Ubuntu 14.04.3 qtbase5 dependencies problem, is this a bug?

Question

I want to install qtbase5-dev, but this will delete many *-vivid packages.

sudo apt-get install qtbase5-dev
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  libegl1-mesa libegl1-mesa-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libgl1-mesa-dri
  libgl1-mesa-glx libglapi-mesa libgles1-mesa libgles2-mesa libgles2-mesa-dev
  libglu1-mesa-dev libqt5concurrent5 libwayland-egl1-mesa mesa-common-dev
  qt5-qmake qtbase5-dev-tools xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-evdev
Suggested packages:
  libmysqlclient-dev libpq-dev libsqlite3-dev unixodbc-dev xfonts-100dpi
  xfonts-75dpi
Recommended packages:
  libqt5opengl5-dev
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  caribou cinnamon gir1.2-clutter-1.0 gir1.2-cogl-1.0 gir1.2-coglpango-1.0
  gir1.2-gtkclutter-1.0 gir1.2-muffin-3.0 gir1.2-totem-1.0
  gstreamer1.0-clutter libclutter-1.0-0 libclutter-gst-2.0-0
  libclutter-gtk-1.0-0 libcogl-pango15 libcogl15 libegl1-mesa-dev-lts-vivid
  libegl1-mesa-lts-vivid libgbm1-lts-vivid libgl1-mesa-dri-lts-vivid
  libgl1-mesa-dri-lts-vivid:i386 libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-vivid
  libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-vivid:i386 libglapi-mesa-lts-vivid
  libglapi-mesa-lts-vivid:i386 libgles1-mesa-lts-vivid
  libgles2-mesa-dev-lts-vivid libgles2-mesa-lts-vivid libglu1-mesa:i386
  libmuffin0 libtotem0 libwayland-egl1-mesa-lts-vivid libxatracker2-lts-vivid
  mint-meta-cinnamon mint-meta-codecs totem totem-mozilla totem-plugins
  totem-plugins-extra wine1.7 wine1.7-amd64 wine1.7-i386:i386 xorg
  xserver-xorg-core-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-input-all-lts-vivid
  xserver-xorg-input-evdev-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-input-mouse-lts-vivid
  xserver-xorg-input-synaptics-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse-lts-vivid
  xserver-xorg-input-wacom-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-lts-vivid
  xserver-xorg-video-all-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-ati-lts-vivid
  xserver-xorg-video-cirrus-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-fbdev-lts-vivid
  xserver-xorg-video-intel-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-mach64-lts-vivid
  xserver-xorg-video-mga-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-neomagic-lts-vivid
  xserver-xorg-video-nouveau-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-openchrome-lts-vivid
  xserver-xorg-video-r128-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-radeon-lts-vivid
  xserver-xorg-video-savage-lts-vivid
  xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion-lts-vivid
  xserver-xorg-video-sisusb-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-tdfx-lts-vivid
  xserver-xorg-video-trident-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-vesa-lts-vivid
  xserver-xorg-video-vmware-lts-vivid
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libegl1-mesa libegl1-mesa-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libgl1-mesa-dri
  libgl1-mesa-glx libglapi-mesa libgles1-mesa libgles2-mesa libgles2-mesa-dev
  libglu1-mesa-dev libqt5concurrent5 libwayland-egl1-mesa mesa-common-dev
  qt5-qmake qtbase5-dev qtbase5-dev-tools xserver-xorg-core
  xserver-xorg-input-evdev
0 upgraded, 18 newly installed, 68 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 10.3 MB of archives.
After this operation, 311 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] n
Abort.

Answer 1

You did not provide a lot of information about your system. What you should try first is a simple dist-upgrade:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Note: It could be that during these commands the system tries to remove or update the same packages you mentioned above.

The logs you provided look to me like you are trying to install a package with a Qt5 dependency on a ubuntu LTS system with a HWE Stack installed.

Could it be that you have a 14.04 LTS base installation (Trusty) and then installed the HW Enablement Stack ?

The HWE stack provides more recent kernels and more recent graphics libraries to the ubuntu LTS releases.

Here is another link explaining how to upgrade HWE stack.

---

To check the status of your system:

cat /etc/lsb-release

it should deliver something like this:

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=14.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=trusty
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS"

to check your hwe support status:

hwe-support-status --verbose

---

On a german support site I found the following remark about the installation of the HWE Stack, which I try to translate:

• On some 64bit systems there may be unfulfilled dependencies, especially if you have packages like Wine, Google Earth, Skype, Teamviewer or some games installed. It may also happen that the installation of a HWE stack triggers removal of packages that you actually wanted to keep like Qt or Wine.

I suspect that this is exactly what happens in your specific case; but in the opposite direction. (HWE stack gets removed because Qt5 package is installed) They also state:

• In may cases the unfulfilled dependencies can be resolved if the problematic package is de-installed and then the HWE Stack installed again.
• In many cases it is even possible to install the problematic package again after the HWE stack is installed.
• In some cases the installation of additional *-lts-*- packages can solve the conflict or prevent the de-installation of required packages

If this is the case you should perhaps upgrade your system before installing qtbase5-dev.

---

I am unsure which is the best way forward for you

1. • do not install qtbase5-dev and use a Qt4 development environment due to the incompatibility.

   This is the safe approach. However, you'll probably not have exactly the Qt environment that you want.

2. • de-install HWE stack
   • install qtbase5-dev
   • re-install HWE stack

   The risk is that you will at some time loose the graphic desktop. You should be confident to do all the steps from the commandline on a virtual terminal. You may run into issues with dependencies.

3. • de-install HWE stack
   • upgrade your system to (non-LTS) 15.04 Vivid Vervet
   • install latest mesa and kernel(s) from ppa.

This is IMHO less risky than option 2. But still you would need to perform many of the steps from the commandline.