In a Kali metapackage, we have a dependency on firefox-esr. But on arm64,
we would like to be able to install "firefox-esr:armhf" (which actually works
better right now). Unfortunately, firefox-esr:armhf can't fullfill the
"firefox-esr" dependency.

So I would like to consider whether you can add:
- either “Multi-Arch: foreign” (if you think there are no cases where a
  dependency on firefox-esr would require a "same-arch" logic)
- or “Multi-Arch: allowed” so that I can use the "firefox-esr:any"
  dependency for my case.

Cheers,
Raphaël

Addons with binary components require a same-arch dependency.

How would that solve your issue? Would you be removing the arm64
package?

Mike

No, I would not remove it from the repository, but at least the manual
installation of the armhf package would not break/remove the metapackage
when it removes the arm64 package from the system.

Another possibility is to enhance the Provides so that we can use
"www-browser:any". Then you would have to put this:
Provides: gnome-www-browser:any, gnome-www-browser, www-browser:any, www-browser

That's because "www-browser:any" does not fulfill the "www-browser"
dependencies of other packages.

Cheers,

One thing that is sadly missing in all this is the notion of whether the
installed package can be meaningfully be used. That is :any would also
allow to install firefox-esr:mips, but it won't do you any good...

Can't you add a dependency like "firefox-esr:armhf [arm64] | firefox-esr"?

Mike

In general a foreign architecture is only enabled when it's usable and
I don't have any reason to micro-manage which architecture should be
usable... if the user wants firefox-esr:i386 on amd64, then so be it.

So I prefer the ":any" approach.

That's (roughly) the work-around that I'm using currently. Except that
that armhf is not available at image build time so the native firefox-esr
is always installed.

I just wanted the user to be able to install the armhf one in place of
the default arm64 one without impacting the meta-packages he has
installed.

Cheers,

user multiarch-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org
usertags 832501 multiarch
thanks


Hi!
[...]

Correct.  It's the admin's job to first enable another arch
before even being able to install anything. So if the admin
enables mips on an amd64 system, they now why (maybe having
qemu in user-mode? I even did something like that once).

So please don't micro manage here!

People might want firefox-esr:x32 on amd64?
(I want firefox-esr:amd64 on an i386 system!)

With the move to webextensions, is this still true?


Cheers

    Elrond