libxml2:i386 and ubuntu-desktop are not coinstallable on 64bit oneiric due to broken multiarch dependencies

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Marking iso-codes as "Multi-Arch: foreign" in oneiric would help. This was done in 3.30-1, but oneiric has 3.27-1.

As for libxml2, this needs to be converted for multiarch, specifically Multi-Arch: same. This was done in 2.7.8.dfsg-5ubuntu1 in precise and 2.7.8.dfsg-9 in Debian unstable. Perhaps a backport would be a bit more minimal though.

My feeling is that we're going to need to revert skype, get these updates in place, and then restore the new skype.

I've uploaded iso-codes (awaiting review). However, I'm decreasingly convinced that we can convert libxml2 to multiarch in oneiric at all. Lots of .la files referred to the non-multiarch location (http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=643026), and at least parser, pyabiword, and gnustep-base had to be fixed due to broken build system assumptions. This is a lot to try to do in a stable release, and we'd probably need a full test rebuild.

I wonder if it's possible to get a version of the new skype without the libqtwebkit4 dependency, which is the relevant difference here?

If it offers any clue, the Skype website offers a binary in a tarball dynamically linked to all the same libraries, which runs just fine from its self-contained directory on oneiric.

Hello Daniel, or anyone else affected,

Accepted iso-codes into oneiric-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/iso-codes/3.27-1ubuntu1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please change the bug tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not, change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

Hello Daniel, or anyone else affected,

Accepted skype into oneiric-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/skype/4.1.0.20+4.0.0.8-0ubuntu0.11.10.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please change the bug tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not, change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

Skype has been reverted in oneiric to the old version for now.

Sorry, I don't see any tag section to change the verification status.

On Fri, 2012-11-23 at 00:15 +0000, Colin Watson wrote:
> I've uploaded iso-codes (awaiting review). However, I'm decreasingly
> convinced that we can convert libxml2 to multiarch in oneiric at all.
> Lots of .la files referred to the non-multiarch location
> (http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=643026), and at least
> parser, pyabiword, and gnustep-base had to be fixed due to broken build
> system assumptions. This is a lot to try to do in a stable release, and
> we'd probably need a full test rebuild.

I've reviewed iso-codes, and it appears to be fine. You already said
that libxml2 is fully converted in precise, which has the exact same
upstream version. Given that, I see no reason at all not to backport it
from precise.

The "verification-done" tag is sufficient; iso-codes shouldn't go to Fix Released until the package is actually copied to -updates.

I explained in comment #5 why it is not a straightforward matter to convert libxml2 to multiarch in oneiric. Sure, the package itself is fairly easy to convert, but there are a lot of knock-on effects; it wouldn't be acceptable, for instance, to cause any future security updates of an unknown but definitely non-zero number of packages to fail to build. We would have to do a full test rebuild of all reverse dependencies of libxml2 and backport all the build system fixes that we and/or Debian applied to those in precise. Given that oneiric has only five months of support left, and that we do not appear to have a clear requirement to update skype in oneiric, it's not obvious that this effort is worth it by comparison with the other things we could be fixing in oneiric or other releases.

And this is not a theoretical concern, by the way. We *know* that when we converted libxml2 to multiarch in precise, several other things broke as a result. The fact that it was the same upstream version didn't matter.

Won't Fix status, then?

That's my current feeling, but I like to get general agreement before whacking things with the Won't Fix stick, in general :-)

The verification of this Stable Release Update has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regresssions.

This bug was fixed in the package iso-codes - 3.27-1ubuntu1

---------------
iso-codes (3.27-1ubuntu1) oneiric-proposed; urgency=low

  * Mark package as "Multi-Arch: foreign" (LP: #1082170).
 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Thu, 22 Nov 2012 23:46:41 +0000

oneiric has seen the end of its life and is no longer receiving any updates. Marking the oneiric task for this ticket as "Won't Fix".