Package: elogind Version: 246.9.1-1+debian1 I don't know if a newer version of elogind would help here, but it probably wouldn't hurt. elogind in debian hasn't been updated since Dec 23.
# apt -u dist-upgade [...] The following packages will be REMOVED: alsa-firmware-loaders bluez brasero fwupd gnome-disk-utility gnome-session-bin gvfs gvfs-backends gvfs-daemons i2c-tools kpartx lcdproc libblockdev-mdraid2 libtss2-esys-3.0.2-0 libtss2-mu0 libtss2-sys1 libtss2-tcti-cmd0 libtss2-tcti-device0 libtss2-tcti-mssim0 libtss2-tcti-swtpm0 linux-image-5.16.0-6-amd64 linux-image-5.17.0-3-amd64 linux-image-5.18.0-2-amd64 linux-image-amd64 mdadm tpm-udev udisks2 upower xfce4-power-manager xfce4-power-manager-plugins xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-input-evdev xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse Most of those I don't care about, but I really don't want linux-* packages or mdadm or xserver-* packages to be force-removed. Aborting that and running 'apt upgrade' just highlights the cause: # apt -u upgrade Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree... Done Reading state information... Done Calculating upgrade... Done Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable distribution that some required packages have not yet been created or been moved out of Incoming. The following information may help to resolve the situation: The following packages have unmet dependencies: elogind : Conflicts: systemd Conflicts: systemd:i386 libelogind0 : Conflicts: libsystemd0 Conflicts: systemd Conflicts: systemd:i386 E: Broken packages systemd creeps ever closer to de-facto Essential status in debian, contradicting promises made during the init systems vote years ago (but we always knew that the systemd pushers were lying about that). Something in recent sid systemd depends directly on systemd, conflicting with elogind and forcing removal of several packages with dist-upgrade. I gave up resisting the systemd borg years ago, except on this one machine: every attempt to switch it over to systemd has failed - IT WILL NOT BOOT AT ALL WITH SYSTEMD, so it has to stay on sysvinit. Looks like that's not going to be viable any longer. and the worst of it is that systemd actually makes a fairly decent init system - nothing ground-breaking or innovative but certainly adequate. As init, it's good enough. It's all the other things that it attempts to borg (and does a shitty half-arsed job of) that are the problem: logind, policy kit, journald, shitty replacements for ntp, dns resolver, grub, and much more. systemd would be OK if it wasn't trying to do things an init system has no business doing, if you didn't have to carefully check it on every upgrade to disable the next thing it's incompetently trying to take over. craig