Problems upgrading from Debian 10 to 11

[James Dutton]

Hi,

After upgrading from Debian 10 to Debian 11, xrdp stopped working.
Someone else has a very good description of the problem here:
https://c-nergy.be/blog/?p=17113

Essentially, the problem is fixed by upgrading xorgxrdp to a version
newer than 0.2.12.

When I compiled the latest xrdp from the latest sources, xrdp worked again.
Please can debian release a more up to date version of xorgxrdp?


Extract from the URL above:
Root Cause of the issue

We had to look a little bit further in order to find out what it’s
really causing the issue. Based the the bug/issue reported to the
team behind xrdp software (see
https://github.com/neutrinolabs/xorgxrdp/issues/156), the problem is
only present when using the xorgxrdp package version 0.2.12. Previous
version of Debian (Debian 10) was using the package version 0.2.9 and
we didn’t encountered the issue…Debian 11 is shipping with the
problematic version (i.e. 0.2.12) and this explain why the connection
is failing.

The only fix proposed by xRDP team is basically to upgrade the
xorgxrdp package to a more recent version which is exactly what’s
happening when you are performing the custom installation….

[Charles Curley]

On Sat, 11 Dec 2021 16:54:04 +0000
James Dutton <james....@gmail.com> wrote:

> When I compiled the latest xrdp from the latest sources, xrdp worked
> again. Please can debian release a more up to date version of
> xorgxrdp?

You probably ought to file a bug against xrdp.

--
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

[Andrei POPESCU]

On Sb, 11 dec 21, 16:54:04, James Dutton wrote:
> Hi,
>
> After upgrading from Debian 10 to Debian 11, xrdp stopped working.
> Someone else has a very good description of the problem here:
> https://c-nergy.be/blog/?p=17113
>
> Essentially, the problem is fixed by upgrading xorgxrdp to a version
> newer than 0.2.12.
>
> When I compiled the latest xrdp from the latest sources, xrdp worked again.
> Please can debian release a more up to date version of xorgxrdp?

Generally no, at least not in bullseye, but if it is possible to
backport the fix it might qualify for a stable update.

Is this your issue?
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=996176

Kind regards,
Andrei
--
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[James Dutton]

I raised this bug:
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1001539
It is similar to the one you mention.

I am struggling to understand why debian would not move to the bug
fixed version from upstream xorgxrdp ?
Just to clarify, Debian has picked version 0.2.12 fairly randomly,
without ever testing it.
Version 0.2.12 results in xrdp having zero functionality. Think P1 here.
The author of xorgxrdp acknowledges that 0.2.12 is faulty and should
not be used at all, because it does not work at all.
The author recommends moving to a version that actually works!
But will Debian upgrade it...
"Generally no, at least not in bullseye..."

Where is the logic in that?

[Andrei POPESCU]

On Du, 12 dec 21, 11:25:14, James Dutton wrote:
>
> I am struggling to understand why debian would not move to the bug
> fixed version from upstream xorgxrdp ?
> Just to clarify, Debian has picked version 0.2.12 fairly randomly,
> without ever testing it.

This is rather dismissive of the Maintainer's work.

> Version 0.2.12 results in xrdp having zero functionality. Think P1 here.
> The author of xorgxrdp acknowledges that 0.2.12 is faulty and should
> not be used at all, because it does not work at all.
> The author recommends moving to a version that actually works!
> But will Debian upgrade it...
> "Generally no, at least not in bullseye..."
>
> Where is the logic in that?

Debian releases are built with the premise that versions shouldn't
change (that's what 'stable' implies).

Over the years specific exceptions were accepted and xrdb might qualify
for one as well.

Does a newer xrdp (e.g. the version in testing) even compile on
bullseye?

[James Dutton]

On Tue, 14 Dec 2021 at 08:34, Andrei POPESCU <andreim...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Du, 12 dec 21, 11:25:14, James Dutton wrote:
> >
> > I am struggling to understand why debian would not move to the bug
> > fixed version from upstream xorgxrdp ?
> > Just to clarify, Debian has picked version 0.2.12 fairly randomly,
> > without ever testing it.
>
> This is rather dismissive of the Maintainer's work.

I apologise.

>
> > Version 0.2.12 results in xrdp having zero functionality. Think P1 here.
> > The author of xorgxrdp acknowledges that 0.2.12 is faulty and should
> > not be used at all, because it does not work at all.
> > The author recommends moving to a version that actually works!
> > But will Debian upgrade it...
> > "Generally no, at least not in bullseye..."
> >
> > Where is the logic in that?
>
> Debian releases are built with the premise that versions shouldn't
> change (that's what 'stable' implies).
>
> Over the years specific exceptions were accepted and xrdb might qualify
> for one as well.
>
> Does a newer xrdp (e.g. the version in testing) even compile on
> bullseye?
>

I tried the newer xrdp/xorgxrdp .deb from the debian repo, but they
did not install (dependent on different libs not in Bullseye.
I then compiled xrdp and xorgxrdp from git sources, and they compiled
and ran ok in Bullseye.
That is what I am currently using, as a work around, for the Bullseye
problem I am having with xrdp.
So, yes, a newer version of xrdp/xorgxrdp does compile and work in Bullseye.

Are there any specific commands you would like me to run, to maybe
test or compile a different version?
I am happy to test anything that might help get a working xrdp, sooner
rather than later in the debian bullseye repo.

As some background. At work we have 100s of Linux virtual machines,
hosted on our own physical hardware. I.e. not AWS etc. They cover test
systems and production systems.
The work laptops are Windows (all the outsourced company will
support), and everyone uses windows "Remote Desktop Protocol" and
"putty" (ssh) to access them.
So, right now, xrdp not working kind of prevents any of those 1000s of
Linux servers from moving to Bullseye.
xrdp is actually an extremely useful tool, when integrating windows
and Linux environments.

So far, we have not discovered any other Bullseye packages that would
prevent us using Bullseye,

Kind Regards

James

[Andrei POPESCU]

On Ma, 14 dec 21, 21:27:28, James Dutton wrote:
>
> I tried the newer xrdp/xorgxrdp .deb from the debian repo, but they
> did not install (dependent on different libs not in Bullseye.
> I then compiled xrdp and xorgxrdp from git sources, and they compiled
> and ran ok in Bullseye.
> That is what I am currently using, as a work around, for the Bullseye
> problem I am having with xrdp.
> So, yes, a newer version of xrdp/xorgxrdp does compile and work in Bullseye.
>
> Are there any specific commands you would like me to run, to maybe
> test or compile a different version?
> I am happy to test anything that might help get a working xrdp, sooner
> rather than later in the debian bullseye repo.

My first suggestion would be to try to recompile the package in testing
on stable, e.g. as per https://wiki.debian.org/SimpleBackportCreation.
This could be easier for you to maintain instead of compiling from
source.

You could also try asking for a backport on -backports, preferably with
a Cc to the maintainer *and* mentioning the additional features of the
version in testing (if any).

The backports archive isn't supposed to be used to fix bugs in stable
(see the archives, this is constantly brought up), though I acknowledge
this may leave users in a bad situation if the bug isn't fixed in stable
either (regardless of the reason).

An offer for assistance in fixing the bug in stable, like identifying
the relevant upstream commit(s) fixing the issue and helping with
backporting them to the older versions could also help get things
moving.

Hope this helps,
Andrei
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