Package: wireless-regdb Version: 2021.08.28-1 Severity: important Tags: d-i X-Debbugs-Cc: debian-boot@lists.debian.org
Dear Maintainer, I've noticed after installing wireless-regdb on a fresh install the package-provided file is not actually used (older version from wireless-regdb-udeb is used), and update-alternative to select the upstream version of the regdb also fails (debian-boot@l.d.o: sorry for the explicit cc, I'm not really sure what the d-i tag implies) The problem is that the installer copies /lib/firmware/regulatory.db and /lib/firmware/regulatory.db.p7s from the installer, and wireless-regdb postinstall script does not overwrite these if they exist. This can be reproduced in a minimal container: root@00e7025e1eeb:/# mkdir /lib/firmware root@00e7025e1eeb:/# touch /lib/firmware/regulatory.db root@00e7025e1eeb:/# apt install -y wireless-regdb Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree... Done Reading state information... Done Suggested packages: crda The following NEW packages will be installed: wireless-regdb 0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 13.9 kB of archives. After this operation, 42.0 kB of additional disk space will be used. Get:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye/main amd64 wireless-regdb all 2020.04.29-2 [13.9 kB] Fetched 13.9 kB in 0s (222 kB/s) debconf: delaying package configuration, since apt-utils is not installed Selecting previously unselected package wireless-regdb. (Reading database ... 6662 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../wireless-regdb_2020.04.29-2_all.deb ... Unpacking wireless-regdb (2020.04.29-2) ... Setting up wireless-regdb (2020.04.29-2) ... update-alternatives: using /lib/firmware/regulatory.db-debian to provide /lib/firmware/regulatory.db (regulatory.db) in auto mode update-alternatives: warning: not replacing /lib/firmware/regulatory.db with a link update-alternatives: warning: forcing reinstallation of alternative /lib/firmware/regulatory.db-debian because link group regulatory.db is broken update-alternatives: warning: not replacing /lib/firmware/regulatory.db with a link root@00e7025e1eeb:/# ls -l /lib/firmware/regulatory.db* -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jun 10 00:21 /lib/firmware/regulatory.db -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3764 Jun 30 2020 /lib/firmware/regulatory.db-debian -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3764 Jun 30 2020 /lib/firmware/regulatory.db-upstream lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 35 Jun 10 00:21 /lib/firmware/regulatory.db.p7s -> /etc/alternatives/regulatory.db.p7s -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1249 Jun 30 2020 /lib/firmware/regulatory.db.p7s-debian -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1182 Jun 30 2020 /lib/firmware/regulatory.db.p7s-upstream root@00e7025e1eeb:/# update-alternatives --config regulatory.db There are 2 choices for the alternative regulatory.db (providing /lib/firmware/regulatory.db). Selection Path Priority Status ------------------------------------------------------------ 0 /lib/firmware/regulatory.db-debian 100 auto mode * 1 /lib/firmware/regulatory.db-debian 100 manual mode 2 /lib/firmware/regulatory.db-upstream 50 manual mode Press <enter> to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: update-alternatives: warning: forcing reinstallation of alternative /lib/firmware/regulatory.db-debian because link group regulatory.db is broken update-alternatives: warning: not replacing /lib/firmware/regulatory.db with a link root@00e7025e1eeb:/# ls -l /lib/firmware/regulatory.db -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jun 10 00:21 /lib/firmware/regulatory.db Running with --force removes the original file with a warning and works: root@00e7025e1eeb:/# update-alternatives --force --config regulatory.db There are 2 choices for the alternative regulatory.db (providing /lib/firmware/regulatory.db). Selection Path Priority Status ------------------------------------------------------------ 0 /lib/firmware/regulatory.db-debian 100 auto mode * 1 /lib/firmware/regulatory.db-debian 100 manual mode 2 /lib/firmware/regulatory.db-upstream 50 manual mode Press <enter> to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: update-alternatives: warning: forcing reinstallation of alternative /lib/firmware/regulatory.db-debian because link group regulatory.db is broken root@00e7025e1eeb:/# ls -l /lib/firmware/regulatory.db lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 31 Jun 10 00:23 /lib/firmware/regulatory.db -> /etc/alternatives/regulatory.db The original cause for this is that deian-installer copies the files because of the combinaison of these two: https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/debian-installer/-/blob/master/build/pkg-lists/base#L34 - wireless-regdb-udeb contains the firmwares as regular files https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/hw-detect/-/blob/master/hw-detect.post-base-installer.d/50install-firmware#L14 - it copies /lib/firmware content in base post-install step the udeb regdb is also slightly obsolete, I'm not sure why it was needed in the first place but it might be possible to use the normal package instead? That won't fix existing systems though. If wireless-regdb had been owning the files in dpkg it would be fair game to just overwrite the files (dpkg overwrites any untracked file when installing a package that provides the path). Would it make sense to include regulatory.db -> regulatory.db-debian (+same for p7s) links in the package itself, so package installation overwrites these and the post update-alternative step fixes it? It seems to fix "broken" links without force in this case. (or push real links to /etc/alternatives/regulatory.db would work too) Thanks, -- Dominique Martinet
