#1116178 element-desktop: Upgrade fails because of cross-device hard link

#1116178#5
Date:
2025-09-24 07:40:02 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

when doing a normal 'apt upgrade' on Sid, I find that element-desktop
(currently at 1.11.110) can't be upgraded (for the moment, to 1.12.0),
see the following output:

    Preparing to unpack .../element-desktop_1.12.0_amd64.deb ...
    Unpacking element-desktop (1.12.0) over (1.11.110) ...
    dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/element-desktop_1.12.0_amd64.deb (--unpack):
     error creating hard link './usr/share/icons/hicolor/512x512/apps/element-desktop.png': Invalid cross-device link
    update-alternatives is /usr/bin/update-alternatives

A fact about my system that I imagine can be a cause for this issue is
that my /usr is a different device than my / :

    $ df
    Filesystem              1K-blocks       Used Available Use% Mounted on
    ...
    /dev/nvme0n1p2           10218772    6139092   3539008  64% /
    /dev/mapper/system-usr  472292536   17571644 430656280   4% /usr

Cheers,
Richard

#1116178#10
Date:
2025-09-25 08:45:07 UTC
From:
To:
But no:

    $ sudo dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/element-desktop_1.11.111_amd64.deb
    (Reading database ... 536904 files and directories currently installed.)
    Preparing to unpack .../element-desktop_1.11.111_amd64.deb ...
    Unpacking element-desktop (1.11.111) over (1.11.110) ...
    dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/element-desktop_1.11.111_amd64.deb (--install):
     error creating hard link './usr/share/icons/hicolor/512x512/apps/element-desktop.png': Invalid cross-device link
    update-alternatives is /usr/bin/update-alternatives
    Processing triggers for mailcap (3.75) ...
    Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.28-1) ...
    Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.18-2) ...
    Errors were encountered while processing:
     /var/cache/apt/archives/element-desktop_1.11.111_amd64.deb