Issue: Unable to install authd and gnome-shell on 25.04

[Sean-FFC]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• [x] I have searched the existing issues and found none that matched mine

Describe the issue

When trying to install authd and the gnome-shell in 25.04 using either the stable or edge PPA there appears to be a conflict between the the gnome-shell and authd.

Unsatisfied dependencies:
 gnome-shell : Breaks: authd (< 0.4.2~) but 0.4.1 is to be installed

Steps to reproduce

Running Ubuntu 25.04, all updates applied. Currently I have authd working for ssh after failing to be able to get it working for ssh and gui. This is on a raspberry pi so arm64 architecture. Running the command

sudo apt install authd gnome-shell yaru-theme-gnome-shell

produces the error and stops me from being able to proceed.

System information and logs

authd is already the newest version (0.4.1).
yaru-theme-gnome-shell is already the newest version (25.04.1-0ubuntu1).
Solving dependencies... Error!
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

Unsatisfied dependencies:
 gnome-shell : Breaks: authd (< 0.4.2~) but 0.4.1 is to be installed
**Error**: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
**Error**: The following information from --solver 3.0 may provide additional context:
   Unable to satisfy dependencies. Reached two conflicting decisions:
   1. authd:arm64=0.4.1 is selected for install because:
      1. authd:arm64 is selected for install
      2. authd:arm64 is available in version 0.4.1
   2. authd:arm64=0.4.1 is not selected for install because:
      1. gnome-shell:arm64=48.0-1ubuntu1 is selected for install
      2. gnome-shell:arm64 Breaks authd (< 0.4.2~)

Double check your logs

• [x] I have redacted any sensitive information from the logs

[3v1n0]

So... Well, yeah authd 0.4.2 has not been released yet since we've been a bit late with that. At the same time we expected to be ready for plucky, so the version in the archive and in edge are breaking current stable authd.

I may quickly provide a fix for edge, but using edge it's not very much suggested, unless for short periods, so if you can wait few days we'll fix it in the stable PPA

[Sean-FFC]

I'm in no particular rush so yeah, when this is fixed in the stable I'll give it a go.

[stuartm9999]

I'm having this exact issue after an upgrade to Plucky Puffin.

I am able to get authd running so I can log in again but I cannot run gnome without gnome-shell.

I tried the edge version - but authd would not start.

Any idea when this will be fixed or any work around as I basically cannot use my laptop.

Thanks

[adombeck]

Hi @stuartm9999!

I tried the edge version - but authd would not start.

Any idea when this will be fixed or any work around as I basically cannot use my laptop.

Ouch! Please reproduce that issue with the edge version and create a new GitHub issue with the system logs so we debug it.

[stuartm9999]

@adombeck I'll try - but its quite tough getting logs etc. off with just a command line!

[adombeck]

Oh, so even the gnome-shell from the edge PPA depends on authd > 0.4.2 which is not released yet. @3v1n0, is that easy to fix?

[stuartm9999]

correct - I have done a bit more investigation - the edge authd service does actually start but doesn't seem to work.

Initially I thought it was some config error but now I've gone back to the stable version it works (command line) and I notice the same errors in the logs.

I could do more investigation on the edge version - but not much point really as without gnome-shell I'll just be in the same boat (I think) - i.e. I can authenticate at the command line but no gnome.

Thanks for your help

[stuartm9999]

Progress - the edge version of authd and gnome-shell now seem to be compatible - so I switched to these again and also the edge version of msentraid broker. I was then able to authenticate using Entra - though I had no access to any of my old files - as if it had created a new local user. So I hacked that with a chown from the 80's. Apart from deleting my keyring - understandable - so far so good.

Not an ideal experience - I wouldn't recommend a plucky puffin upgrade to anyone with Entra authentication but none the less I'm up and running.

@adombeck - let me know if you want any log files that might tell you what happened to my user - there is this in the logs

Both bbolt and SQLite databases exist in "/var/lib/authd/", can't migrate

Not sure if that was the issue.

[adombeck]

Progress - the edge version of authd and gnome-shell now seem to be compatible

Huh, I didn't expect that. Looks like the edge PPA already contains a 0.5.0 version, even though the tag was only pushed to https://github.com/ubuntu/authd/pull/928 and not main. @3v1n0 is that the expected behavior of the build-debian job?

I was then able to authenticate using Entra - though I had no access to any of my old files - as if it had created a new local user.

I assume that's because you went back and forth between the stable PPA and the edge PPA, with the stable PPA using BBolt as its database and the edge PPA using SQLite. authd will migrate automatically from BBolt to SQLite, but not if there is already a SQLite database from a previous run, which will be the case when you install authd from the stable PPA again after having run authd from the edge PPA.

The journal should contain a warning "Home directory [...] is not owned by UID [...]" and then a chown command that fixes the ownership.

[3v1n0]

I guess this should be fixed at this point, right?

[adombeck]

Should be fixed