commit f9a1f0200b1bc0ed5dde594a49b37dcca75592f9 Author: Luca Boccassi <[email protected]> Date: Thu Dec 4 00:38:10 2025 +0000 util-linux: do not fail postinst/prerm if update-alternatives is missing Do not attempt to run update-alternatives if it does not exist anymore in the maint scripts. This allows building an extremely minimal image, that can be used for a portable service or a container of any kind, where after installing all dependencies required by the software that is actually needed in the container, Prio: essential but unneeded packages can be removed, including dpkg, reducing the image size. Minimal mkosi (https://github.com/systemd/mkosi) config to build an image that has a working python3 interpreter, to ship any python code that can run as a portable service. Without this, the minimization step (removing packages) fails: $ mkdir foo $ cd foo $ cat <<EOF>mkosi.conf [Output] Format=portable [Build] BuildDirectory=mkosi.builddir CacheDirectory=mkosi.cache [Content] Packages= python3 RemovePackages= dpkg bash diffutils hostname init-system-helpers ncurses-base ncurses-bin perl-base sysvinit-utils bsdutils findutils grep gzip sed util-linux EOF $ mkosi -d debian -r unstable build <...> ‣ Removing 15 packages… Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree... Done Reading state information... Done Package 'bsdutils' is not installed, so not removed The following packages will be REMOVED: bash* diffutils* dpkg* findutils* grep* gzip* hostname* init-system-helpers* ncurses-base* ncurses-bin* perl-base* sed* sysvinit-utils* util-linux* WARNING: The following essential packages will be removed. This should NOT be done unless you know exactly what you are doing! bash diffutils dpkg findutils grep gzip hostname init-system-helpers ncurses-base ncurses-bin perl-base sed sysvinit-utils util-linux 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 14 to remove and 0 not upgraded. After this operation, 34.7 MB disk space will be freed. dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled: dpkg: warning: this is an essential package; it should not be removed (Reading database ... 5639 files and directories currently installed.) Removing bash (5.3-1) ... dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled: dpkg: warning: this is an essential package; it should not be removed Removing diffutils (1:3.12-1) ... dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled: dpkg: warning: this is an essential package; it should not be removed Removing dpkg (1.22.21) ... dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled: dpkg: warning: this is an essential package; it should not be removed Removing findutils (4.10.0-3) ... dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled: dpkg: warning: this is an essential package; it should not be removed Removing grep (3.12-1) ... dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled: dpkg: warning: this is an essential package; it should not be removed Removing gzip (1.13-1) ... dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled: dpkg: warning: this is an essential package; it should not be removed Removing hostname (3.25) ... dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled: dpkg: warning: this is an essential package; it should not be removed Removing init-system-helpers (1.69) ... dpkg: warning: while removing init-system-helpers, directory '/var/lib/systemd' not empty so not removed dpkg: warning: while removing init-system-helpers, directory '/etc/systemd/system' not empty so not removed dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled: dpkg: warning: this is an essential package; it should not be removed Removing ncurses-base (6.5+20251123-1) ... dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled: dpkg: warning: this is an essential package; it should not be removed Removing ncurses-bin (6.5+20251123-1) ... dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled: dpkg: warning: this is an essential package; it should not be removed Removing perl-base (5.40.1-7) ... dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled: dpkg: warning: this is an essential package; it should not be removed Removing sed (4.9-2) ... dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled: dpkg: warning: this is an essential package; it should not be removed Removing sysvinit-utils (3.15-6) ... dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled: dpkg: warning: this is an essential package; it should not be removed Removing util-linux (2.41.2-4) ... /var/lib/dpkg/info/util-linux.prerm: 6: update-alternatives: not found dpkg: error processing package util-linux (--remove): installed util-linux package pre-removal script subprocess returned error exit status 127 dpkg: too many errors, stopping /var/lib/dpkg/info/util-linux.postinst: 7: update-alternatives: not found dpkg: error while cleaning up: installed util-linux package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 127 Errors were encountered while processing: util-linux Processing was halted because there were too many errors. E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) ‣ "apt-get -o APT::Architecture=amd64 -o APT::Architectures=amd64 -o APT::Install-Recommends=false -o APT::Immediate-Configure=off -o APT::Get::Assume-Yes=true -o APT::Get::AutomaticRemove=true -o APT::Get::Allow-Change-Held-Packages=true -o APT::Get::Allow-Remove-Essential=true -o APT::Sandbox::User=root -o Acquire::AllowReleaseInfoChange=true -o Acquire::Check-Valid-Until=false -o Dir::Cache=/var/cache/apt -o Dir::State=/buildroot/var/lib/apt -o Dir::State::lists=/var/lib/apt/lists/ -o Dir::Log=/var/log/apt -o Dir::State::Status=/buildroot/var/lib/dpkg/status -o Dir::Bin::DPkg=/usr/bin/dpkg -o Debug::NoLocking=true -o DPkg::Options::=--root=/buildroot -o DPkg::Options::=--force-unsafe-io -o DPkg::Options::=--force-architecture -o DPkg::Options::=--force-depends -o DPkg::Options::=--no-debsig -o DPkg::Use-Pty=false -o DPkg::Install::Recursive::Minimum=1000 -o pkgCacheGen::ForceEssential=, purge dpkg bash diffutils hostname init-system-helpers ncurses-base ncurses-bin perl-base sysvinit-utils bsdutils findutils grep gzip sed util-linux" returned non-zero exit code 100. commit eca2dcfb7037b22327a958dd444b7b5c9d6822dc Author: Chris Hofstaedtler <[email protected]> Date: Sat Nov 22 18:10:47 2025 +0100 Stop installing lastlog2-import.service As trixie did not have lastlog anymore, there should be nothing left to import.
Among the 11 debian patches available in version 2.41.2-4 of the package, we noticed the following issues:
![[bug history graph]](https://qa.debian.org/data/bts/graphs/u/util-linux.png){kind=link}