy, “Cp2”: v24.09 with force-installed rpm files (see below)
“Cp3” = copy of Og1 on PC 3: v24.09 working perfectly fine

  Cp2's system specs:
  ROME 24.09 znver1 with almost¹ all software in current version

  “About System” (information) screen output:
  Operating System: OpenMandriva ROME 24.09
  KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.11
  KDE Frameworks Version: 5.116.0
  Qt Version: 5.15.15
  Kernel Version: 6.11.0-desktop-2omv2490 (64-bit)
  Graphics Platform: X11
  Processors: *[older, non-antique mainstream one with > 10 threads]*
  Memory: *[plenty]*
  Graphics Processor: *[a tap older than CPU; still running fine]*

Description of the issue # 1 (screenshots if relevant):
1.) After the system update from 24.08 to 24.09 with correct instructions followed, Og1 and Cp0 and Cp2 all had the same problem: No Flatpak software could be started anymore. Every Flatpak program crashed at start without any error/warning/… message – only appearing and instantly disappearing in task bar. Same if started via Discover. Re-installation did not help. Checking ticks in Software Repository Selector, Discover etc. did not help. I tried really a lot to solve the problem.
First I thought system update on Cp0 went wrong, especially because of issue 2.), but no, the same happened on Cp2 and Og1, too, for several times. At least 6 times on 2 different PCs the result of dsync system update led to Flatpak programs being unusable.
Today I learnt: After using rpm for forced installations of
```
   ¹ =
1. lib64appstream4-0.16.3-1-omv2390.x86_64.rpm +
2. lib64flatpak0-1.15.6-1-omv2390.x86_64.rpm +
3. lib64flatpak-gir1.0-1.15.6-1-omv2390.x86_64.rpm and finally
4. flatpak-1.15.6-1-omv2390.x86_64.rpm
```
on Cp2, every Flatpak program runs again. Everything seems to be fine now on Cp2. And Cp3 was working all the time; this issue never appeared on Cp3.

So for Og1, I wish to know how to exclude specific packages from being updated by dsync. That way, I would avoid having 2 conflicting versions each (of Flatpak and of its 3 dependencies) per system. Of course, this is only a temporary workaround until newer versions of Flatpak or its dependencies (or whatever) solve the problem.

Relevant information # 1 (hardware involved, software version, logs or output…):
1.)

$ sudo dnf info *flatpak*
Last check for expired metadata: 0:15:23 ago on Sa, 19 Oct 2024 02:54:06 CEST.
Installed Packages
Name         : flatpak
Version      : 1.15.6
Release      : 1
Architecture : x86_64
Size         : 6.1 M
Source       : flatpak-1.15.6-1.src.rpm
Pkg source   : @System
Summary      : Application deployment framework for desktop apps
URL          : https://flatpak.org/
Licence      : LGPLv2+
Description  : flatpak is a system for building, distributing and running sandboxed desktop
             : applications on Linux. See https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/SandboxedApps for
             : more information.

Name         : lib64flatpak-gir1.0
Version      : 1.15.6
Release      : 1
Architecture : x86_64
Size         : 478 k
Source        : flatpak-1.15.6-1.src.rpm
Pkg source   : @System
Summary      : GObject Introspection Libraries for flatpak
URL          : https://flatpak.org/
Licence      : LGPLv2+
Description  : This package contains libflatpak GObject libraries.

Name         : lib64flatpak0
Version      : 1.15.6
Release      : 1
Architecture : x86_64
Size         : 696 k
Source       : flatpak-1.15.6-1.src.rpm
Pkg source   : @System
Summary      : Libraries for flatpak
URL          : https://flatpak.org/
Licence      : LGPLv2+
Description  : This package contains libflatpak.

Name         : discover-backend-flatpak
Version      : 5.27.11
Release      : 4
Architecture : znver1
Size         : 391 k
Source       : discover-5.27.11-4.src.rpm
Pkg source   : @System
From Pkg src : rolling-znver1
Summary      : Flatpak backend for discover
URL          : https://www.kde.org/
Licence      : GPLv2+
Description  : Flatpak backend for discover.

Name         : flatpak
Version      : 1.15.10
Release      : 1
Architecture : znver1
Size         : 6.3 M
Source       : flatpak-1.15.10-1.src.rpm
Pkg source   : @System
From Pkg src : rolling-znver1
Summary      : Application deployment framework for desktop apps
URL          : https://flatpak.org/
Licence      : LGPLv2+
Description  : flatpak is a system for building, distributing and running sandboxed desktop
             : applications on Linux. See https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/SandboxedApps for
             : more information.

Name         : flatpak-kcm
Version      : 5.27.11
Release      : 2
Architecture : znver1
Size         : 445 k
Source       : flatpak-kcm-5.27.11-2.src.rpm
Pkg source   : @System
From Pkg src : rolling-znver1
Summary      : Flatpak Permissions Management KCM
URL          : https://invent.kde.org/plasma/flatpak-kcm
Licence      : GPLv2+
Description  : Flatpak Permissions Management KCM.

Name         : lib64flatpak-gir1.0
Version      : 1.15.10
Release      : 1
Architecture : znver1
Size         : 479 k
Source       : flatpak-1.15.10-1.src.rpm
Pkg source   : @System
From Pkg src : rolling-znver1
Summary      : GObject Introspection Libraries for flatpak
URL          : https://flatpak.org/
Licence      : LGPLv2+
Description  : This package contains libflatpak GObject libraries.

Name         : lib64flatpak0
Version      : 1.15.10
Release      : 1
Architecture : znver1
Size         : 767 k
Source       : flatpak-1.15.10-1.src.rpm
Pkg source   : @System
From Pkg src : rolling-znver1
Summary      : Libraries for flatpak
URL          : https://flatpak.org/
Licence      : LGPLv2+
Description  : This package contains libflatpak.

Available Packages
Name         : lib64flatpak-devel
Version      : 1.15.10
Release      : 1
Architecture : znver1
Size         : 19 k
Source       : flatpak-1.15.10-1.src.rpm
Pkg source   : rolling-znver1
Summary      : Development files for flatpak
URL          : https://flatpak.org/
Licence      : LGPLv2+
Description  : This package contains the pkg-config file and development headers for flatpak.

Name         : plasma6-discover-backend-flatpak
Version      : 6.1.5
Release      : 1
Architecture : znver1
Size         : 224 k
Source       : plasma6-discover-6.1.5-1.src.rpm
Pkg source   : rolling-znver1
Summary      : Flatpak backend for plasma6-discover
URL          : https://www.kde.org/
Licence      : GPLv2+
Description  : Flatpak backend for plasma6-discover.

Name         : plasma6-flatpak-kcm
Version      : 6.1.5
Release      : 1
Architecture : znver1
Size         : 152 k
Source       : plasma6-flatpak-kcm-6.1.5-1.src.rpm
Pkg source   : rolling-znver1
Summary      : Flatpak Permissions Management KCM
URL          : https://invent.kde.org/plasma/flatpak-kcm
Licence      : GPLv2+
Description  : Flatpak Permissions Management KCM.

.
.
.

Description of the issue # 2 (screenshots if relevant):
2.) After the system update from 24.08 to 24.09 with correct instructions followed, all of my OMLx partitions on every PC had 2 qarma packages installed. The older one cannot be uninstalled/erased via dnf. Both
$ sudo dnf --allowerasing --refresh dsync 2>&1 | tee rome-dsync2024-xy-bc.log.txt
and
$ sudo dnf autoremove 2>&1 | tee rome-autoremove2024-xy-bc.log.txt
are unable to solve the 2 qarma packages conflict.
Until now, I have not noticed a real problem stemming from this. So I did not try $ sudo rpm -e or such. I share it here just to give you complete info.
Relevant information # 2 (hardware involved, software version, logs or output…):
2.)

$ sudo dnf info qarma
Last check for expired metadata: 0:00:20 ago on Sa, 19 Oct 2024 02:54:06 CEST.
Installed Packages
Name         : qarma
Version      : 0.20240419
Release      : 1
Architecture : znver1
Size         : 257 k
Source       : qarma-0.20240419-1.src.rpm
Pkg source   : @System
From Pkg src : @System
Summary      : Call Qt dialog boxes from the command line
URL          : https://github.com/luebking/qarma
Licence      : LGPLv2+
Description  : Qarma allows you to display dialog boxes from the commandline and shell
             : scripts.
             : 
             : It is a drop-in replacement for the GTK based zenity tool.

Name         : qarma
Version      : 0.20240419
Release      : 2
Architecture : znver1
Size         : 258 k
Source       : qarma-0.20240419-2.src.rpm
Pkg source   : @System
From Pkg src : rolling-znver1
Summary      : Call Qt dialog boxes from the command line
URL          : https://github.com/luebking/qarma
Licence      : LGPLv2+
Description  : Qarma allows you to display dialog boxes from the commandline and shell
             : scripts.
             : 
             : It is a drop-in replacement for the GTK based zenity tool.

.
.
Here are my latest log files – covering both issues:
rome-dsync2024-10-06.log.txt (353,4 KB)
rome-autoremove2024-10-06.log.txt (1,1 KB)
rome-dsync2024-10-18.log.txt (1,4 KB)

Hoping for help and assistance
Kind regards
Tachyonenstrahl

ben79 · October 19, 2024, 3:33am

Note: While I am trying to help I am not at present using Flatpak for anything.

https://dnf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/command_ref.html

-x , --exclude=

Exclude packages specified by <package-file-spec> from the operation.

I believe in your case you would append for each package -x package_name

Like -x lib64appstream4 -x lib64flatpak0 and so forth for each package. Or you can edit /etc/dnf/dnf.conf and add a new line:

exclude=lib64appstream4,lib64flatpak0

You need to include all packages separated by a comma.

What would be better is to solve the real problem. It looks like you are downgrading the flatpack packages, so why? To problem solve I suggest picking one system and work on that.

If you do any new installs please install Plasma6. Plasma5 is weeks from the trash bin. And OM has kept it longer than a lot of distros (or so I was told). I think latest releases of Fedora and openSuSE do not have Plasma5 at all.

Note: There is a command to downgrade packages.

$ sudo dnf downgrade manually_downloaded.rpm

You can downgrade multiple packages as long as the .rpm’s are in the same directory such as ~/Downloads.

It looks like an up to date ROME system would have these installed:

rpm -qa | grep flatpak
lib64flatpak0-1.15.10-1.x86_64
lib64flatpak-gir1.0-1.15.10-1.x86_64
flatpak-1.15.10-1.x86_64
plasma6-discover-backend-flatpak-6.1.5-1.x86_64
plasma6-flatpak-kcm-6.1.5-1.x86_64

rpm -qa | grep appstream
lib64appstream5-1.0.3-3.x86_64

Please post this issue in a new thread with a descriptive title. Trying to work on 2 separate issues in the same forum thread gets to confusing.

ben79 · October 19, 2024, 3:42am

OK, I’ll do it… I may get spanked by the other moderators.

That is in this:

https://linux.die.net/man/8/rpm

Under “Installing, Upgrading, and Removing Packages”:

As I recall this should work:

sudo rpm -e --noscripts package_name_including_version

I keep posting documentation in order to encourage folks to use internet search more for themselves.

“The truth is out there.”

Tachyonenstrahl · October 19, 2024, 10:10am

OK, I’ll do it… I may get spanked by the other moderators.

You already solved issue # 2, so there is no need for another thread, let alone spanking someone.

sudo rpm -e --noscripts qarma-0.20240419-1

worked. Thank you!

.

Note: There is a command to downgrade packages.

$ sudo dnf downgrade manually_downloaded.rpm

You can downgrade multiple packages as long as the .rpm’s are in the same directory such as ~/Downloads.

Before escaping into rpm, I always try dnf first. But the downgrade command did not work for at least 2 of those 4 flatpak-related rpm packages. Both times, it threw an error message about the installed version being the lowest (oldest) version able to be installed. And lib64appstream5 could not be downgraded because of lots of dependencies.

.

To problem solve I suggest picking one system and work on that.

That is why I already picked Cp2 for testing purposes. Cp3 has no (real) problem, only one unnecessary package. So I want(ed) to know how to workaround the Flatpak-startup-crash problem on Og1 before it appears.

system · November 18, 2024, 10:10am

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