FS#8451 - hal now requires pm-utils - BUT unable to install pm-utils due to bug in pm-utils package.

Attached to Project: Arch Linux
Opened by Rob (RobK) - Monday, 29 October 2007, 13:22 GMT
Last edited by Jan de Groot (JGC) - Friday, 26 December 2008, 21:16 GMT
Task Type Bug Report
Category Packages: Extra
Status Closed
Assigned To Jan de Groot (JGC)
Architecture All
Severity High
Priority Normal
Reported Version 2007.08-2
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 100%
Votes 4
Private No

Details

Description:

The installation of pm-utils fails if apmd exists on your system.

#pacman -S pm-utils

error: Could not prepare transaction
error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)
pm-utils: /usr/bin/on_ac_power exists in filesystem

errors occured, no packages were upgraded

# pacman -Qo /usr/bin/on_ac_power
/usr/bin/on_ac_power is owned by apmd 3.0.2-5

NOTE: This error appeared on my system for the first time due to the NEW HAL package. Hal now lists pm-utils as a dependency. So when I did a "pacman -Syu", pacman downloaded pm-utils as a NEW dependency to HAL. But pacman was unable to install pm-utils die to the conflict with apmd.

Steps to reproduce:

Install apmd
Then try to install pm-utils.

Solution:

Fix the apmd and pm-utils packages and indicate that they conflict with each other.
This task depends upon

Closed by  Jan de Groot (JGC)
Friday, 26 December 2008, 21:16 GMT
Reason for closing:  Fixed
Additional comments about closing:  "fixed": apmd is obsolete
Comment by Jan de Groot (JGC) - Monday, 29 October 2007, 23:18 GMT
Do you actually use apmd for something? The package in our repository is over 2 years old and the upstream source is gone. It seems further maintenance has been moved to debian, so we have to get the sources from their pool directories.
Comment by Rob (RobK) - Tuesday, 30 October 2007, 01:03 GMT
APM is the old Advanced Power Management that is controlled at the BIOS level. ACPI is newer and works at the OS level. See http://tldp.org/HOWTO/ACPI-HOWTO/aboutacpi.html and http://tuxmobil.org/apm_linux.html.

I don't think there have been many changes to apmd over the years. It is mature software. Given the software conflict between apmd and dm-utils, I would suggest making sure that the apmd package is updated so it conflicts with dm-utils (and vice versa).

It also wouldn't bother me if apmd disappears from the repos altogether since I have now switched to ACPI for power management (but I never got around to uninstalling apmd until now). But others might complain. I do not know whether ACPI supports all the older hardware out there for power management.

You might also want to look at the threads in the forums on this issue. See http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=39214 where this whole issue came up.. I doesn't look like I was the only one using apmd at one time.
Comment by Rob (RobK) - Tuesday, 30 October 2007, 01:06 GMT
Oh yes.. I forgot to mention that apparently there are some advantages to running both apmd and acpi at the same time but it is tricky to set up. I have never bothered too do that.
See http://tldp.org/HOWTO/ACPI-HOWTO/daemons.html

Comment by James Rayner (iphitus) - Tuesday, 30 October 2007, 23:57 GMT
most modern systems don't have support for apm, and pm-utils may not even support apm based systems. Should be fine to set a conflicts=() in them, as most people don't need or use apm.

I wonder why we're even installing apmd by default now... I don't think our kernel even supports it.

James
Comment by Jan de Groot (JGC) - Wednesday, 26 December 2007, 14:12 GMT
the on_ac_power script in apmd will always return that it's on AC because our kernels don't have /proc/apm.
Comment by Roman Kyrylych (Romashka) - Sunday, 10 February 2008, 09:21 GMT
Jan, can we close this by adding conflicts to some PKGBUILD?
Comment by Glenn Matthys (RedShift) - Tuesday, 17 June 2008, 11:41 GMT
Is this fixed?
Comment by Glenn Matthys (RedShift) - Thursday, 18 December 2008, 08:20 GMT
What's the status of this issue?
Comment by Jan de Groot (JGC) - Thursday, 18 December 2008, 08:23 GMT
apmd disappeared from the repositories, it's in AUR at this moment (not in community).
Comment by Glenn Matthys (RedShift) - Thursday, 18 December 2008, 08:30 GMT
So this is actually fixed by obsoletion?

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