RC1 vs beta2 regression: broken "Tainted" codec support?

[fduncanh]

Bonjour!

I am not a regular Mageia user, but I have been testing it while adding RPM specfile support for
Mageia 9 (plus its siblings OpenMandriva, PCLinuxOS) to the application UxPlay ( https://github.com/FDH2/UxPlay )
that I maintain (This is a Linux/Unix etc AirPlay server for Apple iOS/macOS clients.

UxPlay needs the GStreamer libav plugin feature avdec_aac that is supplied in Mageia by the "tainted" version of
ffmpeg.

In Mageia 9 beta2, an update after selecting the "tainted" repos pulls this in correctly.

In Mageia 9 rc1, this does not happen, i.e., a "regression". I was unable to install ffmpeg (tainted) in rc1.

I rechecked with new installs of beta2 and rc1, and verified this. beta2 OK, rc1 not OK

[Germ]

Mageia 9 Official Release is out now, at least on the tier 1 mirrors. Have you tried that release?

http://mirrors.mageia.org

[fduncanh]

Tested with Mageia 9 Official Release

Unfortunately the regression from beta2 to RC1 is still there.
On initial boot after clean installation (VirtualBox) the "Welcome to Mageia screen" opens.

I go to "Media Sources" and activate Mirror List (tainted Release) [enabled] and
Mirror List (tainted updates) [enabled][Updates] and save (OK)

Then I go to Updates. and sign in etc. Mageia 9 RC1 and Official both show "no updates available".

In contrast, doing this with Mageia 9 beta2 immediately updates the codecs with the "tainted" versions I need.

It seems the updater did not get triggered by addition of the "tainted" packages in "Media Sources".

(Too bad I didn't see this bug/regression in RC1 before the Official release.)

[doktor5000]

The switch from regular to the tainted version is usually only done via the view "All updates" and not via the regular update applet - that would have been a bug.
Although it's quite some time I've used that, as urpmi would always pull the most recent version from the currently enabled repositories, so why use the graphical applet when urpmi does the job and does it quicker ...

Also the mirrors have not yet fully synced for mga9 official, as that might take some time.

[fduncanh]

@doktor5000 So what is the exact procedure?

Note that no amount of updating I tried with RC 1 succeeded in accessing the "tainted" codecs, and the mirrors had a lot of time to sync.

So it's extremely unlikely this is a "mirrors not synced issue".....

[morgano]

In drakrpm, can you see and manually select any packages from tainted?

If so the repo is enabled, but not for update.

[fduncanh]

yes, drakrpm now allowed me to install the tainted version of ffmpeg.

(Also I had previously seen that the Applications screen in "Welcome" allowed various tainted codecs to be installed, as verified with
"rpm -qa | grep tainted")

So it seems that the "correct" behavior to immediately schedule the updating of the "tainted" replacements for untainted packages, after adding tainted Media sources,
was lost after beta2


I will do a new installation to check all this

[fduncanh]

The result is that the selection of Media sources works after it is repeated in rpmdrak, and the the update of ffmpeg to tainted can then be manually done with rpmdrak.
It was much easier and automatic in the beta2 release.

I suspect that the selection of Media Sources in the initial "welcome" screen is broken (doesnt actually do anything) in rc1 and official, but was working in beta2.

Someone involved with the Mageia 9 release should check this out (compare Virtualbox installations of beta2 and Official Mageia 9)

(I'm not actually a Mageia user, just checking my addition of Mageia support to a spec file for UxPlay https://github.com/FDH2/UxPlay )

[morgano]

Thank you. While I can guess the answer, I have forwarded the question to our QA mail list.

[benmc]

issue is not with Mageia Welcome.

In a virtual machine, using MCC, I enabled tainted-release and tainted-updates.
then from MCC checked for updates- none reported.

then ran CLI

Code: Select all

# urpmi --auto-update

.
discovered several packages.
installed just a few manually.

rechecked MCC to see if any tainted updates available- none.

looks like something to be fixed

[morgano]

*Edited*

This is working as designed, though it obviously lack a clear interface and upfront documentation, sorry about that.

* urpmi always looks in all enabled media for updates (unless you restrict it with options).
* The updater applet and MCC -> "Update your system" only looks in medias that are enabled and marked as update medias. - except that during Cauldron (before RC release) it apparently looks in release too.
* MCC -> "Software Management" -> "Install & Remove Software" works like "Update your system", but if you in the left dropdown select "All updates", and in second dropdown "All", then you can manually pick the updates in medias not marked as updates.

So on a system installed with earlier media than RC need you now after release to:

First: check that your media are for Mageia 9, not Cauldron.

Then perform either A, B or C:

A) as root in a terminal run "urpmi --auto-update"

B) With all release medias *temporarily* enabled as updates, update once the graphical way:
1) As root in a terminal launch "drakrpm-edit-media --expert", and place check marks in second column for the repos that are enabled (check mark in first column) and whose name ends with "Release".
2) Run MCC -> "Software Management" -> "Update your system".
3) Repeat 1) but remove the checkmark you placed. (Release medias will not receive updates post release, so save time and bandwidth.)

C) Manually select updates:
1) Launch MCC -> "Software Management" -> "Install & Remove Software"
2) Menu "File" -> "Update media", Press buttons "Select all" and "Update".
3) In the left dropdown select "All updates", second dropdown "All".
4) Left pane show some groups - unfold and in right pane checkmark all listed packages, press button "Apply".
5) Repeat 4 until left pane show up empty.

---

So the procedures above are for two scenarios:
1) Going from an early pre release install release to final release - to get the latest updates in release medias. (If Tainted is not enabled, do not enable)
2) Wanting to upgrade everything possible to tainted packages - first enable tainted repo.

I tested this myself right now and realised my system was missing 20 updates in release medias. (even core!)
So thank you for the heads up!

[doktor5000]

* urpmi always looks in all enabled media for updates.
* The updater applet and MCC -> "Update your system" only looks in medias that are enabled and marked as update medias. - except that during Cauldron (before RC release) it apparently looks in release too.

That's what I've written earlier, and that's how it always behaved, so this is not a new bug.

[morgano]

Yup, thanks.
Added that method and details to my post.
Please suggest any more improvement

I sense this should go into a wiki page and linked from URPMI wiki page and errata and/or release notes.

Next question: how does this work when using DNF?

[doktor5000]

Next question: how does this work when using DNF?

It should work the same as urpmi. package manager only compares regular release packages to tainted packages of the same version - as the .tainted distsuffix is considered "higher" it will update to that.

[fduncanh]

I confirmed the following (slightly non-intuitive) procedure worked:

1) clean install of "official" Magiea 9 iso (in Virtual box), all defaults accepted;
2) in "Welcome", enable "tainted" and "tainted updates", click "Add";
3) in MCC select "All Updates".

What was not obvious, was that one needs to individually select "all updates" in each of the subsections of the types of updates listed as
available in the side panel.

It would be much clearer (as happens in the Mageia 9 beta2 iso, try a clean install of that to see ) if using the "Update" screen (between Media Sources and MCC)
(after enabling Tainted) just allowed updating all "untainted" packages with their "tainted " versions.

[doktor5000]

Feel free to request that as a feature for Mageia 10.
Also keep in mind that cauldron differs from stable release, as cauldron does not use _updates repositories, only _release so it always works slightly differently. During the final phase when it's turned into release candidate this behavior will be switched as it is in the stable release, so that might explain the difference to beta2.

[xerxes2]

Yeah Cauldron is updating again!! A big thank you to all package maintainers.

Feel free to request that as a feature for Mageia 10.
Also keep in mind that cauldron differs from stable release, as cauldron does not use _updates repositories, only _release so it always works slightly differently. During the final phase when it's turned into release candidate this behavior will be switched as it is in the stable release, so that might explain the difference to beta2.

I don't think I ever understood how these repos works. What do updates and updates_testing repositories do?? I checked my Cauldron repo files now and I had core/release, core/updates and nonfree/release repos enabled. But maybe I don't need core/updates for Cauldron?

[doktor5000]

I don't think I ever understood how these repos works. What do updates and updates_testing repositories do?? I checked my Cauldron repo files now and I had core/release, core/updates and nonfree/release repos enabled. But maybe I don't need core/updates for Cauldron?

updates repositories provide updates for release packages, for the stable distribution releases - not for cauldron.
updates_testing repositories provide update candidates for testing update packages before they are released, those are what QA team uses.
As mentioned, cauldron usually only uses _release repositories as cauldron does not have updates, it simply gets newer package versions as a rolling release basically.

Feel free to check some of our wiki pages, e.g. https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Mirrors_poli ... ut_details

[doktor5000]

Ok, but I still don't understand what updates repos do? Do packages from updates getting moved to release later on? Like updates_testing -> updates -> release.

[doktor5000]

Well I've tried to explain what updates repos do, what's not clear to you about that?
And for the other question, it's only updates_testing -> updates, release repos are frozen during the distro release and they are not changed afterwards.

[doktor5000]

Ahh, I see. That was what I didn't understand. Didn't know that release repos were just frozen forever. Just thought that updates eventually would end up there. Anyway, this cleared things up. And if you run Cauldron you don't need to enable the updates repos.

[xerxes2]

Ok so looking at the Cauldron repos right now updates is actually empty. But I just noticed that updates_testing is in use. I never used that repo but maybe I should enable it? Also the kernel-desktop package looks a bit weird there as it got two mga10 listed in the file name.

kernel-desktop-6.5.8-2.mga10-1-1.mga10.x86_64.rpm

https://ftp.acc.umu.se/mirror/mageia/di ... s_testing/

[morgano]

In Cauldron updates are pushed directly to release repos.
- except when we know it needs more testing, suspect it may not be good, or need a lot of stuff to be updated and then moved to release at the same time (i.e a desktop environment) - that is when testing repos are used.
You can watch http://pkgsubmit.mageia.org/

[isadora]

Yeah I kinda figured it was used something like that. Still no ideas about the kernel package? Is it safe to install it with the double mga10?

[isadora]

Looked at the buildscrupt and it says that this scheme was used in mga8 (and it was) so it looks like it is a feature and not a bug. So just seems to be a part of the versioning then.