How Does One Update ICU Properly?

Support System Updates
1

Hello; I was trying to run sudo pacman -Syu as usual, before running into the issue described here Icu (75.1-1) breaks dependency 'libicuuc.so=74-64' required by qt5-webkit - #4

No problem; I remove qt5-webkit. However, when I look at dependencies for icu using pamac, I find that manjaro-settings-manager relies on icu<75. I also find this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/1cydxhs/libicuucso75_icu_package_update_issues/

I don’t want to run into this issue; is there any way I can prevent the possibility of this happening in lieu of simply waiting until the next update? If there is any information I could provide about my system that would help, please let me know. I would deeply appreciate any advice.

Cheers and many thanks in advance

2

Furthermore, if I try to update a subset of my packages via pamac (ignoring all but a few), I get this:

could not satisfy dependencies:

  • unable to satisfy dependency ‘libicuuc.so=75-64’ required by scribus
  • unable to satisfy dependency ‘libicui18n.so=75-64’ required by thunderbird
3 
sudo pacman -R scribus thunderbird

Perform the update again, and then

sudo pacman -S thunderbird

to reinstall TB.

If you get more similar errors while updating, remove the respective app shown after ‘required by’ and try again until successful. If any of the packages are still wanted, you can install them again later.

4

Update your mirrors first. Then, check if you have AUR packages installed. They tend to break.

5

As an inexperienced user on stable, it is recommended not to use AUR because this is exactly what happens… And to clean the orphans should they occur. This is what happened in the above mentioned thread.
So a properly maintained system - mirrors and databases fresh, no aur or orphans, will never run into that situation.
The reddit describes entirely different case - the library just disappearing - this can basically only happen on a corrupted filesystem OR an interuppted update (like holding the power button to hard shut down mid update). It is common sense NOT to do that. If that happens there is a guide for that case in the forum, chroot and reupdate from live image and deleting the lock file. However in that particular case with icu or libc or kernel it might not be possible. There is a remedy for that too but a little more complex - downloading a special static version of pamac.

p.s. ignoring packages to update is a very bad practice and puts you in an officially unsupported state. You can now feel firsthand why it is bad practice too. It is very complicated automatic system in which everything should “roll” together. The moment you discard 1 thing of that system, you have to manually correct 10 more things and you soon lose control of the situation.

1 Like
6

Thank you. Just to clarify: you suggest I run sudo pacman-mirrors without running sudo pacman -Syyu afterwards, to refresh mirrors?

As for AUR packages I have installed—according to Pamac:
dart-sdk-dev, fontbase, google-chrome, highway-git, java8-openjfx, krunner5, libglade, libxxf86misc, opera, opera-ffmpeg-codecs, pyside2, python-mock, python-pep517, python-shiboken2, python-sip4, ttf-iosevka, zoom, brother-mfc-j825dw, celt, clang15, compiler-rt15, ebgaramond-otf, electron11-bin, a lot of fortune packages, gamin, gcolor2, gconf, gklib, gnome-icon-theme, gnome-icon-theme-symbolic, httpdirfs, hunspell-fr-ungendered-comprehensive, icu68, inky, khtml, kjs, libcroco, libguess, libquicktime, libsidplay, libunique, libxxf86dga, llvm15-libs, manuskript-git, metis, opencolorio1, openssl-1.0, orage, pepper-flash, podofo-0.9, processing, python-progress, python-pytoml, qpdfview, qt4, qt5-styleplugins, spectre-meltdown-checker, spotify, ttf-ms-win11-auto, ttf-muli, tuxboot, xdg-su, xorg-font-utils,

7

sudo pacman-mirrors -f
Those are a lot of aur or orphans. Some of them will certainly cause issues in the future. Consider if you really need all of that. Start with the orphans - they are certainly unneeded.
I can see at least 10 at first glance that are not needed for the average user.
I think i already have seen topic about update problems with krunner, shiboken and pyside.
gconf and llvm should have versions in the repos. Spectre-meltdown is deprecated. Electron11 too. I doubt xdg-su is a good idea, we have pkexec for that functionalit, pepper-flash…flash is deprecated since 5 years. Spotify-launcher is in the repos. Etc. etc., i do not know every package but you see where it is going. (Some are obviously without alternative like opera or chrome or qpdfview, but only some)

1 Like
8

Using only one y is recommended; for example:

sudo pacman -Syu

You can add the two commands together:

sudo pacman-mirrors -f && sudo pacman -Syu
# or
sudo pacman-mirrors --continent && sudo pacman -Syu

Cheers.

9

Thanks. It seems to have run like a charm. I’ll reboot my system and update if there are further issues, and then also look to see what orphans + AUR packages I should part with.

10

Not anymore. It appears you were in an unsupported, partial upgrade state with out of date mirrors. See Pacman-mirrors - Manjaro

By the way, when one uses AUR packages, one is responsible for maintaining them. That means rebuilding packages like qt5-webkit when there’s an soname bump for a dependency like icu.

In your case, you may have had qt5-webkit leftover as an orphan package with nothing depending on it.

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