Qubes stub package for Fedora-minimal prevents installing required dependencies

[andrewdavidwong]

Qubes OS version (e.g., R3.2):

R3.2

Affected TemplateVMs (e.g., fedora-23, if applicable):

fedora-24-minimal, possibly others

---

Expected behavior:

fedora-24-minimal either includes required dependencies, such as pycairo (which is required for various Qubes tools to work properly), or, at the very least, users are allowed to install such packages themselves via dnf.

Actual behavior:

pycairo is not included in fedora-24-minimal. Moreover, qubes-template-minimal-stub prevents users from installing it manually:

$ sudo dnf list available pycairo
Last metadata expiration check: 0:08:51 ago on Thu Jan 26 19:47:14 2017.
Available Packages
pycairo.i686                         1.10.0-4.fc24                        fedora
pycairo.x86_64                       1.10.0-4.fc24                        fedora

$ sudo dnf install pycairo
Package qubes-template-minimal-stub-1.1-1.fc23.noarch is already installed, skipping.
Dependencies resolved.
Nothing to do.
Sending application list and icons to dom0
Complete!

---

Related issues:

#2071, #2566, #2572

[marmarek]

This issue should be gone after implementing #2572, as stub package will not be needed anymore. But not sure how to proceed with the current version...

Some workaround may be forcing specific version of a package - like sudo dnf install pycairo-1.10*

[marmarek]

This issue should be gone after implementing #2572, as stub package will not be needed anymore. But not sure how to proceed with the current version...

Some workaround may be forcing specific version of a package - like sudo dnf install pycairo-1.10*

[andrewdavidwong]

Some workaround may be forcing specific version of a package - like sudo dnf install pycairo-1.10*

Yes, this works.

[andrewdavidwong]

Some workaround may be forcing specific version of a package - like sudo dnf install pycairo-1.10*

Yes, this works.

[tasket]

Trying to install tinyproxy in fedora-24-minimal also runs into the same issue. OTOH, the minimal template upgraded to f25 can install tinyproxy.

[tasket]

Trying to install tinyproxy in fedora-24-minimal also runs into the same issue. OTOH, the minimal template upgraded to f25 can install tinyproxy.

[tasket]

f25 minimal can install pycairo, also.

[tasket]

f25 minimal can install pycairo, also.

[taradiddles]

the minimal template upgraded to f25 can install tinyproxy.

I've upgraded a minimal f24 template to f25 but dnf install tinyproxy fails like with f24.

workaround:
sudo dnf download tinyproxy ImageMagick [...]
sudo dnf install tinyproxy-1.8.3-6.fc24.x86_64.rpm ImageMagick-6.9.3.0-6.fc25.x86_64.rpm [...]

(haven't tested what would happen when those packages will be updated though).

[taradiddles]

the minimal template upgraded to f25 can install tinyproxy.

I've upgraded a minimal f24 template to f25 but dnf install tinyproxy fails like with f24.

workaround:
sudo dnf download tinyproxy ImageMagick [...]
sudo dnf install tinyproxy-1.8.3-6.fc24.x86_64.rpm ImageMagick-6.9.3.0-6.fc25.x86_64.rpm [...]

(haven't tested what would happen when those packages will be updated though).

[marmarek]

I've tried building minimal template with qubes-template-minimal-stub dropped. Result was increase of RPM size from 493MB to 673MB and increase of raw root.img from 1.5GB to 2GB.
See here: https://travis-ci.org/marmarek/qubes-builder-fedora/branches (min-template branch, compare with master).
This should be much better after finishing #2771 and #2572. But maybe in the meantime (for new/updated temlates for Qubes 3.2) should we drop this hack anyway at the cost of bigger "minimal" template?
@andrewdavidwong any opinion on this?

[marmarek]

I've tried building minimal template with qubes-template-minimal-stub dropped. Result was increase of RPM size from 493MB to 673MB and increase of raw root.img from 1.5GB to 2GB.
See here: https://travis-ci.org/marmarek/qubes-builder-fedora/branches (min-template branch, compare with master).
This should be much better after finishing #2771 and #2572. But maybe in the meantime (for new/updated temlates for Qubes 3.2) should we drop this hack anyway at the cost of bigger "minimal" template?
@andrewdavidwong any opinion on this?

[andrewdavidwong]

I've tried building minimal template with qubes-template-minimal-stub dropped. Result was increase of RPM size from 493MB to 673MB and increase of raw root.img from 1.5GB to 2GB.
See here: https://travis-ci.org/marmarek/qubes-builder-fedora/branches (min-template branch, compare with master).
This should be much better after finishing #2771 and #2572. But maybe in the meantime (for new/updated temlates for Qubes 3.2) we should drop this hack anyway at the cost of bigger "minimal" template?
@andrewdavidwong any opinion on this?

Since it's just temporary, I have no strong opinion either way. Dropping the hack at the cost of a bigger minimal template sounds fine.

[andrewdavidwong]

I've tried building minimal template with qubes-template-minimal-stub dropped. Result was increase of RPM size from 493MB to 673MB and increase of raw root.img from 1.5GB to 2GB.
See here: https://travis-ci.org/marmarek/qubes-builder-fedora/branches (min-template branch, compare with master).
This should be much better after finishing #2771 and #2572. But maybe in the meantime (for new/updated temlates for Qubes 3.2) we should drop this hack anyway at the cost of bigger "minimal" template?
@andrewdavidwong any opinion on this?

Since it's just temporary, I have no strong opinion either way. Dropping the hack at the cost of a bigger minimal template sounds fine.

[marmarek]

Non-minimal fc25 template is 4.4GB (root.img), so minimal would be still much smaller.

[marmarek]

Non-minimal fc25 template is 4.4GB (root.img), so minimal would be still much smaller.

[andrewdavidwong]

👍

[andrewdavidwong]

👍