libwacom-surface breaks Ubuntu 26.04 upgrade

[danielzgtg]

The libwacom-surface caused do-release-upgrade to refuse to upgrade from Ubuntu 25.10 to 26.04. The release upgrade succeed after removing libwacom*surface*. After rebooting, I could not reinstall it:

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:
 libwacom-surface : Depends: libwacom2-surface (= 2.17.0-1) but it is not going to be installed
                    Depends: libwacom9-surface (= 2.17.0-1) but it is not going to be installed
                    Depends: libwacom-bin-surface (= 2.17.0-1) but it is not going to be installed
                    Depends: libwacom-common-surface (= 2.17.0-1) but it is not going to be installed
Error: Unable to satisfy dependencies. Reached two conflicting assignments:
   1. libinput10:amd64 is selected for install because:
      1. qtquickcontrols2-5-dev:amd64 is selected for install
      2. qtquickcontrols2-5-dev:amd64 Depends libqt5quicktemplates2-5 (= 5.15.18+dfsg-1)
      3. libqt5quicktemplates2-5:amd64 Depends libqt5gui5t64 (>= 5.15.18+dfsg~) | libqt5gui5-gles (>= 5.15.18+dfsg~)
         [selected libqt5gui5t64:amd64 for install]
      4. libqt5gui5t64:amd64 Depends libinput10 (>= 0.15.0)
      For context, additional choices that could not be installed:
      * In libqt5quicktemplates2-5:amd64 Depends libqt5gui5t64 (>= 5.15.18+dfsg~) | libqt5gui5-gles (>= 5.15.18+dfsg~):
        - libqt5gui5-gles:amd64 is not selected for install because:
          1-3. libqt5gui5t64:amd64 is selected for install as above
          4. libqt5gui5t64:amd64 is available in version 5.15.18+dfsg-1ubuntu1
          5. libqt5gui5-gles:amd64 Conflicts libqt5gui5
          For context, additional choices that could not be installed:
          * In libqt5quicktemplates2-5:amd64 Depends libqt5gui5t64 (>= 5.15.18+dfsg~) | libqt5gui5-gles (>= 5.15.18+dfsg~):
            - libqt5gui5-gles:amd64 is not selected for install as above
   2. libinput10:amd64 Depends libwacom9 (>= 2.18.0)
      but none of the choices are installable:
      - libwacom9:amd64=2.18.0-1 is not selected for install because:
        1. libwacom-surface:amd64=2.17.0-1 is selected for install
        2. libwacom-surface:amd64 Depends libwacom9-surface (= 2.17.0-1)
        3. libwacom9-surface:amd64 Conflicts libwacom9
Error: Solver timed out.

Ask Ubuntu question: https://askubuntu.com/q/1565969/1004020

[MrsWebDK]

Just to say, that I too am looking for an solution to this issue.

[petedermott]

Just to add to this, on a fully fresh Ubuntu 26.04 install following the steps in the guide will actually uninstall the whole desktop environment.

pete@pete-Surface-Pro-9:~$ sudo apt install linux-image-surface linux-headers-surface libwacom-surface iptsd
linux-image-surface is already the newest version (6.18.7-surface-1).
linux-headers-surface is already the newest version (6.18.7-surface-1).
iptsd is already the newest version (3.1.0-1).
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  gir1.2-accountsservice-1.0  gir1.2-nma4-1.0           liboeffis1
  gir1.2-gck-2                gir1.2-polkit-1.0         libxcb-res0
  gir1.2-gcr-4                gir1.2-rsvg-2.0           libxcvt0
  gir1.2-gdm-1.0              gir1.2-upowerglib-1.0     libxfont2
  gir1.2-geoclue-2.0          gnome-session-bin         mutter-common-bin
  gir1.2-gnomeautoar-0.1      gnome-session-common      switcheroo-control
  gir1.2-gnomebg-4.0          gnome-shell-common        x11-xkb-utils
  gir1.2-gnomebluetooth-3.0   grub-pc-bin               xfonts-base
  gir1.2-gnomedesktop-3.0     libeis1                   xserver-common
  gir1.2-gnomeqr-4.0          libgnome-desktop-3-20t64  xwayland
  gir1.2-gweather-4.0         libinput-bin
  gir1.2-nm-1.0               libmtdev1t64
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.

Installing:
  libwacom-surface

Installing dependencies:
  libwacom-bin-surface  libwacom9-surface

REMOVING:
  gdm3                           libinput10      ubuntu-desktop-minimal
  gir1.2-mutter-18               libmutter-18-0  ubuntu-session
  gnome-shell                    libwacom9
  gnome-shell-ubuntu-extensions  ubuntu-desktop

Summary:
  Upgrading: 0, Installing: 3, Removing: 10, Not Upgrading: 0
  Download size: 45.3 kB
  Freed space: 17.0 MB

[danielzgtg]

I added a notice to https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Installation-and-Setup/_compare/9cf389dacad58f3de57616a52597c9ca8874335f...4f6c1807b5c547ff8593d4914ca23efaac448373

[maikthulhu]

Check linux-surface/libwacom-surface#22 (comment) for a potential workaround for Debian-based systems.