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hiigaran
Asked: 2022-06-20 19:24:41 +0800 CST

Unable to update to latest release

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Attempting to update from 21.10 to 22.04 using do-release-upgrade, and receiving an error about needing to install all available updates first. The packages are gir1.2-javascriptcoregtk-4.0, gir1.2-webkit2-4.0, libjavascriptcoregtk-4.0-18, and libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37. However, attempting to update them through apt results in a message saying those packages were held back.

I've seen suggestions for others with similar problems of held back packages to just delete them (likely for different packages), however, I have no idea what these packages are for, and if I were to delete them, apt would also remove some important packages too:

The following packages will be REMOVED:
chrome-gnome-shell evolution evolution-data-server
evolution-plugin-bogofilter evolution-plugin-pstimport evolution-plugins
gdm3 gir1.2-javascriptcoregtk-4.0 gir1.2-webkit2-4.0 gnome-control-center
gnome-initial-setup gnome-online-accounts gnome-remote-desktop gnome-shell
gnome-shell-extension-appindicator gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng
gnome-shell-extension-prefs gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock gnome-tweaks
gnome-user-docs libedataserverui-1.2-3 libevolution libgoa-backend-1.0-1
libjavascriptcoregtk-4.0-18 libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37 libyelp0 mutter ubuntu-docs
ubuntu-session yelp zenity

Attempting to install one of those packages results in similar issues of having important packages removed.

Short of backing up important files, wiping the system, and installing a fresh copy of 22.04, anything I can do to upgrade?

EDIT: As per comment request, version information of the four packages:

gir1.2-javascriptcoregtk-4.0:
  Installed: 2.34.4-0ubuntu0.21.10.1
  Candidate: 2.36.3-0ubuntu0.21.10.1
  Version table:
     2.36.3-0ubuntu0.21.10.1 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish-security/main amd64 Packages
 *** 2.34.4-0ubuntu0.21.10.1 100
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2.34.0-1ubuntu1 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish/main amd64 Packages

    gir1.2-webkit2-4.0:
      Installed: 2.34.4-0ubuntu0.21.10.1
      Candidate: 2.36.3-0ubuntu0.21.10.1
      Version table:
         2.36.3-0ubuntu0.21.10.1 500
            500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish-updates/main amd64 Packages
            500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish-security/main amd64 Packages
     *** 2.34.4-0ubuntu0.21.10.1 100
            100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
         2.34.0-1ubuntu1 500
            500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish/main amd64 Packages
libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37:
  Installed: 2.34.4-0ubuntu0.21.10.1
  Candidate: 2.36.3-0ubuntu0.21.10.1
  Version table:
     2.36.3-0ubuntu0.21.10.1 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish-security/main amd64 Packages
 *** 2.34.4-0ubuntu0.21.10.1 100
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2.34.0-1ubuntu1 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish/main amd64 Packages

libjavascriptcoregtk-4.0-18:
  Installed: 2.34.4-0ubuntu0.21.10.1
  Candidate: 2.36.3-0ubuntu0.21.10.1
  Version table:
     2.36.3-0ubuntu0.21.10.1 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish-security/main amd64 Packages
 *** 2.34.4-0ubuntu0.21.10.1 100
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2.34.0-1ubuntu1 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish/main amd64 Packages

I've never used apt-mark so there shouldn't be issues there, and I always use full-upgrade for updates. All third party PPAs have been commented out.

apt

1 Answers

  1. Given that resolving version conflicts would have taken me down a giant rabbit hole (4 packages turned into at least 50 as the dependencies needed different versions as well), and I didn't want to reinstall the entire system, I thought I'd try something else.

    Every time I run apt update and see the number of packages able to be upgraded, then thinking about how do-release-upgrade checks for any packages that need upgrading first, I thought, why not comment out every single line in sources.list and all files in sources.list.d? I did just that, and ran apt update again. No packages to upgrade. Good. Then I ran do-release-upgrade and it worked without a problem.

    Enabling everything I commented out from the sources.list files, I completed the remaining upgrades, and I now have 22.04 with no held packages.

    I don't know if this method can be done in every single case, but it seems like the way to go in the future for me, if I run into this issue again.

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