Qubes 4.0.3 updater downgrades installed package

User Support
1

What can be done to prevent upgrades from downgrading a dependency of an installed package, effectively resulting in the removal of that installed package?

Some details:
Immediately after installing an Epson inkjet print driver, as displayed below, there is a notification that a Fedora-30 update is available.
Performing this update downgrades the lsb package, of which the epson print driver relies. The print filter package is no longer on the system.

---- Begin Screen Dump ----


[user@fedora-30 ~]$ sudo dnf install epson-inkjet-printer-escpr-1.7.7-1lsb3.2.x86_64.rpm
Dependencies resolved.
================================================================================
 Package                       Arch      Version          Repository       Size
================================================================================
Downgrading:
 epson-inkjet-printer-escpr    x86_64    1.7.7-1lsb3.2    @commandline    3.9 M
Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Downgrade  1 Package
Total size: 3.9 M
Is this ok [y/N]: Y
Downloading Packages:
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
  Preparing        :                                                        1/1 
  Running scriptlet: epson-inkjet-printer-escpr-1.7.7-1lsb3.2.x86_64        1/2 
  Downgrading      : epson-inkjet-printer-escpr-1.7.7-1lsb3.2.x86_64        1/2 
  Running scriptlet: epson-inkjet-printer-escpr-1.7.7-1lsb3.2.x86_64        1/2 
  Cleanup          : epson-inkjet-printer-escpr-1:1.6.41-1.1lsb3.2.fc30.x   2/2 
  Running scriptlet: epson-inkjet-printer-escpr-1:1.6.41-1.1lsb3.2.fc30.x   2/2 
  Verifying        : epson-inkjet-printer-escpr-1.7.7-1lsb3.2.x86_64        1/2 
  Verifying        : epson-inkjet-printer-escpr-1:1.6.41-1.1lsb3.2.fc30.x   2/2 
Last metadata expiration check: 0:09:44 ago on Mon Sep 28 15:40:14 2020.
Notifying dom0 about installed applications
Downgraded:
  epson-inkjet-printer-escpr-1.7.7-1lsb3.2.x86_64                               
Complete!

## Listing /opt shows the printer filter is installed.
[user@fedora-30 ~]$ ls /opt
epson-inkjet-printer-escpr  epson-printer-utility  libreoffice7.0

## Now perform the update
Updating fedora-30
fedora-30:
  ----------
            ID: dnf list updates --refresh >/dev/null
      Function: cmd.run
        Result: True
       Comment: Command "dnf list updates --refresh >/dev/null" run
       Started: 15:39:42.101850
      Duration: 9297.107 ms
       Changes:   
                ----------
                pid:
                    4062
                retcode:
                    0
                stderr:
                stdout:
  ----------
            ID: update
      Function: pkg.uptodate
        Result: True
       Comment: Upgrade ran successfully
       Started: 15:39:57.038816
      Duration: 49902.47 ms
       Changes:   
                ----------
                epson-inkjet-printer-escpr:
                    ----------
                    new:
                        1:1.6.41-1.1lsb3.2.fc30
                    old:
                        1.7.7-1lsb3.2
  ----------
            ID: notify-updates
      Function: cmd.run
          Name: /usr/lib/qubes/upgrades-status-notify
        Result: True
       Comment: Command "/usr/lib/qubes/upgrades-status-notify" run
       Started: 15:40:46.942306
      Duration: 5538.605 ms
       Changes:   
                ----------
                pid:
                    6719
                retcode:
                    0
                stderr:
                stdout:
  Summary for fedora-30
  ------------
  Succeeded: 3 (changed=3)
  Failed:    0
  ------------
  Total states run:     3
  Total run time:  64.738 s

## Now listing /opt shows the print filter is missing.
[user@fedora-30 ~]$ ls /opt
epson-printer-utility  libreoffice7.0

— End Screen Dump —
The printer is no longer functional.
Thanks for any help,
-Andy

2

(I edited your post to fix the preformatted text. I suggest doing this through the GUI in future posts.)

I don’t know the exact answer to your question, but I can tell you that your question is one about Fedora’s package management system (dnf), which is not Qubes-specific. You’ll probably be able to find helpful answers by also searching general Fedora resources (e.g., documentation, forum).

3

Thanks Andrew!