Cannot install grafana rpm in SLES

[luizluca]

What happened:
Grafana requires freetype but that is not provided by OpenSUSE.

What you expected to happen:
It should require based on libraries, not package name (that might differ)

How to reproduce it (as minimally and precisely as possible):

rpm --import  https://packages.grafana.com/gpg.key
zypper ar https://packages.grafana.com/oss/rpm grafana
zypper ref grafana
zypper install grafana

Anything else we need to know?:

I would expect the requires to be something like:

libfreetype.so.6

Environment:

• Grafana version: 9.1.0
• Data source type & version:
• OS Grafana is installed on: SLES 15SP3
• User OS & Browser:
• Grafana plugins:
• Others:

[grafanabot]

Thanks for creating this issue! We think it's missing some basic information.

Follow the issue template and add additional information that will help us replicate the problem.
For data visualization issues:

• Query results from the inspect drawer (data tab & query inspector)
• Panel settings can be extracted in the panel inspect drawer JSON tab

For dashboard related issues:

• Dashboard JSON can be found in the dashboard settings JSON model view

For authentication, provisioning and alerting issues, Grafana server logs are useful.

Happy graphing!

[luizluca]

Sorry bot, but you are confused. It is a package issue. There is no need for panels or jsons.

[zuchka]

@luizluca are you still encountering this issue?

[grafanabot]

We've closed this issue since it needs more information and hasn't had any activity recently. We can re-open it after you you add more information. To avoid having your issue closed in the future, please read our CONTRIBUTING guidelines.

Happy graphing!

[luizluca]

Hey @zuchka , yes I still have it. Can you reopen it?

[zuchka]

@luizluca can you please confirm that you cannot run the newest version of Grafana (9.2.5) on SLES 15SP3? thanks a bunch 👍

[grafanabot]

We've closed this issue since it needs more information and hasn't had any activity recently. We can re-open it after you you add more information. To avoid having your issue closed in the future, please read our CONTRIBUTING guidelines.

Happy graphing!

[luizluca]

@luizluca can you please confirm that you cannot run the newest version of Grafana (9.2.5) on SLES 15SP3? thanks a bunch 👍

Yes, the issue is still there. Please reopen the bug.

[luizluca]

grafana-9.4.3-1.x86_64 still has the same issue. Please @zuchka @usmangt , reopen the bug.

[grafanabot]

We've closed this issue since it needs more information and hasn't had any activity recently. We can re-open it after you you add more information. To avoid having your issue closed in the future, please read our CONTRIBUTING guidelines.

Happy graphing!

[usmangt]

Hi @luizluca

I did not find in our documentation as how to install it via zypper. What I found is this one and just scroll down, you will find a heading of "On OpenSUSE or SUSE"

Please try that and let us know if that works.

Regarding the zipper package manager, I am not sure if that is possible or not and will need to ask the team. But please try that and then let us know.

[luizluca]

Hi @luizluca

I did not find in our documentation as how to install it via zypper. What I found is this one and just scroll down, you will find a heading of "On OpenSUSE or SUSE"

Please try that and let us know if that works.

Regarding the zipper package manager, I am not sure if that is possible or not and will need to ask the team. But please try that and then let us know.

Zypper uses RPM. The doc seems to indicate the issue is known. It uses rpm --nodeps. However, ignoring dependencies is not a great practice.
Normally you add dependencies based on what you need and not on package names. If not, your package will face issues when you try to support multiple distros.

Please, review what you need from freetype and require it in such a way the package name does not matter

[luizluca]

Grafana have a que unusual packaging system based on go.

                                depends: []string{"/sbin/service", "chkconfig", "fontconfig", "freetype", "urw-fonts"},

In this line, "freetype" should be something both RHEL and SLES can satisfy. I can't tell why garrafa requires those packages and, without that info, I can't suggest what you could use instead.

Btw, it still ships initrd scripts, uses chkconfig,b and those things are quite dead for some time now.

[kminehart]

I'm not familiar with SUSE. What package would you suggest that can be satisfied by both @luizluca ?

[luizluca]

In RHEL7, freeetype provides:

# rpm -q freetype --provides
freetype = 2.8-14.el7_9.1
freetype(x86-64) = 2.8-14.el7_9.1
freetype-bytecode
libfreetype.so.6()(64bit)

This is RHEL91:

# rpm -q freetype --provides
freetype = 2.10.4-9.el9
freetype(x86-64) = 2.10.4-9.el9
freetype-bytecode
freetype-subpixel
libfreetype.so.6()(64bit)

In SLE12, it has a freetype package, but it looks like a different freetype from RHEL as it does not contain libraries, only programs:

# rpm -q freetype-1.3.1-1415.5 --provides
freetype = 1.3.1-1415.5
freetype(x86-64) = 1.3.1-1415.5

While libfreetype has the libraries:

# rpm -q libfreetype6-2.6.3-7.15.1 --provides
freetype2 = 2.6.3
libfreetype.so.6()(64bit)
libfreetype6 = 2.6.3-7.15.1
libfreetype6(x86-64) = 2.6.3-7.15.1

In SLE15 and SLES Tumbleweed, there is no freetype, only libfreetype provides:

# rpm -q libfreetype6-2.13.0-1.2.x86_64 --provides
freetype2 = 2.13.0
libfreetype.so.6()(64bit)
libfreetype6 = 2.13.0-1.2
libfreetype6(x86-64) = 2.13.0-1.2

freetype2 mentioned here does not help either, but it might only be some legacy provides. I would suggest to use the libfreetype6, as it might be what grafana really requires (but I didn't dig into how grafana uses freetype).

If that dependency was generated automatically by rpm (as it normally occurs with libraries), it would probably pick 'libfreetype.so.6()(64bit)', required by many sw, both in RHEL and SLES. If grafana really is using libfreetype.so.6, I would use the 'libfreetype.so.6()(64bit)' requirement. It would satisfy both ABI and arch stability. If grafana is using freetype indirectly via another program, freetype shouldn't be required at all.

[kminehart]

Thanks, I'll have a look at it.

[tectumopticum]

@luizluca mentioned that "chkconfig" is still a dependency:

Btw, it still ships initrd scripts, uses chkconfig,b and those things are quite dead for some time now.

I had similar problems with SLES 15 from SP1 to SP4: "chkconfig" was already installed in /sbin/chkconfig (provided by "aaa_base | openSUSE Base Package") but grafana-rpm (9.3.13-1) only checks for chkconfig without the correct path.
I did a "rpmrebuild" and set "Requires: /sbin/chkconfig" -> installation successful

[kminehart]

We'll be distributing a new rpm installer for Grafana 10 and I'll look at reducing the amount of dependencies and removing sysvinit scripts, which should solve this problem as chkconfig is only used in those scripts.

[tectumopticum]

We'll be distributing a new rpm installer for Grafana 10 and I'll look at reducing the amount of dependencies and removing sysvinit scripts, which should solve this problem as chkconfig is only used in those scripts.

@kminehart perfect! Thanks for your fast reply and your efforts.

[luizluca]

We'll be distributing a new rpm installer for Grafana 10 and I'll look at reducing the amount of dependencies and removing sysvinit scripts, which should solve this problem as chkconfig is only used in those scripts.

The freetype dependency issue is still there.

Problem: nothing provides 'freetype' needed by the to be installed grafana-10.0.0-1.x86_64
 Solution 1: do not install grafana-10.0.0-1.x86_64
 Solution 2: break grafana-10.0.0-1.x86_64 by ignoring some of its dependencies

[KaiserDMC]

I see that this issue has been opened for quite a while now. Has anyone gotten to a solution/workaround?
I just encountered the same issue on SLES Thumbleweed:

Problem: nothing provides 'freetype' needed by the to be installed grafana-10.3.1-1.x86_64