Bug#1008658: virtualbox: Rebuild against python3 >= 3.10

[Sedat Dilek]

Package: virtualbox-dkms
Version: 6.1.32-dfsg-1+b2
Severity: normal
File: virtualbox
X-Debbugs-Cc: sedat...@gmail.com

Dear Maintainer,

Debian/unstable now has python version 3.10.4-1 as default python / python3.

An update fails like that:

[ virtualbox ]
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
virtualbox : Depends: python3 (< 3.10) but 3.10.4-1 is to be installed
Recommends: virtualbox-qt (= 6.1.32-dfsg-1+b2) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Please rebuild against python version >= 3.10.

Note: Please change Package: from virtualbox-dkms to virtualbox.

root# dpkg -l | grep virtualbox | awk '{print $1 " " $2 " " $3}' | column -t
rc virtualbox 6.1.32-dfsg-1+b2
ii virtualbox-dkms 6.1.32-dfsg-1+b2

Thanks.

Regards,
- Sedat -

-- System Information:
Debian Release: bookworm/sid
APT prefers stable-security
APT policy: (500, 'stable-security'), (500, 'testing'), (500, 'stable'), (99, 'buildd-unstable'), (99, 'buildd-experimental'), (99, 'experimental'), (99, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 5.17.0-3-amd64-clang14-lto (SMP w/4 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Kernel taint flags: TAINT_UNSIGNED_MODULE
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages virtualbox-dkms depends on:
ii dkms 2.8.7-2

Versions of packages virtualbox-dkms recommends:
pn virtualbox <none>

virtualbox-dkms suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information

[Sedat Dilek]

Hi,

Please close this BR.

I just updated to a new version of virtualbox packages:

+ii virtualbox 6.1.32-dfsg-1+b3
+ii virtualbox-qt 6.1.32-dfsg-1+b3

# zcat /usr/share/doc/virtualbox/changelog.Debian.amd64.gz
virtualbox (6.1.32-dfsg-1+b3) sid; urgency=low, binary-only=yes

* Binary-only non-maintainer upload for amd64; no source changes.
* Python 3.10 as default

-- amd64 / i386 Build Daemon (x86-csail-01)
<buildd_amd64...@buildd.debian.org> Wed, 30 Mar 2022
09:07:29 +0000

[Felix Stupp]

Dear Maintainers,

couldn't this be resolved in a better way? Because the VirtualBox package is now requires python3 >= 3.10, << 3.11,
I cannot upgrade it to its newer version without upgrading python3 to its unstable version as well.
I'm primarily using Debian testing packages but install some packages from unstable, like VirtualBox.
I have installed python3.10 as well, but currently python3 (the dependency package) from testing.

Does VirtualBox really need python3.10 as default and cannot work, if package python3 is installed in version 3.9 while python3.10 is available as well?
If not, I think it would be better to remove the dependency on python3 and only depend on the currently required / targeted python package (like python3.9 / python3.10 / …).
Or another way could be to lift the restriction on the python3 package versions and only introduce them if really required.
With either solution, it should be possible to use the virtualbox package on multiple versions without any more hassle than necessary about these dependencies.
I propose these solutions because if multiple packages would pin python3 to their required versions and a user wants to install two packages, where these versions differ, it would not be possible.

Regards,
Felix