Hi Santiago,

On Thu, May 15, 2025 at 09:04:33AM +0200, Santiago Vila wrote:

Hi. I received this from the BTS.

Not sure if there is anything we can do about it.

Thank you for forwarding.

Hello Ohta,

While upgrade base-files to this version from 13.7 without x32 supporting
(uninstall or drop x32 arch supporting), fail to install with below message:

--- BEGIN QUOTE --- ******************************************************************************
*
* The base-files package cannot be installed because
* /libx32 is a dangling symbolic link.
*
* This is an unexpected situation. Cannot proceed with the upgrade.
*
* For more information please read https://wiki.debian.org/UsrMerge.
* ******************************************************************************
--- END QUOTE ---

So, I mkdir dummy /usr/libx32 and make symlink as /libx32.
Then, retry to upgrade base-file to 13.8, it succeeded.

I'm glad that the current message was sufficient to let you figure a workaround. Before jumping to any conclusions, I'd like to better
understand the situation and whether it is a common one. Do you happen
to have backups of the system in questions?

* Where did /libx32 point before the upgrade?
* Do you have any :x32 or -x32 packages installed before or after the
upgrade? Which packages and versions precisely?

I attempted a few related upgrades and was unsuccessful reproducing your failure thus far. In particular, libc6-x32 is the only :amd64 package
that installs below /libx32 and installing/removing it correctly takes
care of /libx32 in bookworm. Once upgraded to trixie, libc6-x32
installs to /usr/libx32 and base-files handles presence/absence of
/libx32.

In theory, we could handle the situation by deleting such a dangling
link, but that comes with a risk of breaking things. Hence, the current strategy is giving up and letting the user sort it out.

Helmut

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