Attempted pkg Upgrade On Current 14.1-p7

M

mvee

I'm curious if this is the right path forward if I want to maintain my current KDE environment on 14.1 p7? Minor upgrade to 14.2 and/or pkg upgrades on 14.1 p7 seem to break a lot of KDE.

Actions Taken To Upgrade Packages (14.1 p7):
  • pkg update
  • pkg upgrade
  • reboot
This caused KDE to break:
  • startx failed to launch the session
    • ~/.xinitrc attempted to run startplasma-x11, but the command was missing
    • Plasma 5 components had been removed, and Plasma 6 was only partially installed
    • The new drm-kmod module was built against FreeBSD 14.2, making it incompatible with the current 14.1-p7 kernel, causing graphics driver initialization to fail
Attempted to recover by running:
  • freebsd-update upgrade -r 14.2-RELEASE
  • freebsd-update install
  • Reboot
  • freebsd-update install (again)
  • pkg upgrade -f
  • Reboot
  • KDE failed to start:
    • startx showed error on startplasma-x11:
      • No such file or directory
      • KDE session could not launch because startplasma-x11 is part of Plasma 5, which had already been removed.
      • Plasma 6 had not fully installed
      • Plasma 5 was already removed and no longer available in the pkg repository
Decided to roll back to a working FreeBSD 14.1-p7 snapshot and focus on:
  • Preserving my KDE Plasma 5 desktop, keeping it functional
  • Staying on 14.1-p7 with minimal disruption
  • Still receiving security updates where possible
  • Avoiding involuntary upgrade to Plasma 6
  • Preventing installation of incompatible drm-kmod
Current State After Rollback:
  • Running FreeBSD 14.1-p7
  • Using pkg with quarterly branch
  • KDE5 desktop remains intact
  • Holding off on pkg upgrade for now
  • Ran pkg audit -F:
    • Identified vulnerable packages:
      • chromium, libreoffice, librewolf, xorg-server, expat, etc.
      • KDE/Qt-related: qt5-webengine, qt6-webengine, xorg-server, etc.
  • Tested 'pkg install -f' on select packages:
    • Even targeted reinstall attempts pulled in:
      • kf6-*, plasma6-*, and other Plasma 6 dependencies
      • Triggered automatic removal of KDE5 packages
Conclusion:
  • Selective upgrades are not safe without locks
  • Despite targeting specific applications, dependency resolution still triggered Plasma 6 upgrades and KDE5 removal
Next Steps Considered:
  • Stay on FreeBSD 14.1-p7 with KDE Plasma 5 intact while applying as many security updates as safely possible
    • Even running 'pkg install -f' on unrelated apps (e.g., libreoffice, chromium) can:
      • Trigger KDE5 package removals
      • Pull in KDE6 and Qt6 dependencies
      • Break the existing KDE desktop environment
  • Selective updates are not safe unless KDE5 and graphics-related packages are locked
    • Lock KDE/graphics stack to protect the current working KDE5 desktop:
      • plasma5-*, kde5-*, qt5-*, kf5-*, drm-kmod
    • Use pkg lock to prevent accidental upgrades or removals:
      • pkg info | grep -E 'plasma5-|kde5-|qt5-|kf5-|drm-kmod' | awk '{print $1}' | xargs pkg lock -y
    • Run 'pkg upgrade -n' to test what would be updated
      • Confirm that no locked packages are removed or upgraded
      • If safe, proceed with 'pkg upgrade' for non-KDE/non-graphics packages
      • Regularly use 'pkg audit -F' to monitor vulnerabilities
      • Manually update safe packages using 'pkg install -f <package>'
      • Periodically take ZFS snapshots
 
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