Bug 16473

Summary:	following the advice to run "urpme --auto-orphans" removes vital software
Product:	Mageia	Reporter:	John Tellefson <democritus7>
Component:	RPM Packages	Assignee:	Thierry Vignaud <thierry.vignaud>
Status:	RESOLVED OLD	QA Contact:
Severity:	normal
Priority:	Normal	CC:	marja11, rverschelde, tmb
Version:	5	Keywords:	NEEDINFO
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	x86_64
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Source RPM:	urpmi-8.06-1.mga5.src.rpm	CVE:
Status comment:

Description John Tellefson 2015-07-25 23:42:02 CEST

Description of problem: After installing some updates to Mageia 5.0 (32-bit on a 64-bit system), the installer told me there were some orphan files. I decided to run urpme --auto-orphans, said yes to removing the listed files, and found that I lost 1) my usb wifi card's driver, 2) the software that identified my wifi card as a wifi card needing a nonfree driver. I had to do a complete re-install of Mageia 5.0 to get the wireless connection back. Maybe there's an easier way, but I don't know what it is.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): 8.06-1.mga5

How reproducible: I suppose every time, haven't repeated those steps to verify

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install some updates or remove some software to generate auto-orphans
2. run urpme --auto-orphans to list and remove files identified as orphans
3. reboot to see if wireless card still connects---it shouldn't

My wireless usb card is a Netgear 150, using WNA1100 chips, wlp0s29u1u1, I think. It is detected and identified by the installer as needing a nonfree driver, but the installer doesn't activate it. It is activated at first boot or later by running Network Center, clicking on the Netgear listing and running Configure. The msg is given that a file (wpa_supplicant and maybe a library) need to be installed from the installer disk. The file is installed, the card is activated and I'm connected. When I get updates or remove software, I'm notified about orphans. There's no option to remove just some of them, and besides, the orphan detector should not be detecting files that were not replaced by new and improved files. Any new files affecting a hardware item should be properly configured by installation so the hardware will work, and the installer itself should remove the out-of-date file.

--auto-orphans is a dangerous command and should be removed unless the orphan detecting code is perfected, made failsafe.

Reproducible:

Steps to Reproduce:

Comment 1 John Tellefson 2015-07-25 23:50:21 CEST

The fact that all the software needed to activate my wireless card was on the installation DVD means that it could have been activated during installation and additional software could have been selected then, as well as applying any updates online. It astonishes me that the desirability to make a wireless connection active during an install isn't taken for granted. Leave a music program or game out of the installer selections and include what's needed for wireless.

Comment 2 Rémi Verschelde 2015-07-25 23:52:14 CEST

> Leave a music program or game out of the installer selections and include what's needed for wireless.

I guess you can reasonably assume that our developers are not silly and would have done that already if it was so simple.

Comment 3 Marja Van Waes 2015-07-26 14:33:58 CEST

@ John

Please read
https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Removing_packages
for a better understanding of what orphans are.

The orphans are correctly identified, but I admit the hint to remove them all should be replaced by something better.

@ Thierry

wdyt? Maybe advise to use "urpmq --auto-orphans" (so s/i/q/ in the command) to (only) see them all?

@ Akien,

I don't manage to change the Component to what it should be, either. The Product might jump back to Infrastructure when I click "Save Changes", despite my changing it to Mageia

CC: (none) => marja11, rverschelde
Component: Others => RPM Packages
Version: unspecified => 5
Assignee: sysadmin-bugs => thierry.vignaud
Product: Infrastructure => Mageia
Summary: urpme misidentifies orphans and removes vital software => following the advice to run "urpmi --auto-orphans" removes vital software

Comment 4 Marja Van Waes 2015-07-26 14:35:55 CEST

@ Akien

Succeeded, anyway ... a new screen showed up to change Component and Version

CC: sysadmin-bugs => (none)

Marja Van Waes 2015-07-26 14:37:26 CEST

Summary: following the advice to run "urpmi --auto-orphans" removes vital software => following the advice to run "urpme --auto-orphans" removes vital software

Comment 5 Thierry Vignaud 2015-08-31 13:16:56 CEST

1) Please attach (NOT paste) the output of "lspcidrake -v command".
Eg: the /tmp/ldetect.txt file resulting from running:
 lspcidrake -v > /tmp/ldetect.txt

2) What's the needed packages?

3) I guess you installed from a Live ISO, didn't you?
I think the issue resides with draklive-install which didn't properly tagged those packages as needed.

Keywords: (none) => NEEDINFO
CC: (none) => tmb

Comment 6 Marja Van Waes 2017-09-17 13:49:47 CEST

three years later, no reply.

Closing as OLD

Resolution: (none) => OLD
Status: NEW => RESOLVED