After the issues that happened with Linus from Linus Tech Tips breaking Pop!_OS during the switch to Linux challenge, the APT package manager has been upgraded to prevent future issues happening.
We covered the problem in our previous article, where System76 were going to apply their own fix to prevent a dialogue appearing that allowed users to end up removing essential packages. At the same time, System76 were also talking with the APT team to get an official fix and one has now been created and released with APT 2.3.12.
The issue shouldn't have come up often, and was the result of the Steam package breaking, with APT in terminal mentioning lots of different things that could easily confuse users. To continue you needed to enter "Yes, do as I say!" to progress, which you should probably never do since the warning was there for a reason - essential packages being removed.
Picture Source: YouTube - oh dear.
Now, that option has been removed and APT will no longer have its solver attempt to remove essential or protected packages, so any dependency problem needs to be resolved manually. As a result your package won't install, remove or upgrade if there's conflicts but at least you have an actual working system. It can be overridden still but it won't tell you explicitly how to do so in the error messaging to prevent people just doing it anyway again.
Looks like Pop!_OS is already readying to bring in the changes. It's likely other distributions using APT will follow during their regular update patterns.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
I'm afraid I can't do this, Linus.
AussieEevee Nov 18, 2021
Quoting: slaapliedjeHe typed in the 'Yes I know what I'm doing' even though he clearly did not, and nuked Xorg while it was running. Not sure how that is any fault of apt.He typed "yes, do as I say"... and the warning was hidden in a huge wall of text. It is absolutely apt's fault.
AussieEevee Nov 18, 2021
Quoting: GuestQuoting: AussieEeveeQuoting: slaapliedjeHe typed in the 'Yes I know what I'm doing' even though he clearly did not, and nuked Xorg while it was running. Not sure how that is any fault of apt.He typed "yes, do as I say"... and the warning was hidden in a huge wall of text. It is absolutely apt's fault.
It was quite literally the line above telling him what to type. It wasn't hidden at all.
There's a screenshot of the error (From this very site)... It's one line in among a lot of white text that says you shouldn't do this. It is essentially hidden, and Linus is not to blame for this badly designed warning.
Quoting: slaapliedjeHe literally tried a command on a page, it gave him a big ol' warning that essential packages were going to be removed. He typed in the 'Yes I know what I'm doing' even though he clearly did not, and nuked Xorg while it was running. Not sure how that is any fault of apt. But I do find it amusing that I saw the changelog for this change last night as I updated my laptop. Gave me a chuckle.The fault is definitely with APT, IMO.
It spews out loads of information, all cramped together at once and then mentions you can enter a command. It's really not user friendly, not that the CLI is overly friendly to begin with. I see this is a real positive change.
Mohandevir Nov 18, 2021
"Make it idiot proof and somebody will make a better idiot."
Still, this patch is a good thing, imo.
slaapliedje Nov 18, 2021
Quoting: AussieEeveeThat 'wall of text' ends with "you are about to remove essential packages, type exactly, 'Yes, I know what I'm doing' to continue."Quoting: ObsidianBlkThose neon warning signs are there,
I think part of the problem was that there was no neon warning signs. The only warnings Linus got was an error from popshop that wasn't clear on what was happening... and a giant wall of text from apt.
Which is more than enough to say 'stop, you're about to do something horrendous to your system.' I have made many jokes before about not being able to do flashing red text in Confluence because of people not following the wiki... But really there are two things to blame here. 1) Linus being smart enough to be dangerous. 2) Linus not being patient enough to read the warning.
AussieEevee Nov 18, 2021
Quoting: GuestI'll refute your argument: he easily saw the line saying what to type in, and by your reasoning that was hidden too.The line telling him what to type was at the bottom. The warning is in the middle of the screen, blending in.
Linus is to blame for ignoring the warnings. They are now making it more difficult to ignore the warnings, but that doesn't change that he decided to ignore them in the first place.
You and I might read everything a program like apt spits out, but you cannot expect that of a normal user. And Linus, while he did know a little, he was essentially a newbie user to our ecosystem.
What I think should be done is that warning line should be a different colour... and separated with a blank line either side of the warning. Draw attention to the "you will break your system" warning.
AussieEevee Nov 18, 2021
Quoting: slaapliedje2) Linus not being patient enough to read the warning.Most newbie users aren't that patient, especially when it comes to walls of text.
The point is that apt should not have allowed him to break his system in the first place. That should not have happened, and the fault is 10% on that Steam package... and 90% on apt.
Linus pulled the pin out of a hand grenade despite warnings about dangerous consequences, then stared at it until it exploded... and now we all have to be "protected" against ourselves regardless.
Changing the prompt is irrelevant, making the text more legible is irrelevant, adding more stumbling blocks is - you guessed it - irrelevant. People will always find ways around any barriers in place. If you don't think they will, then I wonder if you have ever even met a human? We are insane.
What will be the next knee-jerk overreaction to his or another Techtuber borking things?
Why not remove sudo because that seems very dangerous! People can do anything! Or maybe delete the root account entirely, that user has too much power! Super dangerous!!
Also, can we please stop with the nonsensical argument that Linus Sebastian can actually represent an average user.
This is stupid.
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