Arch Linux

tomsam

Member

Registered: 2020-06-28

Posts: 17

libxml2 problem since last upgrade

Since the last upgrade (pacman -Suy; and yay -Suy) which proceeded without any error messages, have problems with different libxml2 versions installed on my system, which also hinder me to install other packages.

libxml2 was replaced by an upgrade on Jul 17 (apparently by a change made on Jul 15)
libxml2-2.9 was build and installed on Aug 14, 2024 and is required by approximately 80 packages, including many system packages.

libxml2-2.9 is also the one that created the link /lib/libxml2.so.2  ( a link to libxml2.so.2.9.10).

Apparently newer packages (like vmware-workstation for example) try to install libxml2-legacy
now, which claims that it cannot be installed due to the fact that:

libxml2-legacy: /usr/lib/libxml2.so.2 exists in filesystem

A pacman -Syyu took some hours and failed.

Question: What should be done to get the system in a correct state again ? 

PS The main mirror is
Server = http://ftp-stud.hs-esslingen.de/pub/Mir … o/os/$arch

gromit

Administrator

From: Germany

Registered: 2024-02-10

Posts: 1,445

Website

Re: libxml2 problem since last upgrade

What actually depends on libxml2-2.9? Why do you have both libxml2-2.9 and libxml2-legacy?

tomsam

Member

Registered: 2020-06-28

Posts: 17

Re: libxml2 problem since last upgrade

As of pacman -Qi libxml2-2.9

libxlm2-2.9 is

Required By     : appstream  avidemux-cli  bind  chromium  conky  docbook-xml
                  docbook-xsl  electron34  electron35  electron36  evince
                  evolution  evolution-data-server  ffmpeg  ffmpeg4.4  flatpak
                  flickcurl  fontforge  gdal  gettext  gnome-online-accounts
                  gnucobol  gst-plugins-bad  gst-plugins-good  gtksourceview4
                  gtksourceview5  gupnp  gxml  imagemagick  inkscape  itstool
                  libabw  libarchive  libbluray  libcmis  libe-book  libetonyek
                  libgphoto2  libgsf  libgweather-4  libical  liblangtag
                  libodfgen  libreoffice-fresh  librest  librsvg  libsoup
                  libspatialite  libvisio  libxkbcommon  libxklavier  libxslt
                  llvm-libs  m17n-lib  nemo  netcdf  netpbm  nfs-utils  openbox
                  php  python2-libxml2  qgis  qt6-webengine  raptor
                  samsung-unified-driver-scanner  sane  shared-mime-info
                  subsurface-git  tinysparql  vlc-plugin-xml  wayland
                  webkit2gtk  webkit2gtk-4.1  webkitgtk-6.0
                  xfce4-weather-plugin  xmlsec  yelp-tools

I have libxml2 and libxml2-2.9 installed.

$ pacman -Q | grep xml2
libxml2 2.14.5-1
libxml2-2.9 2.9.10-1
python2-libxml2 2.9.14-1
tinyxml2 11.0.0-1

I do not have libxml2-legacy installed, but the installation of for example vmware-workstation requires it.

WorMzy

Administrator

From: Scotland

Registered: 2010-06-16

Posts: 13,186

Website

Re: libxml2 problem since last upgrade

Mod note: moving to AUR Issues.

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Making lemonade from lemons since 2015.

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,354

Re: libxml2 problem since last upgrade

It's required by those because it provides libxml2. Since libxml2 is also installed, you should be able to remove it as long as you remove anything that depends directly on it, which would be python2-libxml2 and possibly python2-lxml. Do you seriously sill use something that needs python2?

Last edited by Scimmia (2025-07-18 12:51:24)

tomsam

Member

Registered: 2020-06-28

Posts: 17

Re: libxml2 problem since last upgrade

Note: This is not entirely an AUR problem, since e.g. teamspeak3 also requires libxml2-legacy.

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,354

Re: libxml2 problem since last upgrade

It is entirely an AUR problem, because the entire problem is libxml2-2.9 and the stupid way the maintainer handled it.

tomsam

Member

Registered: 2020-06-28

Posts: 17

Re: libxml2 problem since last upgrade

It's required by those because it provides libxml2. Since libxml2 is also installed, you should be able to remove it as long as you remove anything that depends directly on it, which would be python2-libxml2 and possibly python2-lxml. Do you seriously sill use something that needs python2?

I do not use python2, and I have deinstalled it several times already.
Unfortunately, there seems to be some packages that pull it in again and again.

I removed python2 and python2-libxml, and was able to remove libxml2-2.9 and install libxml2-legacy now.

I will followup later.

tomsam

Member

Registered: 2020-06-28

Posts: 17

Re: libxml2 problem since last upgrade

It is entirely an AUR problem, because the entire problem is libxml2-2.9 and the stupid way the maintainer handled it.

Well there is no maintainer listed. I thought it was the same guy that provided libxml2-legacy.
Mea culpa.

tomsam

Member

Registered: 2020-06-28

Posts: 17

Re: libxml2 problem since last upgrade

Thanks, the pacman -Syu/yay -Syu have finished sucessfully now.